I actually saw this on Friday, but had previously decided not to blog about the world between Good Friday and Sunday. It seems that, having tried democracy and found it wanting (inother words, they didn’t get their own way), the PCUSA gay-advocacy group That All May Freely Serve has decided to go all 1968 on the next General Assembly:
For the last 30 years our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been divided over the place of its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) members on issues like ordination and marriage. Along with other organizations, That All May Freely Serve has lobbied the church to change these destructive policies and end its oppression of LGBT people.
This year, we’re taking a different approach from the legislative strategies of the past – a change that YOU can help make happen. At this year’s General Assembly (June 21-28) in San Jose, California, That All May Freely Serve is bringing about a New Church (R)evolution!
Must be some Ron Paul supporters in TAMFS. Anyway, they don’t care whether you are a member of the PCUSA or not, as long as your are on The Right Side:
If you’re:
in your twenties, give or take,
maybe in college or seminary,
maybe serving the church in some other way,
Presbyterian or concerned about the future of the mainline Protestant church,
definitely want to live on the edge of your faith and make a difference…Please consider being a member of our team. Team members will receive full scholarships.
So presumably ACT-UP and the Human Rights Campaign and the Lambda Fund and all the rest of the gay-advocacy apparatus will be free to send traveling bands of atheist, Buddhist, Jewish, Mormon, and maybe even Episcopalian gay-friendly shock troops to the PCUSA General Assembly to engage in “street theater, intentional conversation, parades, poster art,” and who knows what other kinds of mayhem. As you can see from their publicity, based on the downloadable brochure, things may get a little, uh, weird:
(Sorry about the size. If you can’t read it, by all means download it.)
Aside from the general bizarreness of this brochure (and the upfront statement that they “are so over” trying to persuade people of the rightness of the point of view–no more trying to reason with cavemen for these folks), two things jump out at me about this. First, there’s the description of TAMFS:
Founded in 1991, THAT ALL MAY FREELY SERVE commits to actively resist and transform structures and systems of injustice: to join in solidarity in making the connections with those disenfranchised by racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ablebodyism, gender identity oppression, eco-exploitation, militarism, and all other structures of exploitation and oppression, through the lens of our social location, and focus on the liberation of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender people from religious prejudice and exclusionary church policies.
If I’ve properly understood the radical-speak in that “sentence,” TAMFS is now apparently the PCUSA wing of International ANSWER. The other thing I noticed is that they are going to end this week of adolescent pouting, screaming, temper-tantrum throwing, and generally pointless activity with a visit to Gay Pride in San Francisco, which they describe as “The one. The only. The one you MUST see at least once in your lifetime!” Given the nature of Gay Pride-San Francisco (in which lots of people engage with impunity in public activity that would get them arrested in most of America, and which is annually perhaps the most extensive and decadent display of public debauchery on the planet), that probably tells you all you need to know about TAMFS.
March 24, 2008 at 9:55 am
Satan will be pleased with their activism. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
March 24, 2008 at 10:26 am
The real question is will the weak-kneed evangelicals be willing to say anything?
March 24, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Ben, I think the evangelicals will speak out but as always in the PCUSA they will be ignored.
March 24, 2008 at 1:49 pm
With all do respect the Evangelicals do not speak out Alan. They sit like good boys and girls and talk the talk behind closed doors and let apostasy continue in the Church. I have no sympathy anymore for the problems faced by the “conservatives” in the PC(USA).
Unfortunately many evangelicals within the PC(USA) now sadly suffer from Battered-Wives Syndrome.
March 24, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I think the LGBT community should be entitled to marriage and other acts of disappointment and its silly at this rate to say other wise no matter where you and God stand.
March 24, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Did you even bother to read the post before assaulting your keyboard?
March 25, 2008 at 7:38 am
I actually don’t have a problem with gay civil marriage. Just don’t try to make my church follow suit, please.
Anglican conservatives have been pretty outspoken lately…. see
http://www.anglicannetwork.ca/
March 25, 2008 at 10:23 am
I remember when the group was known as GLBT, but they changed it when too many people started calling them what they really are – “gaylebites” Now “queer” has been added, which makes them “queer gaylebites” Names are clues to character and what they worship. TAMFS is clearly known as “That All May Freely Sin”. Nobody is fooled by the name, unless they clearly want to be fooled. It is obvious what is worshiped here – sin and self, made in ones’s own image. How sad. Glod bless those who are called to Christ’s ministry among these lost souls. May our hearts be open to pray for these, whom Jesus died for, and may they come to know His true freedom and forgiveness, One BY One.
March 31, 2008 at 2:25 am
This is a note of thanks for the link to the brochure… and inviting your comments on my post on the topic.
My major question is why these groups keep troubling the churches? They’ve clearly made up their minds, and we know what we believe — why can’t they just take a live and let live attitude. The Presbyterians can preach what we believe, the UCC can preach what they believe, and we’ll see which group prospers. Sort of a wisdom of Gamaliel solution, I suppose.
Anyway, thanks for being a consistently interesting site. And I hope you’re right about the Cubs… but that belongs in another comment thread, I suppose.