Read the original article at MiamiHerald.com | Copyright ©2012 The Miami Herald

Sometimes, people hide inside the Bible.

That is, they use the Christian holy book as authority and excuse for biases that have nothing to do with God. They did this when women sought to vote and when African Americans sought freedom.

They are doing it now, as gay men and lesbians seek the right to be married.

The latest battleground in that fight is North Carolina, where voters go to the polls Tuesday to render a verdict on Amendment One, which would add to the state constitution the following stipulation: “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”

Mind you, the Tarheel State already has a law on the books banning same-sex marriage. The would-be constitutional amendment is meant to double down on exclusion. And if you read the language carefully, you saw what many observers have seen — that it can also be interpreted as denying legal recognition to unmarried heterosexuals.

Not that this holds any sway with those who hide inside the Bible. “God has defined marriage,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in a Sunday sermon quoted in the Charlotte Observer. “It is not up to us to redefine it.” In a letter to the editor, an Observer reader put it thusly: “You either believe [the Bible] or not.”

One wishes those people could spend a little quality time with Matthew Vines.

Vines is a Christian, a 22-year-old Harvard undergrad raised in a conservative evangelical church in Kansas. He is also gay and says he grew up being taught that the Bible condemns his sexual orientation. He took two years off from school to research and study whether or not that assertion is true.

The result is The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality. It’s a video — you can find it online with a simple Google search — of a speech he gave in March at a church in Wichita that has become a minor sensation. Small wonder. Vines’ speech is a masterwork of scriptural exegesis and a marvel of patient logic, slicing and dicing with surgical precision the claim that homophobia is God ordained. So effective is the video that after viewing it, Sandra Delemares a Christian blogger from the United Kingdom who had, for years, spoken in staunch opposition to same sex marriage, wrote that it “revolutionised” her thinking.

Vines points out, for instance, that the frequently quoted condemnation (homosexuality is an “abomination”) from the Old Testament lawbook of Leviticus has no application to Christians, who are bound by the teachings of the New Testament. He explains that St. Paul’s admonitions about the “effeminate” and “abusers of themselves with mankind” stem from modern mis-translations of ancient Greek terminology.

It is fascinating stuff, and there is not nearly enough space here to do it justice, but the salient point is this: Matthew Vines is not some godless heathen lobbing bombs at Christianity from outside its walls. No, he lives inside Christianity’s walls, still holds the faith in which he was raised. So this is not an outsider’s attack. It is an insider’s plea.

One hopes that plea is heeded. Vines’ speech is long — a little over an hour — but well worth the time, particularly for those seeking to reconcile first-century faith with 21st-century social concerns..

Many in North Carolina — many around the country — are swimming against the tide of human freedom and blaming God for it. Again, this is not a new thing. We saw it back when God was for segregation and against women’s suffrage.

How convenient it must be to lay your own narrowness and smallness off on God, to accept no responsibility for the niggardly nature of your own soul. Vines’ video is a welcome, overdue and eloquent rebuke of the moral and intellectual laziness of throwing rocks, then hiding inside Scripture. It is a reminder, too.

You don’t go to the Bible to hide. You go there to seek.

Read the original article at MiamiHerald.com | Copyright ©2012 The Miami Herald

If I’m not mistaken,there are 33 churches remaining that will vote by the
end of this month. with the vote count ( at last I heard) 37 yes to 30 no
( and 6 FLIPS YAY!) it’s looking positive. Keep the prayers going, the
emails going, the calls going.
Wouldn’t this be a nice b-day present for me if we push it over the 87 by
March 14th? I’ve seen smaller miracles!

Feel free to share this link with anyone

http://www.amendment10a.org/

Laurie Kraus, Pastor
Riviera Presbyterian Church
5275 Sunset Drive
Miami, FL 33143

Dear Laurie,

We had some very exciting news over the weekend, and I want to share it with you and the Riviera session and congregation.

