Church won't hold funeral for gay man

[Horse with no Name]

Sometimes this stuff just speaks for itself.:mad:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/081007dnmetgayfuneral.3617689.html
>>>snip
An Arlington church volunteered to host a funeral Thursday, then reneged on the invitation when it became clear the dead man's homosexuality would be identified in the service.

The event placed High Point Church in the cross hairs of an issue many conservative Christian organizations are discussing: how to take a hard-line theological position on homosexuality while showing compassion toward gay people and their families.

>>>snip
Mr. Sinclair, 46, died Monday. He was a native of Fort Worth, a Navy veteran who served in Desert Storm helping rescuers find downed pilots, and a singer in the Turtle Creek Chorale, said his mother, Eva Bowers. He did not belong to a church.

<<<<I have to wonder how many Christians he saved>>>

>>>snip
"Some of those photos had very strong homosexual images of kissing and hugging," he said. "My ministry associates were taken aback."

<<<<I don't think Jesus ever kissed and hugged another man. :eyes:>>>>>

[Bryn]

1. This is so wrong

We need to enter Age of Reason. We're still in Dark Age, aren't we? :eyes:

[Maddy McCall]

2. Disgusting.

[Fridays Child]

3. From the article...

"The issue was not so much that Mr. Sinclair was, from the church's perspective, an unrepentant sinner, he said. It's that it was clear from the photos that his friends and family wanted that part of his life to be a significant part of the service.

"The pastor said that he could imagine a similar situation involving a different sin. Perhaps a mother who is a member of the church loses a son who is a thief or murderer, Mr. Simons said. The church would surely volunteer to hold a service, he said."

So, what of this man who would compare being gay to being a murderer? His decision to reneg on holding Mr. Sinclair's funeral service invites our scrutiny, so let's have a look.



Hmm. Does he look a little Haggard? I wonder if his private thoughts or secret doings would bear out the theory that many homophobes are actually deeply closeted gay people. Well, we may never know the answer to that question but we can still write to him and let him know what we think of his so-called Christian behavior: http://www.churchunusual.com/general-email.html

[malaise]

10. He wanted that part of his life?

Aren't funerals celebrations of all parts of people's lives.

These fuggers are sick.

[CurtEastPoint]

12. Damn! You beat me to it! My radar went off when I saw his picture

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Shame on the hypocrites!

[DeSwiss]

4. Corinthians 16:

19 The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
20 All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.
21 The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.
22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.


Yeah, so the Christians not only kissed, but probably a whole lot more....

[Silver Gaia]

5. This makes me so ill.

Comparing him to a murderer is WAY out of line. :mad:

I lost my gay brother last summer and experienced something similar (in Arkansas), although not quite this horrendous.

"We tried to do the very best of our ability to express the love of Christ." What?!? This is so warped.

Yes, we really do have a long way to go, don't we? :(

[Ian David]

6. Black Collar Douchebaggery. n/t

[acmavm]

7. Church my ass. This is just another club with mean-spirited,

discrimenatory rules run for whack jobs and bigots. This has nothing to do with real 'Christianity' of which the most important rule is "do unto others as you would have done unto you". Jesus taught that we no right to judge.

Again, I will say that this is not a 'church' in the true definition of the word.

[Bluebear]

8. Good. Mr. Sinclair deserves a far better send-off than from this disgraceful joint. nt

[Loki]

9. The love of the evangelical christian church

is overwhelming isn't it? Perhaps a movement to help remove their tax-exempt status because they no longer practice a recognizable religion would be appropriate.

[Ezlivin]

11. Do you want to witness to High Point Church?

http://www.churchunusual.com/academy.html

They even have a convenient "Contact Us" form so that you can provide feedback.

I'm sure they would want to hear how they could improve.

:)

[CurtEastPoint]

13. Email them and tell them about the real love of Christ..something they don't know

Here's the link:

http://www.churchunusual.com/general-email.html

[Fridays Child]

35. I emailed the pastor.

I hope everyone else on this thread will do the same.

[nealmhughes]

31. That is about the most expensive web site run by a church I have ever seen!

I note that it is in the fine old fashioned "cult of personality" type church leadership one finds in megachurches with no bishops, denominational ties or other bothersome oversight layers.

All this "pastor" lacks is a diamond pinky ring and a gold chain worn with a jogging suit.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Wow, I guess this church doesn't really follow the Bible then.

Four times Paul instructs churches to “greet one another with a holy kiss (Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thes. 5:26). Peter instructs believers to “greet one another with a kiss of love” (1 Pet. 5:14).

[Mr. Blonde]

19. Everyone knows there are different types of kisses

Your mom is going to get a much different kiss than your SO. Both are kisses of love though.

[EFerrari]

15. Unbelievable.

[IndianaJones]

16. For the life of me, I do not understand the outrage about this. nt.

[wicket]

17. Bastards!

:grr: :grr:

[Dragonbreathp9d]

18. Fuck TEXAS!

I cant belive I'm in this fucking state. Bush, when you leve office, go back to Texas, succeed, and let us bomb the shit out of you, jesus fuchrist!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

20. Two things:

"That which you did not do for the least of my children you did not do for me."

And:

"Judge not, lest ye be judged."

Both of those quotes are from a man who was also judged and condemned by others who knew of his innocence. They're taken from a book that membership claims to have a fair dinkum knowledge of.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

21. deleted

deleted

[myrna minx]

22. This is such a disgrace.

:cry:

[xchrom]

23. says right in the new testament -- that jesus slept with john resting his head on his chest.

