Leadingchurch.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/24/how-china-used-more-cement-in-3-years-than-the-u-s-did-in-the-entire-20th-century/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/23/schools-with-zero-tolerance-school-drug-policies-have-more-drug-use-study-finds/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/23/the-staggering-costs-of-living-so-far-apart-from-each-other/

• Her-meneutics
• Rod Dreher
• Washington Post
• Her Blog Mundane Faithfulness
• Letter to her readers

Review of God’s Bankers by Damon Linker NY Times

UCC First Cong Portland Maine

In the context of our statement, affirming means that we go beyond tolerance. The policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” often leaves the impression that we must hide who we are in order to be accepted. To declare ourselves “Open and Affirming” means that we believe all persons are entitled to be treated with decency and respect—truly equals because we are all made by God and loved by God. We want to state clearly that no one needs to be afraid of judgment or exclusion from our church because of who they are. All persons who live respectfully and responsibly, and who want to join us in following Christ, are welcome.

Kirkland UCC Openness and Affirmation Statement

Open and Affirming, Wikipedia

Gaychurch.org

Hope RCA Holland

Hope Church has been a place of innovation in Christian education, was a leader in welcoming the gifts of women as leaders in the RCA, has led in support for civil rights and for serving those in need. We have been a strong witness to affirming and welcoming varied sexual identities as we minister together as the body of Christ, becoming a Room for All congregation in 2012.

Allwood RCA Clifton NJ

The Allwood Community Church is an open, inclusive, Christian congregation with a mission of healing and hospitality to all God’s people.  In 2011 the congregation was recognized for becoming the 12th Reformed Church Congregation to declare themselves open and affirming of all God’s people.

Post on CRC A1B Website

A third way for evangelicals on same-sex marriage

I studied the scriptures on divorce and remarriage extensively as a younger pastor. I studied the early church fathers and the Protestant Reformers. Their grounds for allowing remarriage were extremely strict, based on a plain reading of scripture. This older consensus held sway in the church — Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox — until it was flooded with remarried couples after World War II.

Some have objected that this “third way” is just “open and affirming” in disguise. But I maintain that this “third way” — I call it “welcome and wanted” — is not equivalent to “open and affirming” for two important reasons.

Second, the “third way” questions why people who accept the gospel of Jesus Christ think they have any business assuming that our acceptance of one another “in Christ” is contingent on granting each other our moral approval. The “affirming” in “open and affirming” implies that the congregation so tagged offers its moral approval to gay couples. But what does that have to do with the gospel? Isn’t the whole point of the gospel that God accepts us thanks to the faithfulness of Jesus and not because he approves of all our moral choices? And that we are to do likewise with each other? Where does this insistence that our unity depends on granting each other moral approval come from?

In any event, the biblical “ideal,” if there is such a thing, is not marriage, but celibacy, according to the teachings of Jesus and Paul. Marriage, according to both, is a concession to human weakness. “If you can’t remain celibate, it’s better to marry than to burn,” said Paul. Hardly a ringing endorsement of marriage. This business of granting marriage some privileged moral status is far from the New Testament ideal.

Call me naïve, but I think there’s a third way for evangelicals in the gay marriage debate, and it’s a way that honors the Bible and the power of the gospel better than “love the sinner, hate the sin” or “open and affirming.” Whether or not it works is another matter. But I think it’s time to give it a try, especially if it could bear witness to a risen Lord better than the current rehashed moralism that we’re calling the gospel.

• CRC: All One Body (Facebook)
• RCA: Room for All
• All One Body