I know a lot of Bozo Readers struggle with the concept of God, let alone the worship of God. So You folk may as well stop reading now - this one is not for you.
Those of you who get the concept of God will understand that we believe He is in charge. He made the universe, the world and everything in it and us.
That means it is His world not ours [although he does give us control over it - an aspect of the deal I am sure He often regrets as He looks at the mess we are making of it].
That means we accept that it is His morality that rules, not ours.
Our society and laws [in this country at least] allow you to freely decide that your morality is more valid than God's.
But if you take this option and want to make your own judgements higher morally than God's. Why would you want to come into His house and celebrate your same sex marriage anyway?
The Times in its article on Saturday strongly implied that not wanting to celebrate same-sex marriages in Church premises was "mean-spirited" [I cannot imagine what Jeremy Clarkson is if we are mean-spirited].
It also implied that gays and lesbians are not welcome in Church. I cannot speak for every Church, but in all the Church's I know gays and lesbians are as welcome as I am. Because like me, they are sinners.
Like all of us they are sinners. As St Pauls says - all have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God. This means that all the Churches I have ever worshiped in are full of sinners!
Jesus died so our sins would be forgiven - not so that they would stop being sins and become "OK".
We go to Church to worship and adore God - to thank Him for His forgiveness and to ask Him to help us to stop sinning and stop making the sad mess of our lives that most of us achieve.
Any gay or lesbian is welcome to come with me to do that. And will be as loved by God as I am - and I hope, by His grace be as loved by our congregation as I am. We have all sinned. We are none of us better than you in God's eyes.
What we don't want to do, however, is celebrate our sin in Church.
If a bunch of us married blokes go down the pub and have a few pints and spend the evening lusting after the single women there - and then go and watch some porn we don't ask the vicar to hold a ceremony celebrating it!
We go to Church and place our sins before our very merciful God - and He forgives us. Anyone is allowed and weclome to do that. God will forgive any and all who believe in jesus Christ as Lord and saviour - no matter what they have done. And most of us have done plenty. Church is a place for sinners to go to confess sin and celebrate forgiveness.
I am not against same-sex marriage. I would happily go to one and have a great time. But God makes little secret of the fact that He thinks same-sex relationships are wrong. Forgiveness is freely available. Condoning is not. So if you want to come into my Church at least have the decency to accept that even if His morality doesn't count for much in YOUR WORLD - at least let it still counts for something in HIS HOUSE.
This does not make us mean-spirited.
You are allowed to protest against BP's drilling of oil - but they won't let you do it inside the foyer of their St James Square HQ.
You are even alllowed to protest against parliamentary democracy (or the fiddling of expenses by MPs) but they won't give you permission to do it INSIDE the House of Parliament.
You can protest against the Monarchy - but they won't give you permission to do it in Buckingham Palace.
Live your morality - but if you want to celebrate in God's house - at least have some respect for His morality.
I think Christiians are a highly persecuted minority in our country these days. And we are so far from mean spirited about it.
We do not demand (like they do in Iran) that ours is the only religion allowed and sentence the preachers of other religions to death (like they do in Iran)
We do not demand (like many right-wing politicians in the US) that prayer in school is compulsory.
We do not even demand that the BBC stop showing programmes which have scripts that make use of our Lord and saviour's name in the form of a swear word!
You may notice that script writers don't disrespect the Moslem faith that way.
I cringe every time i hear a character on film or tv say J...C in the same tone as they might say F..F..S.
As if using the Lord's name as a swear word is less offensive than the F word!
Offensive to who?
There is politically correct respect in this country for just about every religion in the world - except the worship of Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour.
If you want to tell our God that He is wrong, and that your morality is more valid than His - fine do it.
But don't do it in His house.
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