Justice and Respect
We do humbly ask forgiveness...
by Pastor Bob Stith
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Justice and Respect |
A conservative Christian pastor spoke this repentance (adapted from the confession of a fellow pastor) from the pulpit to an openly gay man who, having returned to Christianity after many years, was visiting his church.
Apology issued by Bob Stith, Pastor, Carroll Baptist Church, on behalf of the church to Steve Shalchlin as a representative of the homosexual community, November, 1998.
We in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ must acknowledge that by sins of both omission and commission we share responsibility for the struggles and confusion of sexuality in general and of homosexuality in particular.
We have placed an over emphasis on sexual sin and not enough emphasis on freedom and healing of sexual sin. We have often failed to provide either a safe place or a redemptive place for sexual strugglers.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
We have often failed to truly distinguish the sin from the sinner. Consequently our words and our actions often communicated harshness, condemnation and rejection. Even those genuinely seeking change have at times been met with ridicule or a painful, deafening silence. By categorizing sexual sin in general and homosexual sin in particular as being more loathsome than other sins we've fed the dynamics of shame which have kept many captive.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
We have not lived in transparency. We have often cloaked our own weakness and pointed instead at the sins of others. We have settled for a form of godliness which manifests respectability but has no power to change the core of our being.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
We have manifested more of an interest in being right than in being loving and often succeeded in being neither.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
Ignorance, prejudice and fear have often caused us to draw back from those whose sins are different from our own.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
When some who desired change sought help we often communicated an expectation of immediate and complete change. When that didn't happen we often became uneasy and drew back from you. We did not acknowledge that growth in Christ is process and not event.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
Our fear of AIDS has at times caused us to avoid and reject homosexuals in general and AIDS sufferers in particular.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
We have often failed to present above all other claims and disagreements the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the homosexual community even though the heart of the Father continually calls out to all the children to come home.
We do humbly ask forgiveness.
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Created on 11-23-1999. Last updated 11-24-1999 | Visits: