Bells & Smells?
Anthropax made a comment recently about picking up incense cheap for my thurifer.
I think it was meant in a tone which suggested that I might not know what a thurifer is, let alone own one myself.
Well, obviously I don't own one, but I do know what one is. This may come as a surprise to those of you who have stereotyped me as a conservative evangelical but I do quite like my incense on occasions.
Apologies to Anthropax if he hasn't stereotyped me at all, but I do think sometimes that a lot of Christians such as me get unfairly boxed in to one category. For example I see the Bible as God's Word and therefore take it very seriously. I believe that "the only way to the Father" is through Jesus and that spreading the Gospel is important. But I also hear the call to care for those around us ("Jesus said 'What you did for the least of these you did for me'"), I care for the environment, and - to pick up on a contraversial issue - I would never turn a gay person away from church.
I think it was meant in a tone which suggested that I might not know what a thurifer is, let alone own one myself.
Well, obviously I don't own one, but I do know what one is. This may come as a surprise to those of you who have stereotyped me as a conservative evangelical but I do quite like my incense on occasions.
Apologies to Anthropax if he hasn't stereotyped me at all, but I do think sometimes that a lot of Christians such as me get unfairly boxed in to one category. For example I see the Bible as God's Word and therefore take it very seriously. I believe that "the only way to the Father" is through Jesus and that spreading the Gospel is important. But I also hear the call to care for those around us ("Jesus said 'What you did for the least of these you did for me'"), I care for the environment, and - to pick up on a contraversial issue - I would never turn a gay person away from church.
Comments
That'll teach me to be too clever.
How are you, anyway, Anthropax?
Sorry I embarrassed you, it just seemed quite funny at the time!
You say that you fear you may have been stereotyped as a conservative evangelist, and also say that you would not turn a gay person away from church. At this point I would like to highlight the importance of interpretation. Can we interprate that the reason you wouldn't turn a gay person away from church in the hope that the gay person found God and saw the error of their ways in the church?
Ooooh I'm so nasty 8)
Quite. My point is that the media likes to portray a large part of the church as homophobic, and from my point of view at least, it is grossly unfair and misguided.
Thank you Dave for your provocative comment. Basically I wouldn't turn a gay person away from church because a) it is not our perogative to judge others in that manner and b) Jesus welcomed everybody and we should follow his example. I also feel that gay Christians need to be part of a fellowship as much as non-gay Christians do. When it comes to "seeing the error of their ways" as you put it, it is between an individual and God. Yes practisiing homosexuality is a sin in the same way that many other things are (and which all too often get conveniently brushed under the carpet). But whether God wants to convict someone of a specific sin and help them 'deal with it' as it were is down to Him and not me.