(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here. I have added some additional information at the end)
Perhaps you have read that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission which lost its Supreme Court case trying to force a Christian baker to make a wedding cake for a homosexual "wedding" is going at him again, again bringing charges. You would think that a Christian pastor would defend the Christian baker for not violating Scripture and his conscience. But in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it is in vogue to promote homosexuality and transgenderism. This was done last month by the speakers at the ELCA's Teen Gathering as they spoke to 31,000 teens. If you don't condone homosexuality, some say, then you are not being loving.
Here is what a Minneapolis Lutheran pastor said recently in his sermon "All You Need is Love":
"What would be so bad about baking the cake for the gay couple, not because you agree with their marital status, but because you recognize this is, in fact, who they are: broken people like you and me, trying to find companionship and love in this world and be whole and contributing human beings. And now you have a chance to make a symbolic gesture encouraging them in their relationship or to discourage them by essentially saying you want nothing to do with them. Well, if we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, this means that regardless of compromises you think they’re making, it’s better for them to have a good life together in a stable, committed relationship than in a painful, fractured one. That it’s better for society if their relationship makes it than it is if it breaks apart...For an increasing number of people in our society, when they think of Christians, they do not think of love. What they think of is self-righteous, unyielding people who seem more angry and hateful than loving."
My problem with the above sermon is that the pastor is not, in fact, being loving. I Corinthians 6:9-11 teaches that people who live in impenitent sin, including the sin of homosexual behavior, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So, if we are truly loving and care about where people spend eternity, we will not bake the cake. We will urge people to repent of sin and put their trust in Christ for forgiveness and salvation. We will not do as the pastor does in the above sermon, namely, preach compromise to make people feel good about their sin and to feel good about us "hateful" Christians.
Please pray the Lord grants the Christian baker in Colorado the strength to endure another attack and to again find victory in the courts. And pray that God give will Christian pastors the courage to side with the Word and not with the world.
In Christ our Savior,
Pastor Tom Brock
Perhaps you have read that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission which lost its Supreme Court case trying to force a Christian baker to make a wedding cake for a homosexual "wedding" is going at him again, again bringing charges. You would think that a Christian pastor would defend the Christian baker for not violating Scripture and his conscience. But in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it is in vogue to promote homosexuality and transgenderism. This was done last month by the speakers at the ELCA's Teen Gathering as they spoke to 31,000 teens. If you don't condone homosexuality, some say, then you are not being loving.
Here is what a Minneapolis Lutheran pastor said recently in his sermon "All You Need is Love":
"What would be so bad about baking the cake for the gay couple, not because you agree with their marital status, but because you recognize this is, in fact, who they are: broken people like you and me, trying to find companionship and love in this world and be whole and contributing human beings. And now you have a chance to make a symbolic gesture encouraging them in their relationship or to discourage them by essentially saying you want nothing to do with them. Well, if we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, this means that regardless of compromises you think they’re making, it’s better for them to have a good life together in a stable, committed relationship than in a painful, fractured one. That it’s better for society if their relationship makes it than it is if it breaks apart...For an increasing number of people in our society, when they think of Christians, they do not think of love. What they think of is self-righteous, unyielding people who seem more angry and hateful than loving."
My problem with the above sermon is that the pastor is not, in fact, being loving. I Corinthians 6:9-11 teaches that people who live in impenitent sin, including the sin of homosexual behavior, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So, if we are truly loving and care about where people spend eternity, we will not bake the cake. We will urge people to repent of sin and put their trust in Christ for forgiveness and salvation. We will not do as the pastor does in the above sermon, namely, preach compromise to make people feel good about their sin and to feel good about us "hateful" Christians.
Please pray the Lord grants the Christian baker in Colorado the strength to endure another attack and to again find victory in the courts. And pray that God give will Christian pastors the courage to side with the Word and not with the world.
In Christ our Savior,
Pastor Tom Brock
--
Here is a link to the ELCA pastor's sermon.
ELCA Bishop Bill Gafkjen of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod also seems to believe Christians should bake cakes for gay weddings or lend their services to the celebrations, as you can see in his Facebook post below and in his sharing an article, with his comments, that says:
"My 'sincerely held religious belief' should not allow me to discriminate against others on the basis of things they cannot change. No workaround to the First Amendment and existing law is needed to solve this "problem," because it should not be a problem if we follow the Golden Rule." (Here is the article Bishop Gafkjen shared)
Here is a link to the ELCA pastor's sermon.
ELCA Bishop Bill Gafkjen of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod also seems to believe Christians should bake cakes for gay weddings or lend their services to the celebrations, as you can see in his Facebook post below and in his sharing an article, with his comments, that says:
"My 'sincerely held religious belief' should not allow me to discriminate against others on the basis of things they cannot change. No workaround to the First Amendment and existing law is needed to solve this "problem," because it should not be a problem if we follow the Golden Rule." (Here is the article Bishop Gafkjen shared)
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