Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Jen Hatmaker: Not on My Watch

  1. #1
    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    8,050
    Thanked: 6091

    Jen Hatmaker: Not on My Watch

    Jen Hatmaker is author of numerous books, For The Love being the most recent. I haven't read any of her books but my daughter's women's group is doing a book study of it.

    Book description: For the love
    The majority of our joys, struggles, thrills, and heartbreaks relate to people, beginning first with ourselves and then the people we came from, married, birthed, live by, live for, go to church with, don’t like, don’t understand, fear, struggle with, compare ourselves to, and judge. People are the best and worst thing about the human life.

    Jen Hatmaker knows this all too well, and so she reveals how to practice kindness, grace, truthfulness, vision, and love to ourselves and those around us. By doing this, For the Love leads our generation to reimagine Jesus’ grace as a way of life, and it does it in a funny yet profound manner that Christian readers will love. Along the way, Hatmaker shows readers how to reclaim their prophetic voices and become Good News again to a hurting, polarized world.


    http://jenhatmaker.com/books.htm

    That being said, today, this came through my FB newsfeed and it moved me and thought I'd share. I put it in Hot Topics because it could get hot.


    Jen Hatmaker
    2 hrs ยท

    After our beautiful, beautiful event today, a woman walked up to me and said: "I have been waiting my entire life for someone in church to say the words you said today."

    It was so precious that even as I type this, I am crying.

    One things I said was that it is high time Christians opened wide their arms, wide their churches, wide their tables, wide their homes to the LGBT community. So great has our condemnation and exclusion been, that gay Christian teens are SEVEN TIMES more likely to commit suicide.

    Nope. No. No ma'am. Not on my watch. No more. This is so far outside the gospel of Jesus that I don't even recognize its reflection. I can't. I won't. I refuse.

    So whatever the cost and loss, this is where I am: gay teens? Gay adults? Mamas and daddies of precious gaybees? Friends and beloved neighbors of very dear LGBT folks?

    Here are my arms open wide. So wide that every last one of you can jump inside. You are so dear, so beloved, so precious and important. You matter so desperately and your life is worthy and beautiful. There is nothing "wrong with you," or in any case, nothing more right or wrong than any of us, which is to say we are all hopelessly screwed up but Jesus still loves us beyond all reason and lives to make us all new, restored, whole. Yay for Jesus! Thank God he loves us. He is not embarrassed of any of us. I am not a scandal, you are not a scandal. We are not "bringing down his brand."

    Anyhow, my message to you today is simple, LGBT gang and all those who love you: You are loved and special and wanted and needed.

    The end.
    She also says in the comment section:

    Jen Hatmaker
    While we're at it, I also said today that until my dying breath, I will stand beside my minority brothers and sisters and condemn white supremacy, challenge white fragility, and fight alongside their long battle for equality, justice, and dignity. I see structural and systemic racism, and I name it, repent from it, and rebuke it. So basically, you see WHERE I'M AT TODAY.

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to A.J. For This Useful Post:

    FaithfulOne (04-23-2016)

  3. #2
    Translation: I'm going to exchange what the Word says in order to be politically correct.

    True, we Christians are not to hate homosexuals, but we do them no favor when we enable their lifestyle by telling them God sanctions their acting out sexually. The suicide rate among homosexuals is high, not because of what Christians say or do, but because the suicidal homosexual can no longer live with him or herself. It's Satan's final blow to the victim. Compassion for homosexuals means churches beginning ministry to them, loving them, and challenging them to lay down their sexual identity in service to the Lord. This hits too close to home for me. I have worked with many Christians who have come out of the homosexual lifestyle and worked through managing their same-sex attractions. I've seen several, though, who have deserted their families to return to the gay life. The result is a mess for all concerned. The church does need to get its act together regarding this issue, but that's done through ministry, not enablement.

  4. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Bookman For This Useful Post:

    CatchyUsername (04-24-2016), wheeze (04-24-2016)

  5. #3
    Administrator fuego's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    16,274
    Thanked: 14133
    Blog Entries
    1
    Here are my arms open wide. So wide that every last one of you can jump inside. You are so dear, so beloved, so precious and important. You matter so desperately and your life is worthy and beautiful. There is nothing "wrong with you," or in any case, nothing more right or wrong than any of us, which is to say we are all hopelessly screwed up but Jesus still loves us beyond all reason and lives to make us all new, restored, whole. Yay for Jesus! Thank God he loves us. He is not embarrassed of any of us. I am not a scandal, you are not a scandal. We are not "bringing down his brand."
    This moved you how? This certainly could be taken to 'enable their lifestyle' as Bookie says. What she saying needs some huge qualification if she isn't saying what it sounds like she could be saying.

