Baptist churches draw gay-rights supporters’ protests

About 100 people stood outside First Baptist Church of Dallas Nov. 9 to protest a sermon publicized on the church marquee with the title, “Why gay is not OK.”

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DALLAS (ABP)—About 100 people stood outside First Baptist Church of Dallas Nov. 9 to protest a sermon publicized on the church marquee with the title, “Why gay is not OK.”

“To say in today’s culture that homosexuality is a perversion of God’s plan or to say on the marquee that ‘gay is not OK’ is going to be to subject yourself to charges of being bigoted and ignorant and hateful,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said in the first of a two-part sermon on homosexuality. It was part of an ongoing series of messages themed “Politically Incorrect.”

The Dallas church wasn’t the only high-profile Southern Baptist congregation met by protests the weekend after gay-rights foes won ballot victories in four states. Protesters also gathered outside of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., accusing Pastor Rick Warren of misleading the public in his support of Proposition 8. The amendment to the California Constitution, which passed narrowly Nov. 4, undid a recent court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

Sign made her sad 

Laura McFerrin, who helped organize the Dallas protest, told the Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate that the message on the church sign made her “really sad.”

“I believe I was born a lesbian (and) that there’s nothing wrong with that,” she said. “I’m upset because children who are having to go into that church who might be gay or lesbian will think something about them is wrong, and that makes me sad.”

McFerrin and her mother spent Nov. 8 making signs and fliers encouraging others to come out and support the protest.

“I am surprised that in 2008 any church would have a sign like this out,” her mother, Grace McFerrin, added. “I feel that churches should not support hate—which is what a sign like this does, is allow people to think it’s acceptable to hate other people.”

Jeffress said in his sermon it is surprising to consider how quickly public opinion has accepted efforts by gay activists, aided by the mass media, to “to normalize homosexuality in our culture.”


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He noted that, just over 40 years ago, a Time magazine article described homosexuality as “a misuse of the sexual faculty,” a “pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality” and “a pernicious sickness.” As recently as 1972, the American Psychiatric Association regarded homosexuality as a psychological disorder meriting treatment.

“Today, it is no longer homosexuals who need therapy, but those who speak out against” homosexuality, he said.

Jeffress said the “homosexual agenda” has made inroads not only into the culture but among Christians as well.

“Those who are involved especially in the emerging-church movement are embracing homosexuality as a viable alternative lifestyle,” he said, referring to a church-planting movement popular among younger evangelicals.

"Myths" about homosexuality 

Jeffress said that is because Christians and non-Christians alike have embraced several “myths” about homosexuality fed to them by culture.

One myth, he said, is that the only prohibitions against homosexuality are in the Old Testament.

But Jeffries also cited what he believes are condemnations of homosexuality in New Testament passages, including Romans 1:26-29, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.

It is impossible for a God-fearing Christian to be gay, Jeffress said.

“You can’t fear God and disobey God at the same time,” he said. “People out there who are homosexuals, who are worshipping God or are in church and worshipping God, they’re not worshipping the God of the Bible. They’re worshipping the God of their own creation, the God of their own imagination.”

Another myth, he said, is that Jesus never condemned homosexuality. Jesus condemned homosexuality by upholding God’s plan for human sexuality, he asserted. “God’s plan for human sexuality is very clear,” Jeffress said. “God said sex is reserved for a marriage relationship between a man and woman.”

In his Nov. 16 sermon, Jeffress said, he planned to talk about the question of sexual orientation. “Is it fixed forever, or can it be changed?” he asked. “And what do you say to a friend or a family member who comes to you and says, ‘I believe God made me gay?’ We’re going to continue next time with five more myths about homosexuality.”

 


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