Kevin Fobbs
Should gay minister's marriage be allowed in your church?
By Kevin Fobbs
There is something fundamentally wrong in American society when a minister can take the oath of office as a servant and shepherd of God and erect a wall hiding her hidden practices of deceit. This is exactly what Bishop Allyson D. Nelson Abrams, 43 of Detroit did, when she married a female bishop and hid her act from the church, according to the Detroit Free Press. Is this the type of church leadership you should expect from your minister of the flock?
Her church membership was rightly upset and shocked by their pastoral leader because she had attained a coveted leadership position at Zion Progress Baptist Church. Bishop Adams also held office as secretary to the nationally powerful Detroit-based Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity. This religious leadership organization of several hundred ministers has been host to political powerhouse mayoral and Michigan gubernatorial candidates, and even candidates for President of the United States.
The Detroit Free Press also indicated that Bishop Abrams was the co-editor of the Progressive National Baptist Convention's magazine. So in effect, Bishop Nelson had the ability to neuter or even eliminate, over time the long held conservative beliefs of the black church that same-sex marriage is against the teaching of the Bible.
Yet, this minister who did not practice what her moral biblical teachings demanded attempted to find biblical cover for her marriage to Diana Williams, a retired bishop with the Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation, located in Washington D.C. Bishop Abrams incorrectly claims that it was the very word of God that gives her and others the right to secure same-sex marriage vows.
Bishop Abrams explained to the Michigan Chronicle that her romantic and eventual marriage to Diana Williams was protected, because, "The references in the Bible that discussed 'homosexual acts' referred to popular male prostitution during that time," said Abrams. "The men would have sex with the male prostitutes, often. This is what was discouraged in Scriptures. "
She weakly cites, St. Luke 7:1-10, which she claims shows that a male servant and his master had love for each other. It appears that Bishop Nelson may have been playing theological hooky that day when her ministerial studies class covered that chapter in St. Luke. If Bishop Adams had even bothered to re-examine her own teachings before she became entangled in this biblically forbidden liaison she would have understood the true meaning of her own erroneously chosen biblical defense.
It is clear that St. Luke 7:1-10 refers to the divinity of Jesus Christ who has the ability to heal a sick and faithful servant of the Roman Centurion. In each verse of the selected defense Bishop Adams conveniently dismissed the obvious. Jesus says of the Roman Centurion "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith," There was nothing remotely sexual inferred in Christ's statement. What Jeannine K. Brown, Professor of New Testament at the Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN, reveals is that the Roman Centurion fully understood that Jesus the son of God had the authority to heal and do so without even being in the presence of the sick slave.
Bishop Abrams was clearly wrong on this count and by relying upon this incorrect defense she has taken her authority as a shepherd of God and maligned the bible and deceived her congregation. Fortunately for the congregation she decided to resign her church position, according to the Blaze.
She most certainly had her defenders, like highly popular Rev. Charles C. Adams, pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, who claimed "She, herself did not seek to make this an issue." He claims to the Detroit Press that this "was ignited by rumors and innuendos."
One can only speculate what Rev. Charles Adams was thinking when he made the statement, because his focus on the discovery rather than the actual act against the church is in itself indefensible.
On the other hand Elder Levon Yuille, pastor of The Bible Church in Ypsilanti did not mince words in declaring Bishop Adams same-sex marriage an act biblically illegitimate. Elder Yuille charged that gay marriage itself is, "diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Bible," reported the Detroit Free Press.
The church in America finds itself continuously under assault from the atheists who want to remove God from the public and the Pledge of Allegiance. And with more and more church organizations and leaders attempting to sanction same-sex marriage like Bishop Abrams, the bible itself could be used as Bishop Adams attempted, as a tool for the church's destruction.
© Kevin Fobbs
November 19, 2013
There is something fundamentally wrong in American society when a minister can take the oath of office as a servant and shepherd of God and erect a wall hiding her hidden practices of deceit. This is exactly what Bishop Allyson D. Nelson Abrams, 43 of Detroit did, when she married a female bishop and hid her act from the church, according to the Detroit Free Press. Is this the type of church leadership you should expect from your minister of the flock?
Her church membership was rightly upset and shocked by their pastoral leader because she had attained a coveted leadership position at Zion Progress Baptist Church. Bishop Adams also held office as secretary to the nationally powerful Detroit-based Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity. This religious leadership organization of several hundred ministers has been host to political powerhouse mayoral and Michigan gubernatorial candidates, and even candidates for President of the United States.
The Detroit Free Press also indicated that Bishop Abrams was the co-editor of the Progressive National Baptist Convention's magazine. So in effect, Bishop Nelson had the ability to neuter or even eliminate, over time the long held conservative beliefs of the black church that same-sex marriage is against the teaching of the Bible.
Yet, this minister who did not practice what her moral biblical teachings demanded attempted to find biblical cover for her marriage to Diana Williams, a retired bishop with the Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation, located in Washington D.C. Bishop Abrams incorrectly claims that it was the very word of God that gives her and others the right to secure same-sex marriage vows.
Bishop Abrams explained to the Michigan Chronicle that her romantic and eventual marriage to Diana Williams was protected, because, "The references in the Bible that discussed 'homosexual acts' referred to popular male prostitution during that time," said Abrams. "The men would have sex with the male prostitutes, often. This is what was discouraged in Scriptures. "
She weakly cites, St. Luke 7:1-10, which she claims shows that a male servant and his master had love for each other. It appears that Bishop Nelson may have been playing theological hooky that day when her ministerial studies class covered that chapter in St. Luke. If Bishop Adams had even bothered to re-examine her own teachings before she became entangled in this biblically forbidden liaison she would have understood the true meaning of her own erroneously chosen biblical defense.
It is clear that St. Luke 7:1-10 refers to the divinity of Jesus Christ who has the ability to heal a sick and faithful servant of the Roman Centurion. In each verse of the selected defense Bishop Adams conveniently dismissed the obvious. Jesus says of the Roman Centurion "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith," There was nothing remotely sexual inferred in Christ's statement. What Jeannine K. Brown, Professor of New Testament at the Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN, reveals is that the Roman Centurion fully understood that Jesus the son of God had the authority to heal and do so without even being in the presence of the sick slave.
Bishop Abrams was clearly wrong on this count and by relying upon this incorrect defense she has taken her authority as a shepherd of God and maligned the bible and deceived her congregation. Fortunately for the congregation she decided to resign her church position, according to the Blaze.
She most certainly had her defenders, like highly popular Rev. Charles C. Adams, pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, who claimed "She, herself did not seek to make this an issue." He claims to the Detroit Press that this "was ignited by rumors and innuendos."
One can only speculate what Rev. Charles Adams was thinking when he made the statement, because his focus on the discovery rather than the actual act against the church is in itself indefensible.
On the other hand Elder Levon Yuille, pastor of The Bible Church in Ypsilanti did not mince words in declaring Bishop Adams same-sex marriage an act biblically illegitimate. Elder Yuille charged that gay marriage itself is, "diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Bible," reported the Detroit Free Press.
The church in America finds itself continuously under assault from the atheists who want to remove God from the public and the Pledge of Allegiance. And with more and more church organizations and leaders attempting to sanction same-sex marriage like Bishop Abrams, the bible itself could be used as Bishop Adams attempted, as a tool for the church's destruction.
© Kevin Fobbs
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