So is it their right, their principles, or is it totally wrong? Church Says Homosexuality A Sin http://www.local6.com/news/13880376/detail.html POSTED: 1:25 pm EDT August 13, 2007 ARLINGTON, Texas -- A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay. Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off. "It's a slap in the face. It's like, 'Oh, we're sorry he died, but he's gay so we can't help you,"' she said Friday. Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant. The church's pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men "engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing." Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there. "We did decline to host the service -- not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle," Simons told The Associated Press. "Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it -- yes, we would have declined then. It's not that we didn't love the family." Simons said the decision had nothing to do with the obituary. He said the church offered to pay for another site for the service, made the video and provided food for more than 100 relatives and friends. "Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness," Simons said. Wright called the church's claim about the pictures "a bold-faced lie." She said she provided numerous family pictures of Sinclair, including some with his partner, but said none showed men kissing or hugging. The 5,000-member High Point Church was founded in 2000 by Simons and his wife, April, whose brother is Joel Osteen, well-known pastor of the 38,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston. Now High Point meets in a 432,000-square-foot facility in Arlington, near Dallas. Wright said relatives declined the church's offer to hold the service at a community center because they felt it was an inappropriate venue. It ultimately was held at a funeral home, but the cancellation still lingered in some minds, she said.
I don't agree with the lifestyle, but as far as I know, there's no such thing as a gay wedding, so I'm puzzled as to why they thought it would be condoning the lifestyle to hold a service for a gay man. Going by that logic, they shouldn't hold services for politicians since that would mean they would be condoning the lying and cheating that comes with leading a political lifestyle. I understand their logic, but I think it's misplaced.
If they had no idea about his lifestyle before they agreed to it..hell ya they have a right to decline. As a church you half. By knowingly let that service happen with all these pics of the to of them together would totally go against the churches stance on that sort of lifestyle. I see nothing wrong with it at all especially considering what they offered when they declined
[rquoter] Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner." Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." -Luke 7:36-50 [/rquoter]
This makes me beyond mad. I can not believe that crap!!!! "homosexuality is a sin, so we can't bury him." guess what, dillweed!!! we're allllll sinners!!!! that's what it says in the book you're reading! you don't need Christ any less than that guy! what a freaking joke!!!!
Don't worry about it too much, RR. They did it in the 60s too. It'll all work out the right way eventually. That's progress.
http://www.churchunusual.com/index.html That's the website. The Pastor looks like a bit of a closet case himself.
Before this gets too heated - I think people here should delineate between moral and legal opinions. Yes - the Church has every legal right to deny funeral services. Just cuz I (or anyone here) might support their legal right to do so does NOT mean that I morally condone their actions or hate homosexuals. Do I personally believe homosexuality is a sin? No. Do I goto Church? No. If I were gay - I would NOT want to have my funeral services conducted by an anti-gay religious organization. I wonder why the family or his surviving life partner apparently did so.
I know you didn't ask for a sermon....sorry in advance!! Believe it or not, that was actually an issue! And I know people who feel deep, deep commitment to God because of the sense of his redemption from something they were caught in that was heavier than anything I personally have been caught in. In all honesty, there are moments where I wish I knew that kind of love as clearly and forcefully as they do...even though I want nothing of the destruction that was going on in their lives before that. Romans 6:1-14 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Homophobia is completely out of hand. I'd bet $100 that church would be willing to hold services for a murderer.
I think it's human nature to appreciate the things you have after you've lost everything or have a serious chance of losing it. And to be given a new beginning when all hope had been lost, that's something that sticks with you for the rest of your life. Forgive me for sounding existential, but some people who would like a good and sound life don't really want one. They desire challenges to redeem and awaken themselves but fear of failing in the process. There's a bit of that adventurousness in all of us, and that's why there could be a little envy for those who have lived the wild life but survived long enough to change for the better while telling about it. For many, in order to reach Heaven they have to walk through Hell to get there. I guess it'd be like sipping on water after days of fasting. No point in these lines whatsoever.
