Ministers Apologize To Gay Community

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: KETV Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. -- In an unprecedented move in the heartland, dozens of local Christian ministers are reaching out to the gay community with a statement of support and an invitation to join their churches.

Reverend Eric Elnes, Minister at Countryside Community Church, came up with the idea.

“It's very clear, very simple,” said Elnes. “We want to be open to all people. We believe that homosexuality is not a sin. It's not a birth defect or a choice. God created people this way.”

Reverend Elnes wants people to know there’s more than one Christian perspective on this issue. He told KETV Newswatch 7’s Julie Cornell he’s fed up with the popular notion that the Christian church is anti-gay.



Read more: http://www.ketv.com/news/28214658/detail.html#ixzz1P7zebjom

[Tripod]

1. Thank God.

About time to accept all!

[Aerows]

2. Good move

The Catholic, Baptist and Evangelical churches should take note.

I've been to church not being accepted as a lesbian with my partner before, I might have a different attitude about church if we could go to church and not be condemned, denied the Eucharist, and such.

At this stage of the game, however, it will probably go in one ear and out of the other, because if I've managed to be a good person all of these years despite being told otherwise, I'm not certain what church has to offer me besides a demand for money, bad bake sales, and the desire to run when spaghetti night is mentioned. Choir is pretty fun, though.

[sweetloukillbot]

4. Try an Episcopal Church

Open and welcoming, lots of pageantry and GREAT music. My church does plenty of outreach, from working with local homeless organizations to border advocacy, overseas mission work, etc. We work with the local arts community, hosting monthly art galleries, jazz and chamber music concerts. The congregation is a great mix of old and young, gay and straight, married and single, with a variety of races - we have a vibrant Spanish-language community that does mariachi-themed services along with our traditional liturgy. We have choir members who are Grammy winners in choral music, and our dean earned his degree in astrophysics before entering the ministry.
And from what I've seen, we're not that unique for an Episcopal church.

[LAGC]

3. Christianity as a whole will have to change on this issue, just like it did over slavery.

Churches that don't come around and adjust to the new moral zeitgeist will be left behind in the dust as the world progresses and moves on...

[Tx4obama]

5. That's good, but now I want to see.....

churches start spending donations that they take in on the homeless, the hungry, the poor.
I am disgusted by the mega-churches that spend so much money on buildings, tv time, limos, fancy suits, jewelry, etc.

[alp227]

6. yeah, yeah, yeah, but religion is obsolete and its appeal is declining anyway

Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Terry Jones, and the other kooks and theocrats have contributed to that.

[griloco]

9. On the decline? Oh please...

With the world ending Oct 21 there will be no need for it.

[roguevalley]

13. actually, the spirituality of religion is rising out of the ashes of the

idiot's rampaging. Religion isn't declining. Its adapting and focusing on the most important aspect of itself.

[Poll_Blind]

7. K&R for the unthinkable from a major religion: Acceptance.

:thumbsup:

PB

[TlalocW]

8. Now what would be nice is

If those churches making the apology/outreach saw their numbers increase.

TlalocW

[progressoid]

10. Wow.

And in Omaha no less.

[gratuitous]

11. We have the Community of Welcoming Congregations in my neck of the woods

Been running for 20 years or so (full disclosure: I served as the convenor for the group for a few years in the late 1990s). Sometimes it's as much as some people need just to know that there are open and affirming congregations out there. The tide is turning in a lot of congregations, and one of the things we've seen in the last decade is that the opposition just isn't that firm. When push comes to shove, most of the opposition either folds or picks up their marbles and goes somewhere else. The good news is that there are fewer "somewhere elses" to go. I've never seen a congregation become open and affirming and then go back. And every congregation I'm aware of that has investigated the issue has come out on the side of acceptance. That may say as much for a congregation willing to look at the issue with honesty and integrity as it does for anything else, but public acceptance is the way things are going to be.

[nichomachus]

12. And in Boston

the Catholic Archbigot forced a pastor to cancel a mass he had planned in honor of Pride.