We have friends at PFOX, that's Parents and Friends of Ex-gays and Gays. They've launched Safe Exit, a program to help churches help free people from unwanted homosexuality. Why do they feel they must help churches do this obvious thing? Why is this offer to overcome sin missing in the very places it should be most available?
We have observed that many churches, including the one we belong to, are increasingly avoiding the obvious: Attitudes toward sexuality are developed; human sexuality develops in a young person; sexuality develops properly if a child is given the one right model and taught correctly and not abused in any way; the culture is teaching new models for human sexuality; kids are being taught by pervasive technology that gay is cool and courageous; sex addiction is rampant; technology is unavoidable and sells sex; internet same-sex pornography is a huge industry available to all ages; sex in any form (lusts and acts) is pleasurable; kids can be turned on by anything, or nothing, and are especially vulnerable; homosexualist activists are specifically targeting kids.
Here's another glaring omission: Any condemnation of homosexuality is no longer spoken, no, not even in most churches.Well, we speak it here. Homosexuality in thought, desire, and deed is an abominable sin, harmful to individuals and society in many important ways, homosexuality mocks the power of procreation and despises posterity. As Marcus Aurelius said, what's bad for the swarm is bad for the bee.
And, even worse, there are also much more important truths, truths that can save souls, that are being soft-pedaled, overlooked, and ignored: There is such a thing as sin, everybody is human, everybody is precious and loved by God, God sent his Son to ransom us from our sins if we humble ourselves and repent continually, the Spirit of the Lord can teach and correct us if we wish it to, people troubled with unwanted homosexual tendencies can change from the inside out and go their way rejoicing in Christ. There is even professional help if needed unless it's been outlawed in your state. All truths, yet not being shared, being resisted, sometimes even censored.
Why these glaring omissions? Why the unconcern for the souls of God's children? Why the pagan worship of the creation instead of the Creator, why the reliance on the changing philosophies of men instead of on the everlasting gospel? The siren song goes like this: Everybody has good intentions, we have to just love everybody, love them, that's all. That's what we have to do. Not much talk of law, sin, punishment, redemption, Christ, eternal life. It appears that faith in those eternal principles has somewhat evaporated, not just for gays but for everybody in general.
Church-goers may use the Lord's name, they may say a lot of the right words, but they seem to care more for the comforts offered by religion rather than cultivating a relationship with God and rising to His demands on the soul. It's human relationships people seem to talk about and preach about and rely on and emphasize these days. And yet we're worse off than ever. We've never seen mere human relationships change a person's heart in any spiritual way. It's not anywhere in the scriptures. For all the introduction or teaching or testifying or help people may give, it's divine grace that changes people. The job of the person is to desire godliness, to want it, to ask, seek, knock. This work takes place privately in each individual's heart of hearts, that place only God can see and know.
Again, why these glaring omissions? Why the abandonment of plain and precious doctrine when we need it most? It's no mystery to the realist who has observed and thought critically and set aside emotional sentimentality and learned a bit about human nature.
Since the beginning men have always been very willing to hand off their religiosity to someone else, someone with some authority; it's easier that way. Men like to believe in and rely on people and things they can see with their human eyes and touch with their human hands and hear with their human ears. They like those ears tickled. They like those hands praised. They like those eyes to feast on outward pleasantness. And they like to be seen doing things. They like the praise of the world, to be known, to be admired, to be great in the eyes of other men. This works by proxy, too; just some connection with someone or something that excites the praise and admiration of others is very attractive, too.
It's easy to see how this pride of the heart can become institutionalized and begin to blind people to dangers, to rule their perceptions and become most important and render them complacent. It's easy to see that when this happens the things of the spirit are de-emphasized, belittled, and ignored, even resisted, things like the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the ability to discern between good and evil or between the subtle popular philosophies of men and the quiet sacred things of God, the value that must be put on unseen things, the changes that must take place in the heart. It's easy to see how big groups of people can be gradually lulled into carnal security, wound about with the devil's invisible flaxen cords, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. It's easy to see how such people could even come to be offended by or even come to hate truth. And it all started with the sin of pride deep in the heart.
It's all there in the scriptures. Is anybody reading them anymore? Apparently it's as Nephi said: if they are reading them they are not understanding them. And, from what we have observed here at SoL, this is how these glaring omissions have come to be.
Monday, June 29, 2015
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