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12/18/2009
MI: One church brings LGBTs to the table; three others ask to be excused
Martha's Table is a service organization through which eight Kalamazoo, MI, churches have been banding together to provide food and prayer for those in need. But now three of those eight churches are dropping out of the program, because of certain views help by the host church. We'll give you one guess what those "controversial" views entail:
Agape Christian Church and Word for Life Church of God plan to withdraw from Martha’s Table at the end of the year, and Centerpoint Church (formerly Third Reformed Church) has already done so, Laney said.
...
[Rev. Matt Laney, pastor of the host church, First Congregational] said representatives of all three churches have been “very clear” that they don’t want to be “guilty by association” with First Congregational and its inclusiveness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, said Laney, who publicly supported an ordinance passed by Kalamazoo voters in November that protects GLBT people from discrimination in housing, jobs and accommodations.
...
Kim Sandelin, a lay pastor from Agape, said churches can tolerate some theological disagreements and work together, but “an immoral lifestyle has eternal ramifications in Scripture.”
Yet, he said he wanted to emphasize that “none of the pastors in this ministry have any ill will or bad feelings toward one another.”
FULL PIECE: Churches to leave homeless ministry over sexuality conflict [Kalamazoo Gazette]
Take that, homeless!
But you all know Jesus' edict: Love thy neighbor, feed the hungry, and clothe the poor (unless thy neighbor keeps you awake with his Lady Gaga tunes, the hungry are starving so that they can fit into their gay wedding attire, and the poor were fired and therefore rendered penniless because we've yet to pass ENDA).
Your thoughts
Funny. Jesus never cared about being "guilty by association". Why should His church?
Posted by: Davey | Dec 18, 2009 1:39:38 PM
I like how Christians point to the charity done by churches as proof their more moral then athiests. This story reveals the actual reason for that 'charity', its entirely about bribing new members with the promise of food. If theirs no chance of converting people to their particular brand of religion *sometimes a whole religion, sometimes the general idea of god, in this case anti-gay christianity* they don't give a damn.
Posted by: wackadoodle | Dec 18, 2009 1:40:43 PM
Come on folks, this is prime territory for Good As You's wit. The local coverage makes it clear that it was not such a big problem till the ordinance actually won the day. 1st Congregational is a UCC church. The UCC makes no secret of working for justice for LGBT people for decades. The election blew away the triumphalism that insulated the Christianists and their conversionalist agenda in working with those awful Mainliners.
It is all too much like the way the Catholic Church in Washington DC is threatening to take its tiaras and go home because the elected governing board of the city disagrees with the Church about who may get married.
Posted by: Jonathan Justice | Dec 20, 2009 11:35:00 PM
Net surfing, I find video of Laney's pro-Ordinance presentation on 9 March 2009. That did not stop the Christianists engagement. Loosing did. It would seem that we are not all that bad, unless we happen to win.
Posted by: Jonathan Justice | Dec 21, 2009 12:02:02 AM
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