Kentucky Baptist church schedules first gay wedding only hours after ban ends

www.rawstory.com...

Highland Baptist Church Pastor Joe Phelps said on Wednesday that his church would marry Bannister and Carr in its first same-sex wedding ceremony next May.

“It takes courage to step out into the unknown,” Phelps pointed out to The Courier-Journal. “It’s taking us courage to be one of the first churches to do this.”

Well isn't this interesting? A Baptist church marrying two gay guys!

I predict this will set off a firestorm of protest and condemnation from the far right Christian community, the likes of which, we have never seen.

Courage indeed pastor Phelps!!

a reply to: olaru12

I'm a bit shocked that it's a baptist church taking this step, but good for them.

There may be a few people that throw a fit over this, but for the most part I think the majority of Christians will not care.

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
a reply to: olaru12



There may be a few people that throw a fit over this, but for the most part I think the majority of Christians will not care.

Not care? Homosexuality is an abomination to Christians.

www.christianbiblereference.org...

God destroyed two cities because of the Sodomites for Christ sake. Not care?

Awesome! My brother is gay and his "partner" is a very nice guy. It would be awesome if they got the chance to marry each other freely. Love is love, marriage is a symbol of love, so if two guys love each other then why shouldn't they be able to get married and symbolize their love for one another like everyone else?

Good on this church. Hopefully this does start a movement, but not a bad one.

S&F

a reply to: sheepslayer247

I'm a bit shocked that it's a baptist church taking this step, but good for them.

There isn't really a "Baptist Church", per se -- they have a congregationalist polity, meaning that the rules, beliefs and theology taught in any given church are 100% the decision of the pastor of that church. When you hear that there are 30,000 denominations of Christianity, 99% of them are congregationalist churches, and most of those are Baptist.

So it actually makes sense that they would be the first ones doing it. A liberal guy opens a church, calls it Baptist, sets rules like "Gay marriage in the church is great," and that's all it takes.

a reply to: adjensen

Thanks for the clarification. I did not know that. I grew up attending baptist churches and they all seemed to be very anti-homosexuality. I thought it was universal throughout all baptists ministries.

Learn something every day.

Thanks again, Dale.

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
There may be a few people that throw a fit over this, but for the most part I think the majority of Christians will not care.

The majority of "Christians" will never make it to Heaven.

There are two kinds of people in the world – sayers and doers.

God told Howard Pittman during his NDE that not all the sayers would be in heaven, but all the doers would be.

Bishop Wilfred Lai is the founder and senior Pastor of Jesus Celebration Center in Mombasa, Kenya and it is a church of over 15,000 members. One day he asked the Lord how many of them were ready for heaven and the Lord told him only 200. Only 1% of that church is going to heaven! Dr. Lai said that some pastors have created large groups of sinners meeting in the name of God. “What you have are not churches, but large congregations of sinners.”

Message from Pastor Wilfred Lai

The two angels escorted me to Hell. I then saw many pastors, elders, and deacons in Hell. I asked the angel, “I know them. They had served God faithfully while on the Earth. They had died some time ago. We all had thought they were in Heaven with God. But now, I see them all in Hell and they are crying out that it is so hot! Why are they here?” There were so many pastors, elders, deacons and all other lay believers.

The angel answered, “Pastor Park Yong Gyu, a person can appear to be a true follower of Christ on the outside but God knows the heart.

There are multitudes of churches on the Earth and many of the churches are filled with many people. However, most of them are not true Christians. They are but church attendants. The true churches will firmly believe in Heaven and a Hell. The lives of many Christians are in chaos because they do not firmly believe in Heaven and Hell. When one soul enters Heaven, one thousand cursed souls enter Hell. The rate of Heaven and Hell is 1 to 1000.” (Matt 7:14)

Heaven & Hell 1000 to 1

a reply to: olaru12

Yup. I am a Christian and I do not care. This does not affect me in any way. I have no right to tell anyone how to live. I know God wants me to spend my energy and life on things that will make me and those around me better.

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
a reply to: olaru12



There may be a few people that throw a fit over this, but for the most part I think the majority of Christians will not care.

Not care? Homosexuality is an abomination to Christians.

www.christianbiblereference.org...

God destroyed two cities because of the Sodomites for Christ sake. Not care?

I can only speak about the Christians that I know or have conversed with, and the majority of them simply don't care. They concentrate on their lives, following the teachings of Christ to the best of their abilities, and try not to judge others...because they believe that's God's job.

My brother began going to a church about 6 months ago and that church concentrates on love, kindness, charity, etc. adjensen would know the type of church it is, I can't remember.

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
a reply to: olaru12



There may be a few people that throw a fit over this, but for the most part I think the majority of Christians will not care.

Not care? Homosexuality is an abomination to Christians.

Abomination..sure, but then again, so are shellfish
And you don't see people flipping out about shrimp cocktails or trimming their beards..people move on.

a reply to: sheepslayer247

I hope you are correct in this....

However violent discrimination still exists....

Brutal attack on lesbian couple after Gay Pride event in San Francisco a hate crime, police say

www.rawstory.com...

and there is evidence that homophobic attacks are on the rise.

www.theguardian.com...

www.nydailynews.com...

Can we just allow the freedom for anyone who loves each other to get married?

Let's put this behind us and focus on real issues.

Like zombie apocalypses and why the Kardashians are still on the fracking tv!

originally posted by: beezzer

Can we just allow the freedom for anyone who loves each other to get married?

Let's put this behind us and focus on real issues.

Would you consider this a real issue?

www.nomas.org...

a reply to: olaru12

There are a lot of false Christians out there and this Church can add their name to that list. I don't care what other people do in their lives but if Homosexuals want to marry it should be kept away from what is considered a religious institution especially when the religious doctrines condemn this kind of behaviour. Get married before a Judge in court or something, Churches are a place of worship, Religion doesn't worship Homosexuality. It is strictly against it.

originally posted by: beezzer

Can we just allow the freedom for anyone who loves each other to get married?

Keep it away from Religious buildings.. Is that asking for too much?

a reply to: olaru12

Oh, I'm sure there will be a few people that take their disagreement to extremes, but that will be a very small group of people within the Christian faith.

a reply to: olaru12
You want me to go off on a rant about differentiating between hate crimes and crimes???

All crime is a hate crime and any article immediately sends me into a f###ing rage whenever someone starts parsing hate crimes versus crimes.

So crimes against gay men are up?



All crime is bad. Don't give a good god-damn if its against gays or straights or aliens from the planet ZXMSRTDM!

a reply to: DarknStormy

As a fairly conservative person who does consider myself Christian, I really don't see the issue.

We need more love and understanding in this world.

We don't need another way to divide and separate us.

a reply to: olaru12

Do tell me what book it says about gay people being that?.

a reply to: DarknStormy

It's just a building. Kingdom of God is within you