What must God think...

...when Pastors like Sean Harris twist God's word into something that does not communicate His great love for us? We Christians often forget that sin is sin, period. Sodomy and other sexual immorality are no worse than calling someone names or killing 6 million people. There is only one sin greater than all the others. One sin that is unforgivable. One sin that exiles you from the presence of God and that sin is truly turning away from Him. If you do this there is no going back and since only God knows our heart, only He knows if we have truly turned away from Him. All other sin is equal. This is a difficult concept for most Christians. We want some sort of scale to chart the sin on so that we can say, "Well I never did that."

Pastor Harris, in case you have not heard, made some statements from the pulpit that in no way build up Christians or call others to our faith. His sermon should have stuck to scripture rather than embellishment with his personal opinions. He and God would have been better served if he had. He has since issued an apology but the cow's already out of the barn.

The short version (1 min 41 sec) is here => http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/audio-pastor-sean-harris-calls-punching-effeminate-boys
The whole sermon (55 min 03 sec) is here => http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=42912940300
And the retraction is here => http://pastorseansblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/official-statement-of-retraction.html

The problem is that unless we all have the same definitions for the terms used in the sermon we are not getting the same message. What is Effeminacy? According to Merriam-Webster (on-line) it is defined as:

Effeminate:

1: having feminine qualities untypical of a man : not manly in appearance or manner

2: marked by an unbecoming delicacy or overrefinement <effeminate art> effeminate civilization>

 

I see nothing here against scripture. Is it manly to turn the other cheek? Is it manly to let people spit on you and degrade you? It has to be otherwise Jesus did not act as a man.

 

If you'd like to contact Pastor Harris, good luck. The "Contact Us" page has been removed from the churches web site. That's understandable.

Pastor Harris take a look at these:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
2 Timothy 3:15-17
Matthew 5:43-44