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to fuego For This Useful Post:

    CatchyUsername (04-24-2016)

  7. #4
    Senior Member KaySharpe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Wilmington, NC
    Posts
    286
    Thanked: 132
    Quote Originally Posted by fuego View Post
    This moved you how? This certainly could be taken to 'enable their lifestyle' as Bookie says. What she saying needs some huge qualification if she isn't saying what it sounds like she could be saying.
    Bingo.

  8. #5
    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    8,050
    Thanked: 6091
    People of every persuasion need to be loved to wholeness. People in the LGBTQ lifestyle especially need to know they're loved first and discipled into wholeness.

    You all know I'm passionate for inner healing and deliverance. I've never met anyone who didn't need some version of ministry to be free.

    I would never encourage anyone to stay in their sin. There are many in the church who insist gays get their lives straightened out immediately or they are shunned. And yet those same people often are not living up to their full potential in Christ either.
    Last edited by A.J.; 04-24-2016 at 04:59 PM.

  9. #6
    Senior Member KaySharpe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Wilmington, NC
    Posts
    286
    Thanked: 132
    Quote Originally Posted by A.J. View Post
    People of every persuasion need to be loved to wholeness. People in the LGBTQ lifestyle especially need to know they're loved first and discipled into wholeness.

    You all know I'm passionate for inner healing and deliverance. I've never met anyone who didn't need some version of ministry to be free.

    I would never encourage anyone to stay in their sin. There are many in the church who insist gays get their lives straightened out immediately or they are shunned. And yet those same people often are not living up to their full potential in Christ either.
    Loving them to wholeness DOES involve calling sin, "sin" ... just like any other sin. Yes, it takes time and ministry to straighten out ... nobody is saying it doesn't. But the "trendy" thing these days is to assume that people will simply change when they get into church, if we leave them be and practice non-confrontation. And that is just plain wrong.
    Last edited by A.J.; 04-24-2016 at 05:00 PM. Reason: Can't stand seeing spelling mistakes in my posts!

  10. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to KaySharpe For This Useful Post:

    CatchyUsername (04-24-2016), Colonel (04-24-2016)

  11. #7
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Oslo, Norway
    Posts
    14,487
    Thanked: 5793
    People claim that they simply ARE gay and then everything should get in line with that, including when attempting to live a Christian lifestyle. That is a total lie. There is no such thing as a gaybee, a gay baby. The greatest threat to people's thinking about these things may he contained in the relentless insistence that people can be defined as gay just like a brick can be defined as a solid object. It seems quite clear that the author has bought into that lie.

  12. The Following User Says Thank You to Colonel For This Useful Post:

    CatchyUsername (04-24-2016)

  13. #8
    Senior Member KaySharpe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Wilmington, NC
    Posts
    286
    Thanked: 132
    Quote Originally Posted by Colonel View Post
    People claim that they simply ARE gay and then everything should get in line with that, including when attempting to live a Christian lifestyle.
    When one really comes down to it, queer (in all its forms) is idolatry; one is saying that God did not create them, but that they are self-directed and their decisions and feelings supercede His.

  14. #9
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Oslo, Norway
    Posts
    14,487
    Thanked: 5793
    Quote Originally Posted by KaySharpe View Post
    When one really comes down to it, queer (in all its forms) is idolatry; one is saying that God did not create them, but that they are self-directed and their decisions and feelings supercede His.
    That is a version gays often employ, that they have a right to create or form the identity of their own choice, in this case a gay identity and corresponding lifestyle. The more common version that people in general are more likely to buy into accepting is that gays are born that way, that a gay identity and lifestyle is natural to them, that anything else is not, that emotions to the contrary are merely forced upon them by society and that living as a Christian would solely amount to repressing one's natural desires, like when catholic priests are forced to celibacy.

  15. #10
    Yup!

    Quote Originally Posted by KaySharpe View Post
    Loving them to wholeness DOES involve calling sin, "sin" ... just like any other sin. Yes, it takes time and ministry to straighten out ... nobody is saying it doesn't. But the "trendy" thing these days is to assume that people will simply change when they get into church, if we leave them be and practice non-confrontation. And that is just plain wrong.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
You can avoid expensive repair costs with an extended service plan for your Ford. We have a service plan for all Ford models including the popular Ford Focus .