Gay Activists Visit Mega-Churches
From CitizenLink:
They call it The American Family Outing: Families from across the country travel to six mega-churches to "create meaningful conversations" about faith and homosexuality.
The gay-activist group Soulforce kicked off its six-week initiative with a stop at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church on Mother's Day; the effort wraps up on Father's Day. Osteen declined an invitation to meet with Soulforce.
Jeff Buchanan, director of church equipping at Exodus International, said each church needs to assess whether a meeting would be helpful.
"I would be completely open to having a meaningful conversation, if both parties were humbly submitted in that conversation," he said. "I would not enter into a conversation if I knew there was not a sincere openness to the truth."
One of the goals of the initiative, according to Soulforce, is to enlist churches in the battle to end "the physical and spiritual violence perpetuated by some religious voices against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) people and their families."
Buchanan said he is concerned by the stereotype that all churches are party to that violence.
He recommended churches — and all Christians — embrace the issue "with compassion, not compromise."
