The book dances around the issue of the origins and source of the sexual content that it describes, and why people become attracted to such sexual content in the first place. It is not to express a loving sexual experience with their marriage partner, it is to experience selfish sexual sensuality and the more you cultivate that type of selfish sexual experience the more you will push into more deviant sexual behaviour!

Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”

UPDATE: Read here for a good commentray on why Sex, that is not primarily directed towards procreation is not in God’s plan AT ALL!

“sex not ordered towards the transmission of life is gravely sinful. If the transmission of life is blocked, either through chemical sterilization (pill), mechanical sterilization (tubal ligation, vasectomy, condom, diaphragm) or perverse acts that have nothing to do with the transmission of life, (masturbation, withdrawal, anal, oral), then the act is itself nothing more than a dehumanizing, objectifying USURY of another person AND one’s self as a point of utterly self-serving masturbatory friction.”

from The Daily Mail:

A new Christian book that gives a green light to a range of sexual taboos such as anal sex and using sex toys, has come under fire for pushing a misogynistic and overtly sexual agenda in marriage.

Pastor Mark Driscoll’s new book, co-written with wife Grace, has parted waters when it comes to morals – and none are more enraged by its explicitly sexual content than devout Christians.

Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship And Life Together, tackles core relationship values – and casts an X-rated eye over some of the more blush-inducing taboos when it comes to sexual acts and their place in a Christian relationship.

The Seattle-based evangelical superchurch leader, 41, is in an unusual – and sellable – position in that he is a preacher writing about sex, and the book hit Amazon and Barnes & Noble top sellers’ lists upon launching last week.

This not the first time the controversial ‘man’s man’ pastor’s words have divided.

Set in the highly sexualised American culture, the book often refers to figures that underline just how young some couples are when they indulge in their first sex acts, or how many teenagers are regularly giving oral sex, for example. That has not stopped many from finding the contents to be too sexually revealing and innocence-destroying.

The reason for the outcry is clear – the book takes aim at some fundamentally held Christian views and is not afraid to hold back.

Chapter 10, ‘Can We _____?’ is so racy – contextually speaking – that it even comes a with a disclaimer of sorts, suggesting those who ‘are older, from a highly conservative religious background, live far away from a major city, do not spend much time on the internet or do not have cable television’ may ‘want to read this chapter while sitting down.’

When ‘dogmatically pushed’, no birth control – as so publicly practiced by TV stars of 19 Kids and Counting, the Duggars – is seen as ‘foolish legalism,’ leading to ‘self-righteousness.’

They run through a set of sexual acts and ask whether, firstly, the Bible decrees them as lawful and then whether the acts are helpful. The couple go on to ask whether the acts are ‘enslaving.’ . . . . . .

James Robinson sounds like the new spokesperson for Catholicism on his TV broadcast show Life Today. Robinson praised Fox News Contributor Fr. Jonathon Morris, claiming the Lord was upon him and we should listen to him.

James and Betty Robinson promotes merger of evangelicals and Roman Catholics.

Robinson says everything that comes out of Fr. Morris’ mouth is consistent with the word of God and the heart of God.

He said: “I wish that most protestant preachers had the same sensitivity, discernment and gift of communication that you have, don’t you agree (audience)?” The audience claps in agreement. Fr. Morris states that Protestants and Catholics need to work together no matter what anyone says.

Take a listen to this clip:

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Let’s take a look a Fr. Morris. He regularly appears on TV interviews on Fox, CNN and other networks as a Catholic spokesperson. I find it interesting that Fox news needs a Catholic spokesperson in the first place, given that the majority of the Christian population in the USA is Protestant.

Fr. Jonathon claims that the Roman Catholic Church might need to change their view of Creation if scientists finds intelligent alien life forms. He states that if they find these life forms “Maybe we will need to change our understanding of perennial truths” :

Here is another interesting clip of Fr. Morris explaining Anglicans coming into the Catholic church. Fox news looks tickled pink over it! :

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The bottom line is the Emergent church is emerging. And we need to look at the big picture.

