Acceptance of Gay Marriage growing in the Church

[francis]

I think it's important to maintain family connections. I don't see an issue with letting them visit. If you would want an unmarried male/female couple to stay in separate rooms, maybe try that? I don't think forbidding them from staying in your home does much good. Children will learn that there are all sorts of people out there in the world, and it makes a big difference if their parents showed these people love and mercy or turned them away.
This relative isn't trying to "shove it in your face" it's quite likely she's reaching out as best she knows how. You should meet her where she is. You don't need to compromise your morals just to let her visit.

[Valerie]

I think it's important to maintain family connections. I don't see an issue with letting them visit. If you would want an unmarried male/female couple to stay in separate rooms, maybe try that? I don't think forbidding them from staying in your home does much good. Children will learn that there are all sorts of people out there in the world, and it makes a big difference if their parents showed these people love and mercy or turned them away.
This relative isn't trying to "shove it in your face" it's quite likely she's reaching out as best she knows how. You should meet her where she is. You don't need to compromise your morals just to let her visit.

Perhaps I will shed a little light on whether the desire is to be in anyone's face with this. So what do we know? Gay activism is a real push/agenda- by who? The enemy of our souls
Read Romans 1 all the way to the very last sentence- this is only one passage that guides us.

Is it in your face?

Originally, when first looking up my niece (by the way this is not the daughter of my sister whose house they want to visit. This is my brother, the pastor's daughter who has been in rebellion for some time- I won't go into her life now, but she's almost 40, has a child by her first husband she divorced)
I looked her up on facebook a couple of years ago and her profile picture was her kissing what I thought was a man. Even that bothered me because it is a sensual picture of the two of them- I don't know heterosexual couples who put that out there. Then to find out this other person was not her 'boyfriend' but 'girlfriend' and to publicly display that knowing her mother is on fb and posts with her, is total lack of consideration for her mother's Christian values- true?
To me, that IS 'in your face' which is what the gay agenda in America is all about.
She also texts my mom, 82 years old, the wedding picture- well of course it upset my mom. She told my mom her friends are queers and trans. They've had very little contact through the years- where was the reaching out before she married this woman? Mom was already having a difficult time with her life choices before this, i.e. working in an adult 'toy' shop.
But now, the wedding pictures- okay- do they have to put up the one of them kissing?
Maybe that doesn't seem in your face but to me it does-
We wrestle not with flesh and blood- there is a spiritual agenda involved here-

I understand how difficult this is for everyone.

To me it's getting so widespread and accepted, that it's making a mockery of God, His design for marriage, His creation design of male & female, His design for family- I truly see this as a spiritual battle & we have to prayerfully discern our way through these situations. 50 years ago, you would probably not find ONE Christian that would suggest it would be acceptable for them to stay in your home. I could be wrong- I'm 61, and have witnessed the changing climate.

[Josh]

Photography, selfies, pornography, pictures of couples kissing on social media, social media, and promoting homosexuality are all the poisoned fruit of the same tree. Christians would do well to teach there can be salvation and repentance from these things.

[MaxPC]

To me it's getting so widespread and accepted, that it's making a mockery of God, His design for marriage, His creation design of male & female, His design for family- I truly see this as a spiritual battle & we have to prayerfully discern our way through these situations. 50 years ago, you would probably not find ONE Christian that would suggest it would be acceptable for them to stay in your home. I could be wrong- I'm 61, and have witnessed the changing climate.

I agree, Valerie. Remembering the verse that addresses how we are to choose Jesus even over family members is important. The excuse that “I’m family” is the wedge used by homosexual lobbyists and activists. My friends tell me it’s in nearly every tv show now. It’s important to stand with Christ first and not to accept the secular attempts to redefine who the family is. The secular impact is being felt in Christian circles too: Joshua Harris is the latest public victim. We cannot be complacent and go along to get along.

[KirkDaniel]

Photography, selfies, pornography, pictures of couples kissing on social media, social media, and promoting homosexuality are all the poisoned fruit of the same tree. Christians would do well to teach there can be salvation and repentance from these things.

Sorry, Josh. You lost me on the photography thing. Equating that with the promotion of homosexuality lends no credence to your views on the subject at hand. It may be the Holdeman view, but homosexuality was rampant in societies centuries before photography was invented.

Photography=homosexuality. Does not compute.

[MaxPC]

Photography, selfies, pornography, pictures of couples kissing on social media, social media, and promoting homosexuality are all the poisoned fruit of the same tree. Christians would do well to teach there can be salvation and repentance from these things.

Sorry, Josh. You lost me on the photography thing. Equating that with the promotion of homosexuality lends no credence to your views on the subject at hand. It may be the Holdeman view, but homosexuality was rampant in societies centuries before photography was invented.

Photography=homosexuality. Does not compute.

KD:
When Josh wrote

are all the poisoned fruit of the same tree.

I understood this to mean the same motivation is the common denominator for all of these behaviors: vanity, out and proud, etc can all be traced back to the same self-centered vs God-centered life. This is the way I understood it. YMMV.

[KirkDaniel]

Photography, selfies, pornography, pictures of couples kissing on social media, social media, and promoting homosexuality are all the poisoned fruit of the same tree. Christians would do well to teach there can be salvation and repentance from these things.

Sorry, Josh. You lost me on the photography thing. Equating that with the promotion of homosexuality lends no credence to your views on the subject at hand. It may be the Holdeman view, but homosexuality was rampant in societies centuries before photography was invented.

Photography=homosexuality. Does not compute.

KD:
When Josh wrote

are all the poisoned fruit of the same tree.

I understood this to mean the same motivation is the common denominator for all of these behaviors: vanity, out and proud, etc can all be traced back to the same self-centered vs God-centered life. This is the way I understood it. YMMV.

Still does not compute.

[Josh]

I listed them as several modern ills that the Bible speaks against. (The second commandment is quite clear on not making graven images as objects of worship, which things like selfies obviously are.)

Anti-photography is a position held by more conservative Anabaptists and likewise mocked by more liberal Anabaptists, much like the head covering, nonresistance, or using a horse and buggy. I can respect a fellow Anabaptist who holds to a different position on these things.

[MaxPC]

I listed them as several modern ills that the Bible speaks against. (The second commandment is quite clear on not making graven images as objects of worship, which things like selfies obviously are.)

Anti-photography is a position held by more conservative Anabaptists and likewise mocked by more liberal Anabaptists, much like the head covering, nonresistance, or using a horse and buggy. I can respect a fellow Anabaptist who holds to a different position on these things.

Plain Catholics are mocked for our positions by other Catholics, too. Mockery comes from the same poisoned fruit of vanity: putting down others to make oneself appear more self-righteous.

[Valerie]

To me it's getting so widespread and accepted, that it's making a mockery of God, His design for marriage, His creation design of male & female, His design for family- I truly see this as a spiritual battle & we have to prayerfully discern our way through these situations. 50 years ago, you would probably not find ONE Christian that would suggest it would be acceptable for them to stay in your home. I could be wrong- I'm 61, and have witnessed the changing climate.

I agree, Valerie. Remembering the verse that addresses how we are to choose Jesus even over family members is important. The excuse that “I’m family” is the wedge used by homosexual lobbyists and activists. My friends tell me it’s in nearly every tv show now. It’s important to stand with Christ first and not to accept the secular attempts to redefine who the family is. The secular impact is being felt in Christian circles too: Joshua Harris is the latest public victim. We cannot be complacent and go along to get along.

I see it this way too Max, I thank God that you are helping me through this time- I felt the same way when reading the recent article posted about Josh Harris- it's like one by one, people are succumbing to the pressure & deception.