7 openly gay lears have served as heads of state. Latvian print Edgars Rkēvičs is the latt

Contents:

• OVER 6,000 UNED METHODIST NGREGATNS VOTED TO LEAVE THE NOMATN AS BE MORE FLEXIBLE WH GAY MARRIAGE AND LGBTQ+ MISTERS
• A GAY PASTOR EXPLAS WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• DEFYG CHURCH BAN, DOZENS OF METHODIST CLERGY E OUT AS GAY AND LBIAN
• 3 OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMATNS THAT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
• FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE
• 6 THGS PASTORS SHOULD PREACH ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE
• UNED METHODIST NSERVATIV TAIL BREAKAWAY PLANS OVER GAY CLN
• RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• WILL CHURCH BE FORCED TO CONDUCT GAY WEDDGS?
• RSIA'S HIGHT RELIG AUTHORY JT COMPARED GAY MARRIAGE TO NAZI GERMANY

OVER 6,000 UNED METHODIST NGREGATNS VOTED TO LEAVE THE NOMATN AS BE MORE FLEXIBLE WH GAY MARRIAGE AND LGBTQ+ MISTERS

We’ve earned a fantastic reputatn among the gay muny for our re and experience and would love to be a part of your weddg. One-fifth of Uned Methodist ngregatns the Uned Stat have received permissn to leave the nomatn over disagreements over same-sex marriage and gay preachers.

This year alone, 4, 172 ngregatns left, acrdg to an unofficial tally by Uned Methodist News the church forbids the marriage or ordatn of “self-avowed, practicg homosexuals, ” many church and nferenc fy those bans. Conservativ May 2022 officially lnched a new Global Methodist Church, where they plan to mata and enforce bans on thgs that clu gay misters and same-sex weddgs.

Recent shifts the church2019: A vote by a General Conference was the latt of several recent s that rerced the church’s ban on gay clergy and marriage. Many wh the nomatn are seekg to reverse bans on the ordatn of gay and lbian misters and officiatns of gay weddgs. LGBTQ+ rponseWhile some partg church allow LGBTQ+ members, ’s an unacceptable double standard when they let LGBTQ+ people attend their servic but refe to marry them, said Sonja Feist, print of the Topeka chapter of Parents, Fay and Friends of Lbians and told The Capal-Journal she didn't see how a church that bans same-sex marriage n claim to be welg to gay people.

A GAY PASTOR EXPLAS WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALY

Unfundamentalist Christians founr John Shore recently shared a letter om a gay Christian who is stgglg wh his sexualy and fah. Among the many enuragg ments on that post was one om a gay pastor who betifully explaed his unrstandg of the Bible, Christiany, and pastor gracly agreed to let me share his ment as blog post here. Pl was not sayg that idolatry turns people gay; rather, he was sayg that idolatry led to participatn shameful acts of lt.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

As I said before, Romans 1 is not about gay Christian boys or girls, but about idolaters wh darkened unrstandg.

Another passage often quoted agast is 1 Corthians 6:9, wrongly translated as “homosexuals.

But Genis 19 no more nmns all homosexualy than Judg 19 nmns all heterosexualy. If I ever meet a fe gay man who is Spirual and lovg and mutually attractive, and if I felt the Lord leadg me to him and him to me, I would feel ee to be his mate.

DEFYG CHURCH BAN, DOZENS OF METHODIST CLERGY E OUT AS GAY AND LBIAN

Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn. ”Rkēvičs “proudly” announced he is gay on Twter November 2014, though the untry, a former Soviet republic, is not pecially LGBTQ-clive. ” He said he knew there would be “mega hysteria, ” but he end wh the hashtag “#Proudtobegay.

3 OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMATNS THAT ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE

”He is one of jt a few openly gay heads of state the world.

She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state. After the accatn, he said, he was chased down the street by reporters, one of whom yelled, “Yet they say you’re a homosexual! ”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported.

“To be natnally blamed, to be nsired as not normal, to be nsired as a danger for young people — ’s not realizg that beg gay is not a choice, ” Bettel said, acrdg to Rters. Gay, lbian and bisexual people n serve the ary, but transgenr people nnot.

FIVE EVANGELIL PASTORS WHO BACK GAY MARRIAGE

“Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30. Ludovic Mar / AFP - Getty Imag fileVaradkar beme Ireland’s first openly gay Taoiseach, or prime mister, 2017 and served until 2020.

Acrdg to the Texas judicial missn’s 2019 warng, Hensley referred gay upl who wanted her to pri over their marriage ceremony to other people who would officiate. The northern Italian cy of Padua has started removg the nam of non-blogil gay mothers om their children’s birth certifit unr new legislatn passed by the “tradnal fay-first” ernment of Prime Mister Grgia Meloni. Surrogacy is illegal Italy, and gay marriage has not been legalized.

6 THGS PASTORS SHOULD PREACH ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE

“There is no discrimatn agast children, ” Fay Mister Eugenia Roccella told parliament when she troduced the bill June, explag that the children of gay upl would have accs to school and medil servic jt like those who only have one livg parent. Church l bar "self-avowed, practicg homosexuals" om mistry. Dozens of Uned Methodist clergy members me out as lbian, gay or bisexual on Monday, fyg their church’s ban on “self-avowed practicg homosexuals” servg mistry and sentially darg their supervisors to disciple them.

This is the first Methodist General Conference sce the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage 2015.

UNED METHODIST NSERVATIV TAIL BREAKAWAY PLANS OVER GAY CLN

In addn to gay and lbian clergy, the letter was also signed by tersex and transgenr pastors, who are not technilly exclud om mistry. Monday’s missive follows a siar letter issued by 15 Methodist misters New York, who also openly acknowledged that they are gay or lbian.

The Uned Methodists’ Book of Disciple stat that all people are of “sacred worth” but nounc the “practice of homosexualy” as “patible wh Christian teachg.

RSIAN NSTUTN CHANGE ENDS HOP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

Openly gay and lbian clergy members n be removed om mistry.

In some parts of the Uned Stat, cludg Baltimore and New York, openly gay clergy serve wh few if any rtrictns. For s, liberal Methodists have tried – and failed – to change church l on homosexualy, and may prove impossible aga at this month’s General Conference.

It has weled gay people sce 1976, when s General Conventn cid that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim wh all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral ncern and re of the Church. If you said someone was evangelil you knew pretty much what you were gettg – errancy of the Bible, importance of preachg, a foc on evangelism, warngs of hell and most of all – opposn to gay marriage.

WILL CHURCH BE FORCED TO CONDUCT GAY WEDDGS?

While still far om the mastream and the overwhelmg majory of self-scribed evangelils are still opposed to gay marriage, there are a growg list of pastors who scribe themselv as evangelil and yet support same sex upl.

'It has taken untls hours of prayer, study, nversatn and emotnal turmoil to brg me to the place where I am fally ready to ll for the full acceptance of Christian gay upl to the Church, ' he wrote.

'Through [my wife] Peggy, I have e to know so many gay Christian upl whose relatnships work much the same way as our own. In a bate at San Francis's Grace Cathedral 2013, the thor and pastor Rob Bell, already discreded by many evangelils for his book Love Ws, gave a blanket endorsement of gay marriage.

RSIA'S HIGHT RELIG AUTHORY JT COMPARED GAY MARRIAGE TO NAZI GERMANY

An outspoken cric of the Relig Right and print of the Sojourners magaze, Jim Wallis reversed his stance on gay marriage an terview wh the Huffgton Post  2013.