Category Archives: America

Shame on Barack Obama

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How Barack Obama Will Make Christ a Minister of Condemnation
(by John Piper, emphasis added)

At Barack Obama’s request, [Sunday] in the Lincoln Memorial, Gene Robinson, the first openly non-celibate homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church, will deliver the invocation for the inauguration kick-off.

This is tragic not mainly because Obama is willing to hold up the legitimacy of homosexual intercourse, but because he is willing to get behind the church endorsement of sexual intercourse between men.

It is one thing to say: Two men may legally have sex. It is another to say: The Christian church acted acceptably in blessing Robinson’s sex with men.

The implications of this are serious.

It means that Barack Obama is willing, not just to tolerate, but to feature a person and a viewpoint that makes the church a minister of damnation. Again, the tragedy here is not that many people in public life hold views (like atheism) that lead to damnation, but that Obama is making the church the minister of damnation.

The apostle Paul says,

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves , nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

What is Paul saying about things like adultery, greed, stealing, and homosexual practice? As J. I. Packer puts it, “They are ways of sin that, if not repented of and forsaken, will keep people out of God’s kingdom of salvation.” (Christianity Today, January 2003, p. 48).

In other words, to bless people in these sins, instead of offering them forgiveness and deliverance from them, is to minister damnation to them, not salvation.

The gospel, with its forgiveness and deliverance from homosexual practice, offers salvation. Gene Robinson, with his blessing and approval of homosexual practice, offers damnation. And he does it in the name of Christ.

It is as though Obama sought out a church which blessed stealing and adultery, and then chose its most well-known thief and adulterer, and asked him to pray.

One more time: The issue here is not that presidents may need to tolerate things they don’t approve of. The issue is this: In linking the Christian ministry to the approval of homosexual activity, Christ is made a minister of condemnation.

Pray, my friends, for God is not mocked!
pdb

Mainstream?

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imgoutputphp1Oxford University Press sends out daily emails with tibits from one of their grammar books, Garner’s Modern American Usage. (Hey, doesn’t everybody want to learn better language skills?) Today’s entry was on the term MAINSTREAM, a pretty common term these days. Here’s some of what they say (image and emphasis added):

mainstream, v.t.

“Mainstream” as a verb is a jargonistic vogue word. It originated in the mid-1970s when Congress mandated that handicapped children be accommodated in regular classrooms. The following use is typical — e.g.: “Adrienne Lissner of St. Louis advocates mainstreaming autistic children in school.” (A possible revision: “Adrienne Lissner of St. Louis advocates putting autistic children into regular classes.” Or: “Adrienne Lissner of St. Louis advocates keeping autistic children in regular schools.”)

In the 1980s the word came to be used more and more to denote the integration of any subculture into the main culture…

I’m wondering: have American Christians become mainstreamed in the culture around us?? I fear they have, to a large extent. I think is does not please our Lord, who calls us to be “in the world, but not of the world.”

pdb