1. The Vatican has called for a new world order and a world bank.

2. The Vatican has told their members they can believe in space aliens and that they are their brothers.

3. The Vatican is ramping up interreligious dialogue with all religions and even atheists.

4. The Vatican, as of yesterday joined the International Migratory Organization.

5. The Vatican has called for a divided Israel and a Palestinian state.

6. The Vatican has called for international climate change law which will bring in world government.

This overall picture of what the Vatican is saying and doing is enough to show, this church is not in alignment with the Word of God, desiring political power and the world government system to come. Those who have ears to hear, listen and take heed.

James Robinson is being swept into the antichrist current leading the world into a world religion where the gospel is compromised, the Bible is mocked and truth is traded for good feelings and unity.

Christians, the time is coming where the line must be drawn in the sand. Which side will you stand on? Or will you stand in the middle of the line in a luke-warm existence? Make the right choice. Choose Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Put on the full armor so that you can stand.

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Written by Sue

However as this article shows, if you do not know Christ, and have not been born again then it matters not what is publicized about you, what matters is that the condition of your heart is revealed by what you say and do! Gandhi did and said as any unsaved and lost person would do! His heart was the cold dark, depraved heart of a lost sinner!

from Thinking Matters:

When people talk of great spiritual leaders, Gandhi and Jesus are often mentioned in the same breath. Jesus was a great man with great teachings, whose values and actions positively influenced Western civilization. Gandhi was a great man with great teachings, whose values and actions positively influenced Eastern civilization—particularly in India.

Christians have long disagreed. Jesus was not merely a man, and Gandhi was not really a great man. Indeed, when you consider the state of India—where Hinduism and Islam have made it home to one third of the world’s poor, where until recently over half of its citizens lived below the poverty line, and where many of its citizens are considered so unclean that their mere touch can contaminate a member of a higher caste—it would be surprising if a Hindu man from this place were not as depraved and inhumane as his religion.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal confirms that Gandhi was not the saint Westerners have assumed. This image arose largely because of his “martyrdom”, followed by Martin Luther King Jr’s ignorant adoption of him as a role model—and fueled by the fact that Gandhi prohibited journalists from publishing anything about him that he had not first extensively vetted and edited.

The article goes into some detail, listing many of Gandhi’s morally questionable actions and attitudes. I’d encourage you to read the whole thing, but here’s a sampling:

•Although credited with leading India to independence from Britain, Gandhi actually undermined this effort. Between 1900 and 1922, he ­suspended his civil disobedience at least three times, even though more than 15,000 supporters were in jail for the cause. (When Britain finally did withdraw from India, it was largely motivated by their anti-imperialist Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, and the fact that Britain was nearly bankrupt from the war.)

•Gandhi was dangerously politically incompetent. He ­advised the Jews to adopt nonviolence toward the Nazis, and wrote a letter to ­Hitler starting with the words “My friend”. He also advised the Jews of Palestine to “rely on the goodwill of the Arabs”. Fortunately for their existence, the Jews ignored him.

•As well as calling Hitler his friend, Gandhi and Mussolini got on well when they met in December 1931. Gandhi praised Mussolini’s “service to the poor, his opposition to super-urbanization, his efforts to bring about a coordination between Capital and ­Labour, his passionate love for his people.”

•Gandhi was outstandingly racist, describing “the raw Kaffir” as someone “whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a number of cattle to buy a wife, and then pass his life in indolence and ­nakedness,” and saying of white Afrikaaners, “We believe as much in the purity of races as we think they do.”

•He was also a hypocrite on many levels. He prevented his son marrying a Muslim despite publicly promoting Muslim-Hindu unity. He denounced lawyers, railways and parliamentary politics, yet he was a professional lawyer who constantly used railways to get to meetings to argue that India ­deserved its own parliament. And although he is known for his hunger strikes, his official position was that these were “the worst form of coercion, which militates against the fundamental principles of non-violence” (in which he believed).

