Christians for Gay Marriage

Our reader, Dan, who is always up for a good discussion and never afraid to speak his mind, would like our thoughts on what a Christian Church is doing in California in response to Prop. 8.

First a little background on the MissionGathering Christian Church:

Missiongathering was started by several young adults from the San Diego area who were disenchanted with the institutional church. From it’s initial beginnings this group of friends and spiritual seekers began to use words like open, organic, emergent, fluid, and ever-evolving to describe their community. They wanted to embody God’s grace to the emerging/postmodern culture they were a part of. To take ancient symbols and the story of God’s grace and live out what they mean for us today. This community of faith—this gathering of restless spiritual wanderers from all over San Diego County–found a safe haven for Christian spirituality as opposed to religious institutionalism. And after several years of ministry in Rancho Bernardo and La Jolla what came to be called Missiongathering began to seek the next phase in this evolving community.

What I do like about this Church is that they encourage Gatherings. As Christians they understand that worshiping as a community is what we need to do.

Since this is technically Dan’s post - I will refrain from my opinions. Here is the billboard that is causing the commotion.

Some Highlights as to why they did this:

Our primary hope in publishing this statement is to offer the love, hope, and grace of Jesus through a new voice of Christianity. The statement came in response to the passage of Proposition 8, but our message is not just to the LGBT community and its supporters. We believe that God’s love and grace is for ALL people, regardless of race, creed, sexual identity, or life circumstances. Jesus meets us right where we are. “Christianity for ALL” is not a battle cry for a crusade, but it is a set of words around which a movement can rally to let ALL people everywhere know that God loves, cares, and accepts them just as they are.

We realize that many will take offense to the wording, but strong words are needed in a time like this. As we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, we see repeatedly where He would use strong words to rebuke the Pharisees and Sadducees when they would use religion to exclude the outcasts from participating in the story of God: hypocrites, foolish, unmarked graves, white-washed tombs, brood of vipers. The most memorable, of course, being when Jesus turned over the tables of those selling animals and changing money in the temple courts who, by doing so, were barring many from participating in worship. Jesus responded with righteous anger.

We are not saying that all people who voted yes on Prop 8 are narrow-minded, judgmental, manipulative, or deceptive. Individuals are entitled to their convictions. When one’s convictions are acted upon someone else against his/her will, the act takes on a different quality.

May we all faithfully journey with Jesus in our passionate pursuit of God’s Kingdom here on earth…never stop seeking.

There is a bit more that is on their website.