A little while ago I preached a sermon about the story of the prodigal son. I said that like the father in Jesus’ story, God forgives and welcomes people into his family. I said that we, the church, must welcome people into the church regardless of their past, because we are all saved by God’s grace. We have no right to take an elitist attitude because we’ve been “good Christians” our whole lives and other people might have more colourful pasts.
Because I shared this message of love and welcome, an LGBT activist* tried to have me cancelled by making the blatantly false accusation that I was using “transphobic rhetoric.” You can hear the sermon for yourself to see that there isn’t a shred of truth to this claim. Although people are responsible for their own dishonest behaviour, I also think the Anglican Church bears some of the responsibility for incidents like this. People try to manipulate the church because they know they can, since the progressive church is a soft target, fearing the opinion of the world rather than God.
* I take it that a person who makes attacks like this and tries to have people cancelled is an activist.
On Good Friday this year I was privileged to give the message at Broderick Road Chapel in Wellington. I’ve re-recorded it for you as several people said that they would be interested. One of the themes that I look at is the idea that the Gospel is the truth behind so many of the myths we hear.
Taking a very short break from the series In Search of the Soul, here’s a talk I gave at Church a few nights ago. It was on Psalm 69 and the subject of lament. Nothing too intellectually deep, but hopefully something to chew over. Enjoy.
