Community of Christ a "Sin-Welcoming Church"!

Woohoo! (The layers of irony here are delightful!)

Apparently the Community of Christ was recently listed by a rather vicious anti-homosexual organization as one of a select few that are "sin-welcoming", meaning - of course - that we don't take a hard-line stance of abhorrence and exclusion when it comes to homosexuality. The website is run by "Americans for Truth", and dedicated to exposing the "homosexual activist agenda."

The first irony is that they have collected a huge resource of support-providers for people of "othered" sexualities. Really! It's a whole page full of welcoming churches, national organizations, media, blogs... you name it. This stuff should be listed on GALA's webpage! :-)

The second irony is that the reason that the CofC is listed is because our leadership have encouraged us to enter into a respectful, faithful dialogue about homosexuality, and in particular about homosexuality among priesthood members. The First Presidency (under McMurray) was very clear to not take a stand or encourage a specific end-point for the discussion - but felt led to call us into discerning and caring exchange and exploration. That's it!

The third (and key) irony is that "sin-welcoming" is precisely the charge laid against Jesus by the Gospel Pharisees. It seems to me that if our faithful response to the leadings of the Spirit are opening us up to the charge of "sin-welcoming", then we must be doing something right.