I’m still HARing about this one. It’s the classic example of how the church gets sucked into worldly affairs, thinking the faith can solve any problems it finds there. The wife’s church avoids commentary on current events and issues probably for exactly this reason. Times are so divisive now that if you have the wrong opinion or try to apply the wrong ethics to the wrong social problems and situations - half your audience gets up and walks out. I don’t blame those young men one bit and would have done the same in their place. For better or worse, women now are equal to men, and as such they and their families will suffer the realities of poor decision making the same as their men do, I suppose.
It’s one of the things that I wonder about and sometimes worry about at the wife’s church. One of her friends is a Christian all the way through, she talks the talk and she walks it too. There’s a couple of them like that, that get into outreach work and they end up dealing with some very shady and messed up people. Some are serious about turning their lives around, some less so. I worry about them. In my days as an atheist I had no time for such nonsense. When the missionary types came round, I wanted to get rid of them so I could go back to watching TV or sleeping off a hangover. I had better things to do, so I thought at the time. I was blind like so many today.
I am at a loss to understanding the stance of many churches too. They’ll scold their young men to ‘man up’ but never say a word about having their young women straightening up and flying right too. They seem to get a pass. I guess the feminist rage heads are right when they say the church is a patriarchal institution.
The proper way to have handled this would be to sit down with that cleric and having a few words about the birds and bees in the modern world, and making an effort to bring those young men back.
I HATED fathers day at church. Men would get thrashed for not being a good dad or what ever, we never caught a break. Mother's day was all about blessing and wonderfullness, and roses, and rainbows.... All those singles, whats to keep them from running around after marriage if they can't keep their britches zipped before?
ReplyDeleteIt think it is the pastor that is PROJECTING his sense of inadequacy onto the men. When I pastored, I didn't do that. You catch more flies with sugar than salt. I tried to encourage the guys keep involved and go a little farther. Remember what you loved about your dad, and the times you spent with him???? Do that! Tailor it to your kids so they are having fun too.
But that was then. I have reservations about the mass indoctrination of our women now. None are immune. You could have 30 good years, then suddenly the evil influence comes in and your relationship turns to an unemptied chamber pot at noon... And fellows see the trend, you are guilty by birth, and nothing you can do will make up for it. You lose. Good day sir.
It's a tough nut to crack.
You also catch flies with stable dressing, but you're not going to learn that in church - unless your pastor and elders have the fortitude to bring up false prophets and non-biblical preaching.
DeleteRemember what you loved about your dad, and the times you spent with him?
What if the father is an abusive alcoholic, and what you remember is being derided, threatened, and abused. You remember the nights you picked him up off the floor and put him back on the couch. Then you remember asking your paternal grandparents just why it was your father hated you.
Go ahead and preach that sermon. Watch for the reactions you get.
It was Glen Reynolds (Instapundit) who pointed out some years ago that the code of chivalry imposed obligations and responsibilities on BOTH sides of the equation. It is NOT a one-way street. And his wife, a practicing psychologist, wrote a book on the subject: Men On Strike.
ReplyDeleteMatthew 7:3-5 NIV
ReplyDelete3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
They hate that one. Trust me, I know these things.
Some pastors will confine their pulpit to Biblical sermons, and that's fine. As I write this, I can almost hear the church elders whinging about 'sugar coating the Scripture'. My pastor of choice didn't sugar coat anything - but he could back up anything he preached with Biblical Scripture.
Nice try but you have grossly misapplied this scripture. It is the pastor's JOB to lecture on Biblical morality.
DeleteI haven't, my point being that if the shoe fits, wear it.
DeleteThe best pastors I've ever met don't just lecture - they walk the walk.
Well, with the Black community, the preacher was spot on.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the "Brothers" knew they were guilty and hauled ass like a NAPA always does. It is absolutely the proper mission of the church to preach morality. A lesson that the stats show Blacks need desperately.
Funny, I didn't hear it that way.
DeleteIf the quote is accurate, the Bishop asked the single brothers to stand, meaning all those unmarried men who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior. He never qualified just why any of those men were single, only that they were. He then asked the single mothers to stand. Not sisters, mothers. The Bishop in all his arrogance commands the single men to 'Man up', and marry the single mothers.
Are you able to cite Scripture on this one?
I would have walked out immediately and never looked back.
Just because they are single doesn't mean they aren't the fathers. The stats show that over 70% of Blacks are born illegitimate. That means the fathers are still single. THAT is what the preacher was getting at. He was telling them to accept their responsibility and it is why the NAPAs ran. They knew who was at fault.
DeleteAnd FWIW, Blacks refer to all male Blacks as "brothers". It has nothing to do with salvation. In church or out.
Again, cite chapter and verse.
DeleteThis self-proclaimed 'Bishop' made a statement from the pulpit that is not Biblical. It isn't even logical. What it amounts to is grandstanding from his bully pulpit.