Confusion in the Church-LGBT Clergy Expands

 We recently read the the ELCA Lutherans named a transgender as the Bishop overseeing some 200 congregations in the Northwest.  To be clear, this is a man who believes he is a woman.  And the ELCA simply loves how tolerant and diverse they are!  The more lesbian, gays, transgenders, transracial and transpecies folks they can find to shepherd their flocks the better!

We hope they are as inclusive of any pastors who are part of throuples and/or polyamorous relationships.  That would really help their flocks learn about the value of marriage!

Yes, I'm being very sarcastic. But clearly these folks have a "form of godliness" (they look good in their pastoral robes in front of the big pipe organ serving the sacraments in a golden goblet) but in reality they have denied the power of the Holy Spirit to even enter their churches.

And now we read more about the ELCA and their first transgender Latina pastor!!

This month the Evangelical Lutheran Church celebrated it's newly formed Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder, Colorado.  At the head of that new church is the nations first transgender Latina pastor Nicole Garcia.

Nicole is part of a growing number of LGBT clergy that has infiltrated the leadership of churches that have bowed down the altar of moral relativism.  

Instead of provided clear Biblical answers to the cultural chaos, such churches have fallen in league with it by aligning the Gospel message to conform with a progressive message where feelings are emphasized over scriptural facts, essential Christian doctrines are open for interpretation, historical terms are redefined, and the heart of the Christian message shifts from sin and redemption to social justice. 

One of Nicole's main goals and others like her is to push an agenda of LGBT acceptance in the church.  Nicole began working with an organization called Reconciling in Christ several years before her ordination, which works toward full acceptance of the LGBTQ community within the Lutheran denomination. 

Five years later, Garcia was elected to the group's national board of directors as their transgender representative, and in that position she continued to campaign for the advancement of LGBTQ people into pastoral positions.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of compassion and salvation for all people, but movements such as these promote continuation of sinful lifestyles rather than repentance.  Yet the church allows them and even encourages them.

When some denominations push back such as the United Methodist ban on LGBT clergy, the bishops of the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church rebelled and declared their churches a "safe harbor" for LGBTQ clergy. A "safe harbor" to protect Christian leadership from the Biblical model of Church discipline when they are in doctrinal error?

Instead of providing Christian leadership to churches across the country many are causing confusion.

From non-binary deacons that refuse to accept that they are either men or women to hyper-sexual, church-sponsored drag shows, to transgender baptisms and renaming ceremonies, the assault on Biblical values has intensified. 

The Bible sternly warns against leading little ones astray: "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18.6).

The Church of England, however, has instituted renaming ceremonies for the new identities/names of those confused individuals who have decided to identify as the opposite sex that God made them, including young children.

The UK's mirror newspaper recently featured the story of a 7-year-old child who had recently 'transitioned' and the mother commented how important the church's 'rebaptism' ceremony was in affirming this change, noting that the vicar was even wearing a silk rainbow scarf in support of LGBT rights during the ceremony.

It is a warping of baptism to treat it as a celebration of "I'm OK, you're OK" when the fundamental Christian message is that, absent the transforming grace of Jesus Christ, no one is "OK".

A member of the same clergy that once presided over the coronation of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II, has now had the effrontery to ask the faithful to pray that her great-grandson, Prince George, age 6, might become a homosexual in order to increase tolerance for the LGBT community. 

Earlier this year, Anglican clergy urged the British government to ban so-called "conversion therapy" for those with gender dysphoria, and announced their intention to attempt to recruit transgender clerics. 

It should not surprise us that the youth are following the example of Church leadership.  The congregation of St. Matthew Trinity Lutheran Church in Hoboken, New Jersey now refer to their pastor as Peter. 'Peter', formerly Rose Beeson, was the center of one of the first renaming ceremonies in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  

The ceremony, according to witnesses, was conducted in the same style as a christening or baptismal ceremony with the bishop blessing Beeson and pronouncing her newly-chosen name.

It should come as no surprise that we then also have another church leader who refuses to be identified as male or female.  Methodist Deacon M. Barclay is now accepted by his church as a non-binary Deacon in Chicago, which means that she prefers the pronoun "they" rather than "she" and doesn't identify as either gender.

Here:  https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3693

1 Corinthians 6

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.