Rowland said: > > There's an interesting story in John chapter 8. The religious police brought > an adulterous woman to Jesus. He said 'I do not condemn you' (an astonishing > statement at that time, which perplexed many early Church fathers) before he > said 'Go and sin no more.' You'll meet conservatives who only remember the > last injunction, and liberals who know only those earlier loving words. A > plague on both their houses! In our quest to follow Jesus we should put the > two together - in his order.
I am perplexed and annoyed at this distortion of the story. The story really revolves around a third saying: "Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone", and the report that the group of condemners melted away in response to these words. To leave this out is to use the bible selectively and distort the story. The more appropriate conclusion is to recognise that in the same way as those who brought the woman in adultery could not take her life away, when challenged about their own sin, so those who would take away the spiritual life and ministry of those Christians who are satisfy all other criteria for ministry but are in a homosexual relationship could not do so if they took seriously Jesus' challenge about their own sin. While on this subject, I can't resist referring to a book I read in the last couple of weeks about John Wesley's life and ethics. The author (Stone - I think), made the point that John Wesley thought that the bible said that women should not preach, but in response to their demonstrable gifts decided, on the basis of experience, that he should allow them to preach. It seems to me that that is a useful example to follow on the issue of ordaining people who satisfy the criteria for ministry but happen to be homosexual - we should be guided by the experience of their ministry. Ann (Rev. Dr.) Ann Wansbrough UnitingCare NSW.ACT PO Box A 2178 Sydney South 1235 Phone (61) (02) 8267 4280 Fax (61) (02) 9267 4842 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
