So yesterday the story broke about this guy name Eugene Peterson, honestly, I've heard his name once or twice but really knew nothing about him. I found that he's a pretty quiet guy. He is an American-born clergyman, scholar, author, and poet. He has written over thirty books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, a paraphrase of the Bible
He was being interviewed by a popular left leaning blogger Jonathan Merritt in the interview Jonathan asked the following question...
“If you were pastoring today and a gay couple in your church who were Christians of good faith asked you to perform their same-sex wedding ceremony, is that something you would do?”
Peterson answered the question with a simple 'YES!'
And then the backlash began...Lifeway threatened to pull the message Bible... and then all of the sudden there was a quick retraction, sorta.
“I affirm a biblical view of marriage: one man to one woman. I affirm a biblical view of everything… When put on the spot by this particular interviewer, I said yes in the moment. But on further reflection and prayer, I would like to retract that. That’s not something I would do out of respect to the congregation, the larger church body, and the historic biblical Christian view and teaching on marriage. That said, I would still love such a couple as their pastor. They’d be welcome at my table, along with everybody else."
“I wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago, but now I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian, and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do. I think that kind of debate about lesbians and gays might be over.”
Having a 'good spiritual life' does not mean you are necessary a follower of Christ.
So it is obvious that he does not view homosexuality as a sin. His comment reveals where his heart really lies, and he was speaking the truth during his interview and once the financial pressure showed up he realized that he better try and smooth this thing over. So his retraction really was not a retraction on his views. It was an attempt to smooth the scandal over and make folks like LifeWay happy again. And what's sad is that many Christians are totally cool with his 'retraction' and have opened their heart and arms back up to him as a brother.
But here is the thing he's shown who he is. He's a weasel. He goes with what the popular opinion is at the moment.
I've never been a fan of the message Bible. Way too liberal and progressive in its translation.
SO this is once again where Christians need to see this guy for who he is. He's now lumped in with the progressive left, actually he's been there for a long time were just now seeing it. So be careful what you all read into and allow into your hearts and minds.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2 15-17
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