Proclaimer Blog
Sad day
This article below (from Today's Times) is sad, distressing, alarming (etc.) but not, to be honest, surprising. It makes the importance of the task that we do (and you do in your churches) – the task of proclaiming and handing on the "pattern of sound teaching" (2 Tim 1.13) absolutely critical. Increasingly, we are fighting against the prevailing world view but our fundamental position is not a particular one on sex or marriage or work or whatever, but a conviction that the Scriptures, rightly, faithfully and prayerfully interpreted, are the true word of the living God. If we are not training the next generation to carry on that mantle – indeed, if we are not training our current people to read the Scriptures that way, then we have already lost.
One of the country’s most influential senior evangelical Church leaders has come out in favour of homosexual relationships and gay marriage.The Rev Steve Chalke, a Baptist minister who has been a regular guest at Downing Street, has called on Christian Churches to “rethink” traditional attitudes to homosexuality. In an article in Christianity magazine, Mr Chalke, who a few weeks ago conducted his first gay blessing service in his church in Waterloo, says that the Bible paints a far more inclusive picture than many acknowledge. Mr Chalke, who has written a special liturgy for gay partnerships that he publishes on his Oasis charity website today along with a full evangelical exegesis of his pro-gay stance, says in the article that he felt “compelled” and “afraid” to write it. He writes: “Compelled because, in my understanding, the principles of justice, reconciliation and inclusion sit at the heart of Jesus’s message. Afraid because I recognise the Bible is understood by many to teach that the practice of homosexuality, in any circumstance, is a sin or ‘less than God’s best’.” He is a key member of the Evangelical Alliance umbrella group, which represents two million evangelical Christians in Britain, including thousands in the Church of England.