Unfortunately you are correct in what you have posted. So many times a person will read a part of something, jump to a conclusion and never research any further. This type of behavior leads to some really hurt feelings and sometimes leads to a person getting hurt either emotionally, financially, spiritually and socially. We humans tend to strive on searching for the worst in anything and everything without thinking of the consequences.
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A preacher in those days, when he felt God called him to preach, didn't hunt up a college or seminary, he hunted up a good horse, took off across the country and began crying "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world"!
Once again, Christians have been skewered by the mainstream (read that far-left) media and others (including some Christians) have gotten their daily exercise by jumping on the bandwagon and leaping to conclusions. It seems that High Point Church of Arlington, TX has REFUSED THE FUNERAL OF A GAY VETERAN ... not. The church came into contact with the family through Lee Sinclair, Cecil (the "gay veteran"s brother) who was a member. At the request of Lee, the church was praying for Cecil because Cecil needed a heart transplant. The family called the church when Cecil's health deteriorated. A staff member came and sat with the family at the hospital. Moments after Cecil's death a member of the family asked if they could hold a memorial service at the church and the staff member told them the church would be available to help them in any way appropriate. The members of the church prepared and delivered food to the family to feed one hundred relatives and friends, offered to produce a video retrospective for the memorial and generally loved the family although only Lee was a member of the church. When the family supplied the pictures to be used in the video, there were several photos showing inappropriate behaviors (men touching men's private parts, kissing, etc.) The church then found that the family was going to use the memorial as a means to "celebrate Cecil's life and lifestyle". At that point High Point staffers informed the family that they could not allow a promotion of homosexuality to come from their sanctuary. However, they also went ahead and produced a video celebrating Cecil's life (without the inapproprate photos) AND they secured and paid for another site for the memorial for the family but the family declined to use it. What is truly sad about this is that many Christians have taken what they've read in the mainstream press and run with, condemning High Point as "unloving" when, in fact, they were simply maintaining a standard against "celebrating" something the Bible calls "an abomination". High Point was so unloving to the family that they only visited Cecil in the hospital, sat with his family as they kept vigil at his bedside and after he died, prepared and delivered meals to them, rented an alternative site for the memorial and produced a memorial video for the event. Please consider this whole scenario whenever you read "mainstream" media ... don't simply read and believe ... read and question ... find out the truth before condemning your fellow-Christians ... then follow your conscience all the way to the proper conclusion.
-- Edited by wordworker at 11:51, 2007-08-20
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"I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people." Jude 3 Joyce
