EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF CHICAGO SUPPORTS HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGES

EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF CHICAGO SUPPORTS HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGES

[Distributed by Way of Life Literatureâs Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Copyright 1999. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites and cannot be sold or placed by themselves or with other material in any electronic format for sale, but may be distributed for free by e-mail or by print. They must be left intact and nothing removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our goal is not devotional but is TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR. If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, e-mail us, give us your name, address, and the name of the church you are a member of, and request to be placed on the list. Please note that this is not a free service. We take up a quarterly offering to fund this ministry, and each subscriber is expected to participate. To unsubscribe or to submit a change of address, send your name and the request to fbns@wayoflife.org. This is not an automated list. Changes in the database often require two to four days to activate. Some of these articles are from O Timothy magazine. David W. Cloud, Editor. O Timothy is a monthly magazine in its 17th year of publication. Subscription is $20/yr. Way of Life publishes many helpful books. The catalog is located at the web site -- http://www.wayoflife.org. The End Times Apostasy Online Database is also located at this site.]

May 27, 1999 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The newly elected Episcopal bishop of Chicago, William Persell, believes churches should formally bless homosexual unions. Persell, who was consecrated at a ceremony in Chicago in March, was dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1991 to the end of 1998.

Persell says churches should honor homosexuals who have long-term relationships. "I think we’re in a time when we have to learn and accept each other. … Every church I have been in has had a large gay and lesbian membership. How do you say to people they’re second-class, even though God created them as gay and lesbian?" (Ecumenical News International, Jan. 15, 1999).

The Bible says homosexuality is a very grave sin. While it is true that there are many sins other than homosexuality and all sin is wicked before God, and while it is true that any sin can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ, the Bible does not say that all sin is the same in its effect in this world. God did not pour out fire and brimstone upon Sodom because of its jealousy or covetousness or lack of hospitality. He did not pour out fire and brimstone upon Sodom even because of its adultery. It was specifically because of its homosexuality (Genesis 19; Jude 7). Though all moral sins are evil in God's eye, homosexuality is especially corrupt because it is a sin against nature itself. It destroys the very fabric of society, which is the family as defined biblically--a man and a woman united in holy matrimony rearing children to fear God and to be productive citizens. Homosexuality is to "change the natural use into that which is against nature" (Romans 1:26). In Romans chapter one, homosexuality is called "vile affections" (v. 26), "against nature" (v. 26), "unseemly" (v. 27), "a reprobate mind" (v. 28), "not convenient" (v. 28).

Homosexuals and fornicators and drunkards and all other sinners are invited to come to Jesus Christ and be saved from their sin, but the grace of God does not lead people to continue in their sin.

"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, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 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" (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US FROM ALL INIQUITY, AND PURIFY UNTO HIMSELF A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee" (Titus 2:11-15).