During the recent Andrews University Marriage, Homosexuality and the Church Conference, Dwight K. Nelson, senior pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church in Berrien Springs, preached a sermon with the punchy title, "Sex in the Sanctuary: What's so Gay About That?"
Not sure as to which translation Dwight Nelson uses because the King James Version says this.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Dwight Nelson did not need to finish Paul’s statement. Paul finished what God told him to say in verse 11.
Am glad to see he spoke the TRUTH on this subject. I find it interesting that there are so few LIKES or comments here. Must be the “itching ears” didn’t get to hear what they wanted to hear.
Abraham attacked those enemies that abused the Sodomites. Abraham prayed for the Sodomites. Lot’s children were destroyed with the Sodomites.
Lot continued to drag his feet while leaving Sodom. Lot’s wife died while leaving Sodom. Which character do we want to emulate in this scenario?
Luke 17 : 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
What “itching ears” don’t like is any reminder that all sexual activity outside the Biblical parameters is forbidden. Since homosexuals are a small percentage of the population, the big problem in the church is heterosexual hanky-panky. The preferred self-righteous coping is to keep attention away from the latter by maintaining a loud focus on “calling out sin” about homosexuality.
Regardless of my sexual identity, I am in daily need of transformation. First to own who I really am. Next, to own who I may become once “washed”. The 1 Corinthians passage leaves little to argue about. And none of what Paul mentions is conscribed. I am washed by grace, the gift freely given and received. As well, I am free to decline.
And it is in this washing (or not) that I find (or do not find) my identity in Christ. I want many things in life. Among them; to love and be loved, to know and be known, to understand and be understood. Jesus does this and more. He knows my struggles. And I am invited to surrender my complete will in exchange for His.
Do I suffer with desire which cannot seem to be satisfied? Am I often unclear how to see my way from here to there? Do I long for a day without conflict and disappointment? Yes, of course. And what draws me to Him is not fear and prohibition, but love and permission. True love for me showing me how to truly love others. Permission to be His own at the very moment when I feel the very least worthy.
Many of us struggle on this path we call life. I desire not to compare my struggles with yours but rather to identify. More than anything, identify with our joys and our heartaches. And find each together at home, at one with the Savior.
Grace covers a multitude of (all) sins. And in so many various ways I find God’s Providence at work all about. How He will wash me is up to Him. What I do know is that He loves me, He knows me and He understands me. I’m willing to leave the details of the scrubbing all up to Him.
Dwight Nelson’s call for sanctified celibacy for the homosexual is his prescription for all those not created with his thanks for “choosing” to be heterosexual and enjoy its pleasures, blessed by God and gift of parentage. Dwight made the right choice, blessed by God. All homosexuals are denied such pleasures because of their wrong (sinful) choice.
Did God give free will to some and not to others? When did Dwight Nelson Choose heterosexuality and reject homosexuality?
In my eighty one years on this planet, I have observed many male pastors/preachers/church administrators, who were unfortunate enough to lose a spouse to death.
Many were so bereft, so lonely, so companion less, so helpless in doing household tasks like cooking and cleaning, that they were remarried within a year of their widowhood. They were old enough to be in the " viagra age," of sexual decline, so their impetus for remarriage was less sexual than the need for a soul mate.
Male preachers can pontificate ad nauseum about the celibacy requirements for their LGBT parishioners, but the abstinence from sex, is the LEAST loss required by celibacy.
It is the loss of companionship, loyalty, love, compassion, sharing, that is the CREULEST requirement of celibacy.
This is the loss suffered by widowers on the death of their spouse.
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A loss so acute, so painful, that it drives many to an impetuous, hasty, and ill advised marriage, just to assuage the loneliness.
Something for pastors to remind themselves of, when they so glibly demand "celibacy " for their gay/lesbian parishioners.