There are support groups of all kinds. Groups that help you stay sober or drug free. There are groups that support you if you battle gambling addiction or even porn addiction. The one thing that all these groups have in common is a bond of privacy. What gets talked about in the group stays in the group.
But what if what you are battling something that others don’t want you battling. Does your privacy go out the window?
A Lutheran Pastor who is opposed to gay clergy suffers himself from same-sex attraction. But this Pastor chooses to live a chaste life. In support of this choice he attends a Catholic support group that encourages those with same-sex attraction to live chastely. Of course it goes without saying that the privacy of anyone seeking such support should be respected.
It wasn’t.
A mean and vindictive gay magazine sent a reporter undercover to the group to report on what the pastor said in the meeting. This is absolutely despicable.
Lavender Magazine sent a reporter to the Faith in Action meeting and reported on the Pastor’s struggle with temptation.
Hope Lutheran’s executive pastor, the Rev. Tom Parrish, said when confronted with the article, Brock “simply said he indeed has been attending this Christian group, both going there and being honest about temptations he has, and is being held accountable so he never would do anything with that temptation.”
Parrish said Brock was put on leave from the job of senior pastor at Hope Lutheran when the article came out, but likely will return after an internal investigation.
“What they’ve done is unconscionable,” Parrish said of Lavender’s covert infiltration of Faith in Action. The group is the Minnesota affiliate of the Catholic Church’s Courage program, described on its website as a “spiritual support system which would assist men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love.”
What is queer is that Lavender magazine seems incapable of distinguishing between temptation and action. Most likely because the active homosexuals who run it cannot imagine NOT acting on temptation.
Lavender magazine did not out the pastor so much as they have outed themselves as vindictive and despicable.
I sincerely pray for the Lutheran Pastor that he continues to seek chastity and that he does not let this betrayal of trust derail his efforts. As for the dirtbags at Lavender, they should know that if ever they decide they no longer want to be jerks–there is a support group for that. It’s called the Church.
June 24, 2010 at 7:41 am
Read this, realized that in my lifetime, all the "outing"s I know of have been by those who support "homosexual rights"– kind of like those who support "women's rights" unless those women aren't the same degree of liberal, since that makes them not really women. (Looks at Mrs. Palin's psycho-enemies.)
Sad, no?
June 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm
One reason no distinction is made between action and desire is that in the modern age "desire inevitable results in action and repressed desires results in horrible actions (e.g. child abuse). So acting out all desires is in everyone's best interest". This also explains why abstinence only programs are so violently rejected as almost child abuse and sex education must take place in kindergarten class.
Chastity is the greatest insult to the modern heresy.
June 24, 2010 at 7:15 pm
You are right. This makes me think better of Brock and *much* worse of the "Lavender" rag.
I think they cannot accept that Christians actually don't hate gays. We really do love the sinner, *therefore* we hate the sin. The two go together. Sin is like spiritual cancer. If you love someone, you don't love his cancer.
The magazine is probably trying to ruin Brock's career as a pastor because his life and beliefs are a rebuke to theirs, proving that the Christian call to chastity *can* be lived by people with homosexual attractions.
Marie
June 24, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Now this pastor is a more dangerous force for their sinful cause. He understands fully what sin he preaches for folks to stay away from. No harm, no foul – don't see why he should be temporarily removed as pastor – he's doing what he preached: say yes to Christ and fight to say no to sin.
June 29, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Heh, that last sentence you wrote really stuck out. Here it is, slightly generalized:
'For all the dirtbags out there, know that if you ever decide you no longer want to be a jerk–there is a support group for that. It's called the Church.'
July 2, 2010 at 8:08 pm
This pastor is an example of a rather pathetic type of individual, someone who has evidence in themselves that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon, but allows religious ideology to blind him to what is in front of his face. At best he is a tragic figure, at worst, pathetic.
July 2, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Murderous rage is a natural thing, too.
Theft, when one will not be caught, is also a natural temptation.
Desire to have sex with a sweet young thing that just turned sixteen is, apparently, a very natural thing even in those who have grandchildren that age.
Doesn't mean one should give in to them, and doesn't make those who do not indulge "pathetic" or tragic.
July 3, 2010 at 1:31 am
@Foxfier-That is the dumbest comment I have ever read. Comparing homosexuality to murder, theft, and child molestation is not only stupid, but insulting. You are even more pathetic than Rev. Parrish.
July 3, 2010 at 1:38 am
Don't read your own writing, I see.
Highly amusing how you slandering a man who's been wronged is just fine, but a logical construction that refutes your claim about something being fine because it is natural is "offensive" and "stupid." (oops, aren't insults offensive? Guess it doesn't matter when you do it.)
July 3, 2010 at 3:21 am
I also find it amusing that you compare a magazine to the Gestapo. Last time I checked, the Gestapo did a bit more than publish embarrassing information about people.
By the way, I don't insult, I state the truth. For people like you, as the saying goes, the truth hurts.
Beam me up, Scotty. There is no intelligent life on this planet.
July 3, 2010 at 3:22 am
Irony, thy name is trolling.