Saturday, August 8, 2015

Greenville, SC Church Will Allow People to Interpret the Bible However They Want on Homosexuality--and embrace them all

A new non-discrimination policy at First Baptist Church in Greenville will offer same-sex marriage ceremonies and allow membership, leadership positions, church ordinances, and ordination to openly gay and transgender individuals without telling them their lifestyles contradict biblical teaching.
"It's going to open up a space for evangelical gay people to have a place again," Pastor Jim Dant said of his church's recent consensus to "not discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity."
First Baptist Church of Greenville has a storied history dating back to its 1831 founding when William Bullein Johnson led fundraising efforts to start the church. Johnson later served as the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention upon its organization in 1845. The church was the original home of Furman University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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In 1999, First Baptist Greenville broke ties with the Southern Baptist Convention and aligned itself with the more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship which hosted a breakout session at its 2015 annual meeting in June in which two CBF pastors presented opposing views on the issue – but agreed leadership did not consider the matter theological.

Pastor Dant rationalized this way:

  • "We ended up with a consensus statement that essentially says, to put it simply, that we are a diverse people that hold a lot of diverse views of Scripture, but we also want to be a non-discriminatory people because it's really not up to us who the Spirit of God falls on."

In other words, interpret the Bible the way you want. If you "feel" the Spirit of God tells you to be a homosexual and get married, then it's OK with us.

SOURCE: Christian Examiner


I Timothy 4:3: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.