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Churches Shouldn't
Be Changing The Rules On God
Rev.
Jane Spahr, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Santa Rosa, California,
came to the conclusion that “relationships matter and that
love matters.” That’s the reason she decided there would
be nothing wrong with marrying one woman to another woman. This
happened despite the fact that it broke the laws of the state
of California, and completely negated the policies and teachings
of the Presbyterian Church of the USA. Rev. Spahr continued to
perform these same sex “marriages” through the years
of 2004 and 2005 and she was finally taken to task over the breach
of policy in a two-day trial by a Presbyterian Church judicial
committee. Despite the fact that the prosecutor argued she had
ignored long-standing teaching of the Presbyterian Church of the
USA in performing the weddings for lesbian couples, the 63-year-old
minister was acquitted of any wrongdoing. The Redwoods Presbytery
arrived at a 6 to 1 decision in her favor concluding that “Spahr
was acting within her right of conscience in performing marriage
ceremonies for same sex couples.”
When
this story broke, the liberal news media seemed to describe a
heroic lady minister who had long-standing favor and respect in
her Presbyterian tradition. I was assuming that one or two homosexual
couples, sharing their plight of mistreatment, suddenly approached
the minister and asked for her help. The media seemed to suggest
that after she went through serious reflection, Rev. Spahr came
to some new conclusions on her own that it was wrong not to afford
these same sex couples the benefit of church sanctioned “wedded
bliss” and she finally decided she would bite the bullet
against the tradition of the church and tie their knots, same
sex and all. Even if all this had been true, it would have made
no difference regarding the real immorality of the issue. However,
I found out later that the news media, in conveying this impression,
had been pulling my leg.
It
turns out that Rev. Jane Adams Spahr has been known in the San
Francisco area as the “Lesbian evangelist” for over
a decade. She came “out of the closet” as a homosexual
in 1978, and was prohibited from serving as co-pastor of a church
in Rochester, New York, in 1992, because of her lesbianism. She
has been a gay activist for many years and is director of an organization
called “That All May Freely Serve,” a group that works
to argue against the church’s stated policies against homosexual
clergy. During her trial, Spahr admitted to officiating at hundreds
of same sex weddings throughout her tenure.
I
won’t try to hide the fact that all of this is disgusting
to me, personally. This is not because I hate a gay man or a gay
woman. As I have stated in this column before, God forbid that
I as a Christian should hate anyone. God forbid that I should
even look down on anyone because he or she is homosexual. This
is true because I am no less a sinner than the homosexual. I would
quickly invite any homosexual man or woman to my church in order
that I may share the love of Jesus Christ with that person and
let them know that we as a church love them. However, we will
humbly and lovingly share with them that they will never be changed
by Jesus Christ into born again believers until they are willing
to repent of their lifestyle of homosexuality. This is true of
all sinners; unless they repent of their sin, they cannot become
saved. However, once they have truly repented, we will urge them
to profess their faith and become baptized as members of our fellowship.
There
is, however, a far worse crime in the eyes of the Lord, in the
story of Rev. Jane Spahr, a crime worse than that of Rev. Spahr
sanctioning the union of same-sex couples and calling such a union
a “marriage.” The judicial council of the Redwoods Presbytery
has dared to change the rules on God. Who do they think they are?
Are they greater than Moses who wrote the laws given to him by
God on Mt. Sinai, which clearly state in Leviticus chapters 18
and 20 that homosexuality is an abomination to God? Are they greater
than the angels in the day of Lot who caused fire to rain down
on Sodom and Gomorrah? Are they greater than Paul who clearly
painted homosexuality as a stench in the sight of God in Romans
chapter 1? God made men, women, and marriage, and the rules of
relationships, not the Redwoods Presbytery. Let us hope that the
Presbyterian Church of USA overrules against this travesty, or
else their entire denomination may suffer from God’s own
judicial council. “What thing soever I command you, observe
to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”
(Deuteronomy 12:32)
James
Sanders
Pastor,
sandersjc@yahoo.com
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