When I woke up this afternoon I had 9 assignments I had to complete (with various different due dates) by noon next Tuesday. It is currently 4:30 in the morning. I have finished 5 of those assignments.
I finished the easy 5.
1 of the remaining 4 is also "easy" in comparison to the three that follow.
Those three require 32 pages of writing.
10 Pages about my own journey (simple) related to the class material (it'll be hard to fit my journey into some of the material, as some of the material was dreadfully boring and seemingly inapplicable).
10 Pages on reflection of visiting a Oneness Pentecostal Revival Service given in Spanish. The visit was a while ago in my past, but is vivid in my memory. Not painful to write, but not something I'm looking forward to.
12 Pages on the homosexual understanding of sexual sin. Actually, it is a 12 page paper where I will explain how many homosexuals interpret parts of scripture to allow for monogamous, covenantal, same sex relationships to not be considered sinful for the first 8 pages. The last 4 pages will be me interacting with the material presented in those 8 pages. I'm pretty excited about doing the research for this project, as it is a hot button issue with lots of implication, but won't be as excited about having to formulate it into a well done research paper with footnotes galore.
Good luck me. If any of you want to volunteer to write one of these papers, that would be gracious and loving of you.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
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2 comments:
not a bad line up.
For your homosexual paper I highly recommend you read the section in the book: Adventures in Missing the Point by McLaren and Tony Campolo.
You have any idea how you going to land on this issue?
Do you think you will address the idea of: Can homosexuals be devoted Christians? And can they take lay leader position in our churches?
"You have any idea how you are going to land on this issue?"
The paper is primarily theological, so after presenting the position and interpretation of the key passages from the "homosexual" (defined in this sense as one who views same sex marriage as within the scope of scripture and not sin) viewpoint.
Ultimately I will land on the opposite side which views same sex relationships as committing an act of sexual sin.
"Do you think you will address the idea of: Can homosexuals be devoted Christians? And can they take lay leader positions in our churches?"
I won't get into this in the paper, but i'll answer those questions briefly (a very key word) here.
I do believe that homosexuals can be devoted Christians. The church is filled with all sorts of sinful people, myself one of them. This sin is not one that somehow trumps all others and disqualifies one uniquely in being devoted to Christ.
When it comes to lay leader positions, my thoughts are clear in my head, but may be hard to communicate. All lay leaders are sinful people. All paid leaders are sinful people. Sin is not what disqualifies one from any of these positions, as then they would remain unfilled. However, unrepentant (as in known, but not addressed) should not be accepted in any leader position. As I view homosexual sex (the action) a sin, those participating in it should not be in leadership if they are not making extreme efforts to rid themselves of this sin.
The waters get muddied when we talk about homosexuals who are not actively acting on those urges. I do not believe the urge is sinful, just as the urge for a teenager to have sex is not sinful. In this instance, I am comfortable with a homosexual being in a lay leader position. Anyone who struggles with same sex attraction, but does so without acting on those attractions, and with the acknowledgment that said actions would be sinful, is as readily qualified as I for lay leadership in a church.
Muddy enough?
Any clarifying comments needed?
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