Methodist Minister Let’s His Sexual Sin Rule His Future
Over the weekend a former Methodist minister wrote an op-ed in the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger newspaper lamenting that last June he had to surrender his ministerial credentials when he acknowledged "my decision to live openly" as a homosexual. Rob Hill handed over his clergy credentials in order to “attempt to circumvent a church trial should anyone bring charges against me.” The reason he stepped down and may be voted out is because the United Methodist Book of Discipline says, “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Yes, the sin of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching in the Bible just as adultery, drunkenness, and all other sin is.
Rob Hill wrote this op-ed to rail against biblical teaching and blame those who used the Bible “to justify slavery, to deny women the right to vote, to prop up segregation and deny the most basic of civil rights to African Americans and other racial minorities.” Mr. Hill must not know of a man named Martin Luther King Jr. who was a Baptist minister that relied on God and the Bible to lead his charge to end segregation and provide civil rights to African Americans.
Did some in the South use the Bible in an attempt to justify slavery? Of course some did, but was their attempt in line with biblical teaching and God's character? Absolutely not. The Bible discusses and has examples of polygamy but does it condone multiple wives? No, in fact it teaches that one man and one woman is how God designed marriage as in Genesis. The Bible discusses slavery and how someone is to act if they are enslaved. The Bible never condones slavery.
Mr. Hill also calls the Biblical teaching on sin and homosexuality “dangerous.” Well, Mr. Hill you’ll have to take that up with God and His word where it refers to homosexual behavior as “shameful” (Romans 1:27). Many pagans use the argument that Jesus never spoke on homosexuality, as a defense. If Jesus is the Son of God and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in all aspects then yes, Jesus spoke on homosexuality and other sinful behavior. Whatever God opposes so does Jesus because they are one.
It seems as though this former minister is deceived and is blaming God and His Church for having to step down. Honestly, Mr. Hill is the one responsible for the predicament he is in today. He is the one who has chosen a sinful lifestyle and also chosen to engage in behavior that his own denomination calls “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
It is sad to see people within the Christian Church deceived and confused by sin. Mr. Hill has joined the Human Rights Campaign of Mississippi with the goal of forcing religious people who hold the conviction that homosexuality is a sin into capitulation. Christians are under attack even from those who profess to follow the same God that is in the Bible. But you and I know that those who endorse sinful behavior are deceived and now working against the God they once proclaimed.
One thing you can count on is that the American Family Association will never endorse a behavior that God calls an “abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). Furthermore, I will never bow to any pagan agenda or godless demand. I am a man of the Cross, a follower of Jesus Christ and my allegiance is to God. We all need to make this commitment to follow God and His word because the enemy is out to deceive us just as it has this former Methodist minister.
