Brian McLaren Thinks Again! On Stuff…

If Brian has any clue as to what real Christianity meant he would not even have written his article below (see heading below).  But because we know he battles with concepts such as SIN and REPENTANCE OF SIN we will let Brian think again, that his ‘new kind of Christianity’ is just the schnizzle.  We on the other hand pray the he grasps REPENTANCE OF SIN.

Uganda is proposing  “The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009” is making its way through Uganda’s parliament and will probably become law before Christmas. 

Quotes taken from The Urban Coaster

“This year, though, gays can look forward to life imprisonment or the death penalty if they are arrested for certain offences under the proposed law.”

“In 2007 the Church of Uganda consecrated Bishop John Guernsey in Virginia. The Reverend John Kalimi preaches his homophobic message at Saint Vincent’s Cathedral in Dallas-Fort Worth. Pentecostal, anti-gay ministers of mega-churches here, like TD Jakes of The Potter’s House and the Miracle Crusader Benny Hinn went to Uganda on fundraising and soul-getting missions and came back richer.

Protectors of American families like Scott Lively and Rick Warren, who think gay people need healing, threw their support behind Ugandan preacher Martin Ssempa until he started talking to the media about killing homosexuals. Rick Warren of Saddleback Valley Community Church has repudiated Martin Ssempa. Scott Lively of Defend the Family has gone quiet on the subject. “

From Brian McLarens’s website: 

Discernment websites …if you believe

I wonder if some of the “discernment websites” that enjoy featuring and critiquing the work of many of my friends and me would be willing to host some discussion on this bill currently proposed in the Ugandan parliament.

I’d be interested in reading whether participants in those blogs agree with the Ugandan bill, and if not, why not. (Details after the jump)…

Andrew Marin gives an excellent overview of the situation here. He says …
Let me make this clear:

 I don’t care how conservative your theological belief system is, killing people or imprisoning them for being gay or lesbian is wrong and should never, ever happen.

Notwithstanding, according to the bill, I, as a straight person, would also be imprisoned if I don’t turn in gays and lesbians to the Ugandan government.

….Please spread the word. No Christian (or person in general) should ever let this happen on our watch.

He explains how to take action here.

The initiator of this bill in Uganda, Martin Ssempa, used to have connections to Rick Warren and Saddleback Church, but they severed those ties when they learned about the Ugandan bill. Here is Rick’s statement:

Martin Ssempa does not represent me, my wife Kay, Saddleback Church, nor the Global PEACE Plan strategy. In 2007, we completely severed contact with Mr. Ssempa when we learned that his views and actions were in serious conflict with our own…”

Thank God for people like Andrew and the Warrens for making it clear where they stand. Of course I stand with them.

This bill shows where misguided zealotry can lead, friends – the kind of misguided zealotry right here in the US that I posted about recently, the kind that Paul wrote about when he said (2 Cor. 3:6),

God … has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Paul, of course, new what he was talking about, because he had been this very kind of misguided zealot (1 Timothy 1:13) before he discovered a new vision of God in Christ. His belief system led him to hunt people down and seek to imprison and even kill them (for example, he participated – from a discrete distance – in the stoning of Stephen, Acts 7:58). In Christ Paul discovered a radically different image of God: one who doesn’t imprison, torture, and kill, but rather humbly descends to being imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Here’s how he described it (Phil. 2):

[Christ], though [or better translated, I think, because] he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death –
even death on a cross.

You can see why I believe we need a new kind of Christianity. I hope there will be some robust discussion about this Ugandan death bill on the discernment websites and others too, and some constructive action as well.

——

Brian, if you have ever by any chance read the bible, (no not the maps at the back; by the way Uganda is not on there I checked), you will come across these things called the 10 commandments, one of them being, “Thou shalt not kill” and the other 9 are pretty mind blowing too.  It is plainly obvious to a genuine Christian that MURDER is wrong.  Why do people do such heinous things such a murder?  It’s cause of SIN.  How do you stop sinning?  You ask Jesus Christ the Son of God who died on the cross for you, you ask HIM to forgive you, that His blood washes away your sin, you believe in Him, you get on your knees and you repent of being a sinful human being, you become born again.  You come into a relationship with Jesus Christ where the Holy Spirit guides you and you make a concerted effort to CHANGE YOU WAYS, you/they want to stop sinning. A changed person (born again person) finds it very difficult to sin because of God’s (Holy Spirits) conviction in their life.  To sin before God cuts a genuine Christian deep through the heart because sin drives a wedge between our relationship with Him.  The more we confess the more we genuinely want to change  and the more wonderful we become in the face of Jesus Christ the begotten Son of God.

No one, no matter who they are, deserves to die, be murdered, tortured, caught up in violence because of the sin of homosexuality or ANYTHING else for that matter.  Just like no one deserves to hear a false version of the gospel taught like the one you teach that sends people to an eternal death.  On the day of judgement when God sends those to everlasting fire because they wanted to live in perpetual sin and go against HIS COMMANS, that’s their problem.  And you will be held accountable before God for all those you lied too and led astray with anti-Christ teaching.

If mankind were not disobedient to the Word of God that top article re: “The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009” would not exist, and your article calling out to “Discernment websites…” WITH underhanded motives to try come up with another solution to Christianity would not exist either.

But the world unfortunately is just one big ball of disobedience; because it’s people like you Brian that don’t want to obey God and rather choose to make up your own rules instead thinking you are smarter.  So you can take your ‘new kind of Christianity ideas’ and throw them away, chuck then in that bin of yours because there was nothing wrong with the first Word that God breathed into Scripture and there is nothing wrong with the last Word in scripture either.

You can’t go around and break stuff that was never broken to start with.

The sufficiency of scripture as the only TRUE guide to living life, no dot or tittle to be added or taken away.  Your NEW biblical worldview is flawed and man made foolishness and will lead the world to destruction.

 Psalms 19:7-11

⁷      The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
⁸     The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
⁹     The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
¹⁰   They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹   Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is great reward.

[Updated:  27 Nov 09.  It just dawned on me today that just because Brian McLaren understands murder is wrong and a born again Christian would agree that murder is wrong that that would mean that Brian McLaren is a Christian (as per interfaith logic).  Rick Warren is Obama’s Christian adviser, Obama is pro-abortion, South Africa’s legislation is pro-abortion, Brian McLaren was in South Africa recently and said nothing, no wait hang on.  If Brian McLaren were to ask Rick Warren to tell Obama…no, no wait *thinking* hang on.  If  Rob Bell were to tell Brian McLaren that the Dalai Lama told Obama that murder of homosexuals was wrong, that would make the Dalai Lama a Christian?  No, no, if Brian McLaren, when he got together with his Muslim friends this year to celebrate Ramadan this year, told them that the murder of Christians in Pakistan for eating during the day was horrific … Ahh I see a pattern emerging here.]