•His views on nakedness and sexual chastity were also belied by his depraved behavior: when he was in his 70s he encouraged his ­17-year-old great-niece, Manu, to be naked during her “nightly cuddles” with him. After sacking several long-standing and loyal members of his 100-strong ­personal entourage who might disapprove of this part of his ‘spiritual quest’, he began sleeping naked with Manu and other young women also.

•Despite being thought of as a peaceful man, he was vicious and callous. “There will be no tears but only joy if tomorrow I get the news that all three of you were killed,” he once told some of his workers. To a Hindu he once said, “I do not mind if each and every one of the 500 families in your area is done to death.” And he forced Manu, his niece (remember the “nightly cuddles”), to walk through a jungle known for harboring rapists—just so she could retrieve a pumice stone he liked to use on his feet. When she returned in tears, he “cackled” with laughter and said: “If some ruffian had carried you off and you had met your death courageously, my heart would have danced with joy.”

•In 1908 he left his wife for a German man named Hermann Kallenbach. “Your portrait (the only one) stands on my mantelpiece in my bedroom,” he wrote to Kallenbach. “The mantelpiece is opposite to the bed.” Gandhi nicknamed himself “Upper House” and Kallenbach “Lower House.” The two pledged “more love, and yet more love—such love as they hope the world has not yet seen.”

That’s enough to prove the point. Like Mother Theresa, Gandhi was not a great spiritual leader and humanitarian. He was a cynical and morally corrupt person, just like the rest of us—only given more opportunity to reveal his true nature because of the position and culture he lived in.

from the Houston Chronicle:

More than 10 million people watch Joel Osteen’s television broadcast each week, and soon viewers will be able to see how the pastor of America’s largest church lives outside of Lakewood.

A new reality show will follow the Osteens’ ministry as they serve and inspire people across the U.S., Lakewood confirmed.

TMZ broke the news, with details from the show’s producer, Mark Burnett:

“Survivor” producer Mark Burnett is teaming up with Joel Osteen for a primetime network show in 2012, TMZ has learned.

Burnett tells TMZ, the premise of the show is that ordinary people will give up several days or longer to go on a mission with Joel Osteen, one of the most popular pastors in the world. All of the missions will be in the confines of US soil to “start fixing things.”

Over the years, “just about every studio in Hollywood” has pitched show ideas to the Osteens, but they’ve always turned them down, until now, said Don Iloff, Lakewood spokesman.

The Osteens have been friends with Burnett and his wife Roma Downey, who are Christians and have visited Lakewood in the past, and they trust Burnett’s vision and expertise in the reality TV medium.

The program is in its early planning stages and has not secured a network to air it or even a name yet. The Osteen ministry team hopes it provides uplifting, positive programming that will bring families together to watch.

“When you talk reality TV, on one end there’s Extreme Home Makeover, and on the other end, there’s Jersey Shore. We’re on the Home Makeover end,” Iloff said.

Each episode will center around “people helping people,” following service projects, such as the ones the Osteens have organized in Washington D.C. through a program called Generation Hope.

“We do these projects without the cameras rolling,” said Iloff. “But Jesus said, ‘Let your light shine. Don’t hide it under a bushel.’”

Osteen recently appeared on Dr. OZ and network TV superstar Oprah visited his congregation earlier this month.

Within the realm of reality TV, viewers are also getting a dose of religion, with TLC programs like All-American Muslim, Sister Wives and 19 Kids and Counting all focusing on a faith and family angle.

From Hollywood’s perspective, it’s not necessarily about the content, but the marketability and profitability of such programs, said Richard Flory, an expert in American Christianity at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California.

“It’s a different twist on this kind of short-term mission trip evangelicals have done for a long time,” said Flory of the proposed Osteen show. “It turns it into an entertainment model, where you feel good watching it, people feel good doing it and Joel Osteen gets exposure.”

For decades, the Rev. Mark Achtemeier believed gays and lesbians were unfit to serve as leaders in the Presbyterian Church.

He believed homosexuality to be a kind of affliction, a destructive addiction that ran counter to Scripture. In the 1990s he helped craft restrictions to keep gay and lesbian candidates from joining the Presbyterian clergy.