[cgrindley]

24. Another good reason to stop being religious

how many more reasons does anyone need?

[progressoid]

25. "kissing and hugging"....OhMyGawd!

:banghead:

[spanone]

26. ...and Jesus wept

[Occulus]

27. Shit like this is why I refuse to be a christian

And, beyond that, anything more I have to say would be construed by DU christians as hostility.

So I won't say any of it. Some of it could get me banned- THAT'S how much I dislike this "faith".

[IndianaJones]

28. Like this? Minor. nt.

[Occulus]

30. Explain that, please. n/t

[pagandem4justice]

29. This pissed me off so much,

I ended up blogging about it. The main point being, these people are *not* what I consider "true" Christians...there are so very few of those. Did you read their "Statement of Faith" on their website? Fundie through and through.

A secondary travesty here is that they sunk their hooks into the man's developmentally disabled brother. The poor guy thought they actually stood for what they said, and thought they would help without strings. :(

In case you want my two pence: http://huntressarrows.blogspot.com">Silver Arrows, Random Targets

[Fridays Child]

32. K&R and, one more time, here's the "church's" contact page:

http://www.churchunusual.com/general-email.html

[BornagainDUer]

33. I'm an atheist, but this eats shit. For "Christs" sakes show respect

for the dead.

Even if you think being gay is a sin whatever happened to forgiveness??

[iverglas]

34. It's a church. It IS a private club.

So we all disagree with this church on the question of whether homosexuality of a sin. Well, the church is a club that we wouldn't want to belong to, and that wouldn't want us to belong to it. That's life.

The deceased individual didn't belong to a church. If he had belonged to a church, it seems pretty unlikely he would have chosen to belong to this one. For some reason, his family and friends, who apparently had no problem with his sexual orientation, belonged to it. Now they want the church to do something that is contrary to its teachings. Maybe they need a new church, if they can't reconcile that church's teachings with their own beliefs.

Me, I'm an atheist. I don't want somebody holding a funeral for me in a church. And if I choose not to belong to a church, I don't expect it to be hosting my departure ceremony.

My grandfather was a religious Christian, and we held his funeral in his church, a United Church of Canada congregation. We had the local minister, whom he didn't really know because he was old and sick when the minister was hired, and we had a Mennonite music director who had been kind to my grandfather (a former church soloist) in hospital, and the Roman Catholic nun who had also been kind to him, and they all participated in the service. Because that's the kind of church it is, and that's the kind of person my grandfather was.

When my grandmother died, we didn't have a funeral, because she wasn't much on churches, but we borrowed that church's basement and had a get-together with family and friends, and one of the people who spoke was a lesbian United Church minister who had know my grandparents when she was a child.

When my dad died, we had a similar get-together in the party room of the apartment building where my parents used to live, and my brother and I did a dramatic reading of "Hu's On First" (I was Condi, he was George). Because my dad loved Abbott and Costello, and just before he died he learned how to email and my brother and I had both sent him that skit, and he had printed it out and distributed it among his right-wing Republican neighbours in the Florida trailer park he was staying at.

This is why there are funeral homes. So that people who are not affiliated with churches can have dignified funerals in convenient locations, if that's what their families want.

I dunno. It seems to me that the family and friends hauling this guy into a church he apparently wanted nothing to do with, after his death, are the ones causing the problem. Frankly.

And I think it is entirely inappropriate to be beating on "Christians" over this, just by the way. My Christian friends would be as appalled by the bigotry as anyone here, and would leave any church that practised it.



In Memoriam. Now available on YouTube, apparently. Everybody at my dad's memorial get-together requested copies.


HU'S ON FIRST
By James Sherman

(We take you now to the Oval Office.)

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.

George: That's what I want to know.

Condi: That's what I'm telling you.

George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes.

George: I mean the fellow's name.

Condi: Hu.

George: The guy in China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The new leader of China.

Condi: Hu.

George: The Chinaman!

Condi: Hu is leading China.

George: Now whaddya' asking me for?

Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.

George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?

Condi: That's the man's name.

George: That's who's name?

Condi: Yes.

George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.

Condi: That's correct.

George: Then who is in China?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir is in China?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Then who is?

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Yassir?

Condi: No, sir.

George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.

Condi: Kofi?

George: No, thanks.

Condi: You want Kofi?

George: No.

Condi: You don't want Kofi.

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi?

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?

Condi: And call who?

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?

Condi: Hu is the guy in China.

George: Will you stay out of China?!

Condi: Yes, sir.

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.

Condi: Kofi.

George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone. (Condi picks up the phone.)

Condi: Rice, here.

George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?

[sarcasmo]

36. Santa Jesus followers showing their true colors.

[Beelzebud]

37. Who would want their funeral to take place in a hate filled church like that anyway?

[HughMoran]

38. Who would Jesus hate?

I can't for the life of me figure out how Christians who think like these folks can believe that the "Christ" part of "Christian" doesn't apply to them!

Christ was good and welcoming. A church like this one is hateful and unwelcoming - the opposite of Jesus. My mind can't bend around that corner no matter how hard I try.

How do these people live with themselves?

[tammywammy]

39. I heard an interview with the mother on the radio today

She said what upset her most is that they waited to tell her until the day before the funeral. So, then they were scrambling to find a place to hold it. A local funeral home was able to accommodate the family at the last minute. The mother said that it if they had told her when they went there the first time that they didn't want to hold the funeral, it wouldn't have been a big deal (though I think it should be), but it was last minute cancellation that really ticked them off.