As I was driving along North East Road on my way up to church last night I heard this story on the PM program on ABC radio. I was so upset about what George Browning was saying that I found myself saying “No George ! You’re wrong!” at the radio. The people at the lights must have thought I was very strange. Why was I so upset ?
As I was walking to work through North Adelaide this morning and praying I was analysing what I really objected to. As I was thinking about the Anglican church and what it really meant it dawned on me that God had a purpose for the Anglican church and that what had upset me about what George Browning had said was his assertion that the moral standards in the church didn’t matter as much as what the church was doing. I couldn’t disagree more.
The problem with allowing church standards to decline is that it says to people that sin doesn’t really matter. I know that there is a debate going on in some circles about whether homosexuality is a sin but I can see clear evidence in the bible that it is sinful. What does it say then for the church to allow someone who is openly homosexual to become a bishop ? Here we have someone who is in authority within the church condoning something which hardens peoples hearts towards God. This is a corruption of what the church is meant to be. Not only that how is the Anglican church to tell people that they have need for a saviour if at the same time it is saying that sin doesn’t matter ?
God intended the Anglican church to preach the message of Jesus and see people come into relationship with Him to God’s greater glory, nothing more, nothing less. Anything that hinders that aim should be confessed, renounced and eliminated from the life of the church by God’s grace. To then belong to an organization and allow this to continue unchallenged seems to me to be unloving to all those who may be influenced away from the gospel by this decision. That is why I think that this is important.
Are the other issues that George Browning is talking about important? Absolutely! Any church that ignores the suffering around it is not living up to the example that Jesus set when He was on earth and sinning besides. The same arguments that I apply above to homosexuality apply to this also. Is division and discord in the church to be avoided where possible ? Yes, there is nothing worse than the same church (or even different churches) squabbling over stuff that really doesn’t matter. I only contend that there is a point where the differences between Christians DO matter if our witness to the unsaved is not to be compromised.
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on Tuesday, August 5th, 2003 at 10:14 am and is filed under christian.
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As I was driving along North East Road on my way up to church last night I heard this story on the PM program on ABC radio. I was so upset about what George Browning was saying that I found myself saying “No George ! You’re wrong!” at the radio. The people at the lights must have thought I was very strange. Why was I so upset ?
As I was walking to work through North Adelaide this morning and praying I was analysing what I really objected to. As I was thinking about the Anglican church and what it really meant it dawned on me that God had a purpose for the Anglican church and that what had upset me about what George Browning had said was his assertion that the moral standards in the church didn’t matter as much as what the church was doing. I couldn’t disagree more.
The problem with allowing church standards to decline is that it says to people that sin doesn’t really matter. I know that there is a debate going on in some circles about whether homosexuality is a sin but I can see clear evidence in the bible that it is sinful. What does it say then for the church to allow someone who is openly homosexual to become a bishop ? Here we have someone who is in authority within the church condoning something which hardens peoples hearts towards God. This is a corruption of what the church is meant to be. Not only that how is the Anglican church to tell people that they have need for a saviour if at the same time it is saying that sin doesn’t matter ?
God intended the Anglican church to preach the message of Jesus and see people come into relationship with Him to God’s greater glory, nothing more, nothing less. Anything that hinders that aim should be confessed, renounced and eliminated from the life of the church by God’s grace. To then belong to an organization and allow this to continue unchallenged seems to me to be unloving to all those who may be influenced away from the gospel by this decision. That is why I think that this is important.
Are the other issues that George Browning is talking about important? Absolutely! Any church that ignores the suffering around it is not living up to the example that Jesus set when He was on earth and sinning besides. The same arguments that I apply above to homosexuality apply to this also. Is division and discord in the church to be avoided where possible ? Yes, there is nothing worse than the same church (or even different churches) squabbling over stuff that really doesn’t matter. I only contend that there is a point where the differences between Christians DO matter if our witness to the unsaved is not to be compromised.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, August 5th, 2003 at 10:14 am and is filed under christian.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
