Upcoming Rethink Conference Provides List of Celebrity Christian Globetrotters to Avoid
November 29th, 2007 by David DanskerIn determining conferences to skip in the upcoming seminar season, examining the list of Celebrity Christian Globetrotters scheduled to share their wisdom at Crystal Cathedral’s Rethink conference in January 2008 may be helpful. The following are a few Bio-observations for some of these influential icons:
Lee Strobel - is a best selling author and former teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church (under Bill Hybels) and Saddleback Church (under Rick Warren). It was Strobel who thought that the case for Christ was yet to be presented and, ignoring the fact that the task had already been completed and complied in the New Testament by Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, produced an effort that contributed only to distracting from the authorized version; and showed, as does his enlistment with this conference, that he is also unable to fathom the case for discernment.
Jay Sekulow - is the Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). Sekulow’s appearance at Rethink is difficult to explain, unless it is the product of too much arguing. One of the identifying characteristics of a good attorney is his ability to argue a case from both sides, and one of the biggest liabilities of an attorney is an inability to remain on the side he has chosen. Is this conference appearance the result of too much ideological plea bargaining?
John Ortberg - is the teaching pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. His appearance at Rethink is easier to understand. This is the same Presbyterian USA denomination that sided with Palestinian homicide bombers and against Israel when the later began building a wall to protect themselves. PCUSA enacted their own brand of economic sanctions by calling for financial divestment from companies doing business in Israel.
It is also the same PCUSA that allows the local presbytery to ordain homosexuals, and denies “the singular saving lordship of Jesus Christ,”1 and from which thousands of lesser luminaries have been able to flee, with their congregations. Not so with the Ortberg, under whose leadership, and despite its prestige and wealth, or perhaps due to it, his church remains affiliated with PCUSA to this day. So much for the “teaching” pastor.
Notes:
1. Lillian Kwon, “Dissident Presbyterians Offered New Home in EPC,” Christian Post, Jun 26, 2007. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070626/28167_Dissident
_Presbyterians_Offered_New_Home_in_EPC.htm.
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September 5th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I am not a presbyterian, but this is what their site says.. [http://www.pcusa.org/101/101-homosexual.htm]
The Ordination of Homosexuals
The specific issue of homosexuality first arose as several presbyteries (regional governing bodies within presbyterian churches) requested guidance from the General Assembly on ordaining avowed practicing homosexuals. In 1976, a General Assembly said:
“. . . it would at the present time be injudicious, if not improper, for a presbytery to ordain to the professional ministry of the gospel a person who is an avowed practicing homosexual . . .”(7) This particular General Assembly also “. . . direct[ed] that a task force be established . . . to study these issues . . .”(8) The 1978 General Assembly received the report of this task force and declared in its definitive guidance: “That unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements for ordination…”(9) set forth in the church’s constitution.
In 1993, the General Assembly adopted the recommendation of its Advisory Committee on the Constitution which stated that:
“. . . current constitutional law in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is that self-affirming, practicing homosexual persons may not be ordained as ministers of the Word and Sacrament, elders, or deacons.”(10)
In 1997, the approval by a majority of presbyteries of an amendment to the Book of Order known as “Amendment B” (now section G-6.0106b) makes constitutional the following language:
Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.
Carol Brooks