Queer Town: Openly Gay Episcopal Priest Closer to Confirmation

• You raise good quality points, nevertheless In my opinion , your analysis is without a doubt off base, solid put up though, congratulations. Amy

• I always enjoy reading quality articles like this, I would have subscribed if the RSS link was working (please fix it!). Thanks, I'll be back again!

• Another beautiful mountain and sea areas is Sai Kung, there�s a Seafood Street where you can handpick life seafood, have the restaurant cook them any way you like and enjoy in front of the sea. If you�re into the nature, there�s a beautiful Maclehose Trail that stretches from Sai Kung, in the eastern side of the New Territories all the way to the west. The entire trail takes more than 10 days to walk, you�ve to know where the exits are if you dont plan to finish the whole trail, it�s free to enter and exit, just bring enough water and a mobile, and do not go there at night time, just in case, there may be some illegal immigrants hiding in the bushes. There�re some small but beautiful beaches in Sai Kung, many big and mini buses go there.

• Hello Judith, You seem to be the one who is doing the cherry picking. You simply cannot ignore the passages that I listed earlier. You accusation of my taking passages out of context is unfounded. This tactic is often used by those promoting an agenda that goes against what God has written. When God Himself states "a man shall not lay with another man as though with a woman for this is disgusting" what conclusion can anyone with objective eyes come to other than homosexual behaviour is a sin. You also seem to be using the tactic of limiting scripture. At first you wanted to reduce the importance of the Old Testament, and now you suggest a concentration on the Ten Commandments. But what do you say about sex with animals (ie. dogs, horses, goats, etc.). This is not specifically forbidden by the any of the Ten Commandments, but any true Christian knows this to be a sin also. You finish by accusing me of "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest". I ask you this, have you "heard" any of the passages that I mentioned earlier? Or have you disregarded them because they said things that you did not want to hear?

• Once again: I do not cherry pick, but am willing to grapple with the meaning behind the text - all of it even with the difficult stuff. You seem to take a 2000 plus years old scripture with out getting the context - the entire context. The Bible is complex and challenging. Again you are cherry picking. If homosexuality is such a hugh sin, why is it not part of 10 Commandants? I still think you do not understand the Covenants and their meaning. I do not get the smugness of your finger pointing. Are you not a sinner? For Christians: Does the truth exist in light of the Cross or does it exist in light of the Pharisee purity codes? You skirted my comments as if you wanted to really ignore them. I do not need to argue. I hope that other readers might be helped by the issues I raised. I prefer to tread carefully in the Bible with a lot of humility - that I not respond with arrogance claiming to know exactly what God is saying, everywhere, and all the time. What I get from this exercise is that no matter what, "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".

• In response to judith Maxfield: "Where did you learn that the Old Testament has equal footing with the "NEW" Tastament?" Article VI of our 39 Articles of Religion. "...you cannot cherry-pick your way through..." Your are correct. You should not pick only those passages that you like. And neither can you ignore Gen 19:5-8, Jude 7, Lev 18:22-23, Lev 20:13, 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Tim 1:9-10, and Rom 1:26-27. You say that Paul is "highly missunderstood". What is there to missunderstand in any of these passages? Can anyone show me any passages that speak so directly to the issue homosexual behaviour and clearly state that it is not a sin? Adultery is not absurd. It is deathly serious. Adulter is sex outside of Marriage. Specifically forbidden by the 7th Commandment. What is so hard to understand about that? Marriage is God joining a man to his wife as it is written in Mat 19:4-6 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." This passage, from the lips of Jesus Christ himself, makes it perfectly clear that Marriage is strickly heterosexual! There is no trick Pharisee question here. Only the unaltered Teachings of God. I am also sad that people like Gene Robinson have brought their bias into the Church, and have destroyed the Church by their politically driven agendas.

• To AMPisAnglican: Please consider: Where did you learn that the Old Testament has equal footing with the "NEW" Testament? Jesus IS the NEW COVENANT. Old things have past away. We have been given the Gospel of good news! Taken as a whole, the Gospel canons tell of a new birth born of the Holy Spirit. It is meant for all - no exceptions, no one is denied who is called by name. Paul is highly misunderstood. And again, you cannot cherry-pick your way through any part of the N.T. to find tidbits supporting your point of view - which by the way is a cultural bias born of the flesh, and not of the spirit. Lastly: The question of adultery is absurd - can't marry and can't live as an adulterer. Seems like the kind of trick question to Jesus by the Pharisees. From a beautiful Shaker hymn, I ask you, "If ye love not one another in daily communion, how can ye love God whom ye have not seen?" I am in an Episcopal church and we are quickly growing! Our diocese is flourishing with the leadership of a wonderful new lady bishop. And, I don't think God is interested in numbers as much as He is interested in how well we take care of each other here on earth. I truly an sorry that people bring their bias into the church and proceed to sanctify them by misunderstanding the Gospel.

• For the life of me I cannot see how an organization that claims to be Christian would even consider an unrepentant sinner for the position of Priest, let alone Bishop. The Holy Bible is exceedingly clear on the issue of homosexual behaviour. It is a sin. Likewise, the Holy Bible is clear about Marriage. It is God joining a man to his wife. Furthermore, any sexual activity outside of marriage is audultery. Specifically stated as forbidden by the 7th Commandment. So here we have Glasspool, openly engaged in a homosexual relationship that is not a marriage (for they have not been joined as man and wife by God). And she preaches that all of this is perfectly ok with God. Which makes her a "false prophet"! If the Episcopal Church USA (TEC) goes ahead with making Glasspool a bishop it will break apart the Worldwide Anglican Communion. TEC will find itself on the outside, a dying, once upon a time Church, that had decided to embrace secularism and abandon God. Literelly loosing THOUSANDS of people every WEEK, TEC will die within our lifetime.

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