But on Saturday, Achtemeier will deliver a sermon at the ordination of his friend Scott Anderson, who will become the first openly gay minister in the church after the very restrictions Achtemeier once advocated were abolished.

In May, the Presbyterian Church USA voted to amend its constitution to allow gays and lesbians to serve as ministers and lay leaders. With the move, the 2.3-million-member church became the fourth mainline Protestant denomination to allow gay ordination, following the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran churches and the United Church of Christ.

For Anderson, the ceremony in Madison, Wis., will mark his return to a ministry he was forced to abandon decades ago because of his sexuality. For Achtemeier, the ceremony will mark the latest step in a journey of faith.

As Anderson was studying at Princeton Theological Seminary in the 1980s, he hid his sexuality to continue his quest to become a minister. “My sense of call was so strong that I felt I wanted to pursue that and keep the rest of this quiet,” he said.

In 1990, while working as parish minister at Bethany Presbyterian Church in south Sacramento, Anderson became embroiled in a dispute with a couple after he declined to use his position as minister to help raise money for a cause they were advancing. The couple began fishing for information to use against him and learned he was gay.

If Anderson didn’t help them, they threatened, they would out him.

Anderson instead chose to tell the congregation himself and stepped down as minister. He was met, he said, with a standing ovation.

“It was an empowering, liberating moment,” he recalled. “But there was also the sadness and grief to leave the work I loved so much.”

But Anderson remained active in the church and in 2001 was placed on a task force charged with guiding the church through a tumultuous period of debate over gay clergy.

Also on the task force was Achtemeier, a staunch supporter of excluding gays and lesbians from church leadership. “I was deeply informed by very traditional readings of Scripture,” he said.

They slowly developed a friendship. Achtemeier realized that Anderson, despite having reason to be bitter, showed no hostility toward the church. Achtemeier saw in him a love for Christ, the church and Scripture that was unwavering.

The Evangelical Presidential “Poster Boy” Candidate shows once again why he is no different than the Universalism touting George W. Bush!

When will Christians STOP allowing themselves to be mislead by Politicians?

from The Denver Post:

The creditors committee in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy case has filed suit against church insiders, alleging that family members borrowed money from an endowment fund and continued to receive generous salaries and perks even as the church struggled financially.

The lawsuit is the result of a conflict between the committee and church insiders, who include family members of founder Robert H. Schuller. According to a bankruptcy exit plan filed by the committee, insiders will be the last paid after the sale of the church campus.

Insiders such as Schuller; his wife, Arvella; and daughter Carol Schuller Milner and her husband, Timothy, want to be paid at the same time as other creditors. As a result, the committee vowed in August to sue.

The claim, filed late last week, alleges that the ministry borrowed about $10 million from an endowment fund from 2002 to 2009.

The lawsuit also alleges that family members used “control and influence” to enter the church into agreements that benefited the family to the detriment of the creditors. The suit is asking that family members, or insiders, receive payment after every other vendor is paid off when the bankruptcy is settled.

“We think that the allegations of the complaint will ultimately be proven to be untrue,” said Carl Grumer, the lawyer for Schuller, his wife, his daughter Milner and her husband. He said the suit will not affect the anticipated sale of the church.

The lawsuit outlines several agreements between the Schullers and the church. According to the documents, Robert H. Schuller signed a
transition agreement in which he is entitled to a $300,000 annual discretionary fund, plus health insurance and travel staff for the rest of his
life.

The agreement, signed in December 2005, also stipulates that his son, Robert Anthony Schuller, be installed as senior pastor. But when Robert
Anthony stepped down in 2008, he entered into a contract to start a new church. He received $235,000 to finance the ministry and his regular salary for one year. The church also agreed to provide a Mercedes-Benz for the ministry and to fund its initial phases.

The lawsuit also names Fred Southard — the church’s former chief financial officer, who resigned in January after a U.S. trustee questioned a six-figure housing allowance — as well as Schuller family members Jeanne Dunn and her husband, Paul.

