Aber mit der Heimat
geht man immer herum,
durch die Welt,
dort und dort
Peter Handke
No one could describe
the Word of the Father;
but when He took flesh from you, O Theotokos,
He consented to be described, and restored the fallen image to its former beauty.
We confess and proclaim our salvation in word and image.
Kontakion of the Triumph of Orthodoxy
That was beautiful.
Thanks for posting this wonderful testimony, Peter. I especially appreciate two things that were clear from the video:
1. His quite brave honesty that same-sex desire has not left him but that he is turning towards Christ and finding his strength in him day by day. This is exactly as it should be for all sin – we are changed as we draw near to Christ and are transformed by his grace and the power of his Spirit working in us.
2. The quite visible acceptance that he has felt from his church that welcomed him and just kept loving him while he got to the place where God would take over his life. It’s a model for us all in how we should love the gay folk in our midst.
I don’t know whether he was trying to tell his audience that his undetectable viral load was due to God, praying, or what it undoubtedly was, his medicine but it is most important that people understand what having an undetectable viral load means. It is not a miracle in any sense of the term. See here http://www.aidsmap.com/Viral-load/page/1044622/
Some ignorant preachers – even quite recently in this country yes – have tried to persuade people to give up their HIV treatment and resort to prayer. Very wrong and very wicked and I believe the government needs to monitor and correct such sources of dangerous misinformation.
I hope this man finds acceptance, though a round of applause is no guarantee that in the long term these people with be more accepting than he found the gay community to be. He is certainly a sad case and I feel for him.
I think your last paragraph is really patronising Tom. You’re basically saying that the only reason the congregation is applauding is because they now have a nice poster-boy for their campaigning, but that they wouldn’t really want to be sociable with him. That’s just offensive. He’s certainly not “a sad case” and you really don’t come off well with this border-line vitriol.
Now you are putting words into my mouth. I am not “basically saying” anything other than what I have written above. It is you who are reading my motive into it.
Let’s see if the congregation goes beyond the emotion of the moment to really give him the support he needs but I doubt somehow that you’ll check – you’ll forget about him and move on to your next “feel good” posting. What was the point of posting, to help him or to make you feel good?
The whole impression given by the video is that the chap is a fully integrated member of the church. The giving of support has already been done. Listen carefully to what he says.
As to the point of posting, simply to show yet another person who doesn’t buy the lie that because you are homosexually oriented you therefore have to be homosexually active to be fulfilled.
Well that’s your take on the video and you’re entitled to make it, just as I am but nevertheless I think many gay people would find your language – “buy the lie”, juggling “homosexually oriented” against “homosexually active” (implying the judgment-excusing adage “love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin”) – incredibly offensive and condescending. Again you put things into a whole raft of gay people’s mouths – Â surely you are in danger of offending against the commandment about bearing false witness? Putting words into people mouths is to misrepresent them.
I don’t believe in “love the sinner, hate the sin” stuff. But I have absolutely no issue in separating out sexual desire and sexual activity. No issue at all. Our modern culture tells us that if you desire something sexually and there is mutual consent, then that is OK. I think we answer to a higher authority then human subjectivity and we do not have to identify with and live out our desires.
I don’t think I put anything in anybody’s mouth, I simply pointed out that here was a man living counter-culturally and that I was commending him to you for that.
What’s your objection, Peter, to “love the sinner, hate the sin”? Genuinely curious. I’ve sometimes thought myself that while it isn’t inaccurate as such, it’s hackneyed and glib, and has been used too much as a cover for sinner-hating and unthinking reactionaryism to be useful as an outreach tool.
Broadly what you’ve said – it’s hackneyed and glib. I simply want to state what sin is if people ask, and also how amazing our salvation though Jesus is.
Big, big like :-D
This is testimony to the possibility of escaping from a destructive homosexual lifestyle – just as one can escape from a destructive heterosexual lifestyle. It certainly isn’t evidence of a change in sexual orientation, as he makes clear himself.
And I don’t think anyone is claiming that it is. Your point being? ;-)
Well, as long as no-one is claiming that it is or even implying that it is, then that’s fine. I’m just jumping in before anyone does.
I disagree with Tom on Trace’s words on being undetectable.  Trace is not going to stand there and explain about viral loads, CD4s and anti-retrovirals, surely he’s just going to say it as he did, plain and simply. It was not untrue, it did not strike me as misleading. But when you go from the doorstep of full blown aids to undetectable, if you are a believer, then are you not going to thank God?