On Saturday, the Presbytery of John Knox (at the intersection of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) voted 81-25 to approve the ordination of Scott Anderson to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Scott is a gifted pastor, preacher, and leader; and he and his partner Ian have been together 19 years.

The John Knox presbyters made this decision using the authority affirmed by the 2006 General Assembly and reaffirmed by the 2008 G.A. – permitting presbyteries to consider a ministerial candidate’s declared “scruple” about one particular point of faith or polity in the context of everything else they know about the candidate’s life, faith, gifts, and fitness for the call. In Scott’s case, they decided that his refusal to follow the common understanding of G-6.0106b did not constitute “a failure to adhere to essentials of Reformed faith and polity.”

You can read about the presbytery meeting and its decision on our newly redesigned website, which I commend to your attention: www.covnetpres.org. (And please let us know what you think!)

Scott’s gifts for pastoral ministry were clear to an overwhelming majority in John Knox Presbytery. They considered his life, his service to the church, his faith statement, and his Affirmation of Conscience, enclosed here.

As you know, San Francisco Presbytery reached a similar determination in November when it voted to ordain Lisa Larges, a greatly gifted, “out” lesbian who has been under care for 23 years. As in Scott’s case, the presbytery considered her life, gifts, service in the church, and faith statement, as well as her Statement of Departure, in deciding to approve her ordination. (Her Statement of Departure is also available on our new website.)

Both presbyteries were able to proceed with these examinations because of a GAPJC decision in November 2009. Covenant Network director Doug Nave won that case; and he is also defending the challenges to both San Francisco and John Knox Presbyteries’ ordination decisions.

The process and legal reasoning both presbyteries used to examine and decide to ordain a candidate “with a departure” have also been followed in several other cases of minister ordinations or transfers (not as high-profile as Scott’s or Lisa’s, and most not challenged in church courts). They can also be used by sessions. These principles are laid out and explained in our booklet Guidelines for Examination of Church Officers. If you’d like a copy, please call or e-mail our office. Or you can order multiple copies for $3 each.

All our work of equipping, advocating, educating, and connecting for change depends on the support of congregations like Riviera. As we look ahead to another very important General Assembly, I am grateful indeed for your financial support as well as your critical local leadership.

We still have a long way to go to the just and generous church for which we long; but I want to celebrate with you this important step along the way. Thank you for your partnership in bringing closer the church we envision!

Faithfully yours,

Pamela Byers
Executive Director
Covenant Network
encl.

http://www.covnetpres.org/

If you have any photos of your family or yourself participating in church events such as , weddings, baptisms, oridinations,concerts etc, please submit them to me at this email address or at RNBOWGRL34@YAHOO.COM

Send us Praise! Do you have a statement of faith? a quote on what it’s like being a LGBT person in church? Why do you worship at Riviera? Do you have a short story about your wedding, baptism, life as a LGBT Christian?

Do you remember your first time coming to Riviera? If you do, we want to know!

Please send your stories/photos to myself at this email or the email listed above. We welcome submissions from ALL our LGBT members , including families and single members.

Please note, that by submitting photos and stories , you are granting us permission to post these photographs and stories on the web-site.

Thank you for your help! We look forward to hearing from you!

Peace,
Allison Anderson

During a late-night meeting that Presbyterians followed coast-to-coast via Twitter, the presbytery voted 156-138 to allow Larges to be ordained. And it voted 157-144 to approve That All May Freely Serve, for which Larges serves as minister coordinator, as a validated ministry.

Mary Holder Naegeli, a minister from San Francisco Presbytery who has been involved with earlier legal challenges to Larges’ efforts to be ordained, released a statement to the news media on Nov. 11, saying that “enough signatures were collected at the close of the meeting to secure a Stay of Enforcement while a remedial complaint is filed with the Synod of the Pacific Permanent Judicial Commission.”

More: http://www.pres-outlook.com/component/content/article/44-breaking-news/9395-presbytery-votes-to-permit-larges-ordination-stay-of-enforcement-sought.html