The suit alleges that Paul Dunn, the producer of the church’s Christmas and Easter pageants, was paid even though the shows were canceled in 2009 and 2010.

Milner said she always believed there were financial safeguards in place. She said she and her husband were not on the board or in management and were not privy to the church’s finances.

“This isn’t even accurate information,” she said about the lawsuit.

A hearing date has yet to be set in the matter.

Document: Read the full lawsuit

For decades, Christians have been debating issues of sexual morality inside their churches and within denominational decision-making bodies. Two Ohio churches have decided to take this debate to a much different forum: billboards.

Central United Methodist Church in Toledo bought a billboard proclaiming, “Being Gay Is a Gift from God.” The Northwestern Ohio congregation prides itself on welcoming gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

But an area megachurch decided to advertise a different viewpoint.

The Church on Strayer in Maumee bought nine billboards stating, “Being Gay is NOT a gift from God — Forgiveness, Love, and Eternal Life Are.” The church’s pastor, the Rev. Tony Scott, says the signs have struck a nerve.

“I’m getting hate mail from lesbian and gay people, but my point is that I love them too much to let someone believe a lie,” Scott said, according to the Associated Press. “I love this city too much to let a lie be sown.”

Central’s pastor, the Rev. Bill Barnard, has emphasized that sexual orientation is “part of the way we’re put together. It’s not a choice. He told the AP that he was at first impressed by the Church on Strayer’s financial commitment but then saddened by their message. “My first thought was, ‘Wow, nine billboards!’”

Central United Methodist has now countered with yet another billboard. This one says, “Creating a Space for All God’s Children Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.”

The dueling billboards are an unusually dramatic representation of how Christians have handled conflicts between contemporary sexual ethics and Scripture.

Homosexuality has, for better or worse, become ground zero in theological fights over sex and the Bible’s authority.

Both congregations are also reflect the larger currents they represent. Central United Methodist Church reportedly has about 40 members, suggestive of the decline of mainline Protestantism. (Though the church’s website notes attendance is up from the 1990s.) The Church on Strayer reports 2,500 members on its website, typical of the evangelical megachurches that have started replacing the mainline denominations as the center of American Protestantism.

Yet the Church on Strayer’s position is arguably closer to the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline than Central’s. United Methodism’s rule book makes a distinction between sexual orientation, which it forbids as a basis of discrimination, and sexual behavior. The Book of Discipline states that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture.

In fact, the United Methodist Church has been roiled by debates on this issue for decades.

The renewal movement, which seeks to push the denomination back to its evangelical roots, has defended the church’s traditional teachings. But the reconciling movement, among others, has sought to make the church more gay-friendly.

According to its website, Central United Methodist was one of the first five members of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which fights for gay rights within the denomination. They bill themselves as a “progressive, welcoming, and affirming congregation,” while being housed in one of Toledo’s oldest churches.

Central has been involved in debating these issues within the United Methodist Church since at least 1988, when members testified before the church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality. In 2004, they hosted Jimmy Creech, a former United Methodist pastor who was defrocked for solemnizing same-sex unions in violation of the Book of Discipline. Sojourners editor and progressive evangelical Jim Wallis has also been a guest speaker.

Efforts to change the United Methodist Church’s positions on human sexuality have been repeatedly defeated in recent meetings of its quadrennial legislative body, the General Conference .Votes from African delegates and American Southerners have bolstered the traditionalists’ margin of victory. Yet in many parts of the country, the more liberal Methodist point of view predominates.

It’s a dialogue that is likely to continue, in church fellowship halls and bishop meetings. And maybe on another billboard or two.

On the other hand all of the mainline protestant denominations are cosying up to the Catholic church, ignoring its false teachings and its false claim as the sole true representation of Christianity on earth!

from The Daily Telegraph:

Visiting the monastery in Erfurt where Martin Luther lived before launching   the Reformation, the pontiff praised Luther’s “deep passion and driving   force” and called for unity between the Catholic and Protestant faiths   in the face of a new evangelism.