April 22nd, 2005

Black and White in a Gray World

That’s the motto of Antioch Bible Church, the 3,500-member congregation in Redmond whose senior pastor, Ken Hutcherson, talked Microsoft into selling its gay employees (and other gays who had applauded its stand on tolerance) down the river.

It’s a fancy website for a techie suburb. You can donate online, download a sermon in case you missed one, and (ironically) “Search the Bible for a word, e.g. ‘Love.’” Someone could use a little more searching.

Call me crazy, but I think about 20 or 30 of us showing up on Sunday and busting out with a rousing chorus of “Jesus Loves Me” at a quiet moment would be a great idea. At the least, it would show Pastor Hutcherson that if he wants to bring his message of fear and alienation to our workplaces, we can bring our message of love and tolerance to his.

If these people want a “culture war,” I say bring it.

posted by jay in focus on the fascists, politics 

4 Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, April 22nd, 2005 at 7:11 am and is filed under focus on the fascists, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Black and White in a Gray World”

  1. pam says:

    I’m sure GLEAM has WAY more than 20-30 members. They always look great in their GLEAM garb at any event.

    Hint, hint.

    I have to wonder what they’ve got planned for Pride this year.

    April 22nd, 2005 at 8:27 am
  2. Mark says:

    Antioch styles itself as a ‘new way of doing worship’. To me it looks very much like an old way dressed up in sheep’s clothing.

    I went to their web site and read the welcome statement, philosophy, mission, doctrinal statement, etc. Do you know the word ‘love’ does not appear once? No mention is made of God’s infinite love, or of Jesus’ command to love God with all your heart, to love others, to extend forgiveness to those who hurt you, to be humble, to walk the extra mile, to find the log in your own eye before helping others with the splinter in theirs. In fact, I couldn’t find really find anything in the way of ‘good news’ about God’s love. Plenty of space devoted to doctrine, sin and judgment, power and authority, spiritual warfare, etc.

    It never ceases to amaze me that Christians supposedly touched by the grace of God and filled with the presence of Christ are so easily led astray by wolves like Ken Hutcherson — into false gospels bearing little or no resemblance to the life and teachings of Jesus. It seems the more some people read the Bible, the less they really hear its words and the more willing they become to sacrifice the pearl of great price for comfortable dogma and easy self-righteousness.

    Thank you for joining others in calling a spade a spade. Since Ken Hutcherson believes so much in black-and-white truths, here’s a couple back at him:

    If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:2

    Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. – 1 John 4:8

    Christians who practice living toward the world as Christ did must raise their voices against these false prophets. We must remember that silence in the face of evil does not lead to acceptance, but to genocide.

    April 30th, 2005 at 10:12 am
  3. Mark says:

    It appears that many of you that read this blog are the ones blinded and intolerant. Many of you like to point out that Jesus Loved everyone, however he sure must have ticked some people off since they killed Him. You tend to take only one aspect of the Lords traits and focus on that alone. Our Lord Jesus Christ who is God has many aspects of His being, you might want to read A.W. Tozer’s book “Knowledge of the Holy” this may help you all understand GOD better seeing as you must not spend enough time in the Bible.

    July 7th, 2005 at 6:31 am
  4. terry says:

    Yo, Mark of the third comment, just because you make someone angry enough to kill you doesn’t make you intolerant. It just makes you in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    Do you really believe that Jesus, who spent his time wandering Judea speaking with all manner of men and women, wanted his followers to bury their heads in a book rather than serve their fellow human being?

    JC was all about tolerance. Even the scene with the moneychangers in the temple was a warning rather than a wholesale slaughter. And how about that “he who is without sin” comment at the stoning? I’m not seeing a lot of intolerance or fire and brimstone. But then I’m just a lapsed Catholic that would rather do for my fellow man rather than preach at him.

    July 7th, 2005 at 9:56 pm

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