I Lost It

Saturday, August 8th, I was in a good mood and felt rather good. I was attending a meeting of a committee which give direction and oversight to persons desiring to become ordained ministers within my denomination.

Things were progressing rather well until we met with one young man. When the chairman asked about his theological views he replied that he was orthodox, reformed, and a conservative. He went on to explain his position as being Calvinistic [our denomination is not]. He continued by sharing why he had left a certain denomination to set up his own church. That denomination he told us was too liberal and liberalism was heresy. He expanded this to include another denomination which he claimed was the first to allow homosexuals into the church. He held that church to be heretics as well. He continued his rant for several minutes and that's when I lost my cool.

I told him I was a liberal and did not appreciate being considered a heretic. And that I attended both "liberal" churches of which he spoke. I also told him I did not attend my denominational church because of their like-minded opinions of liberals.

I did of course remind him that I was a Christian with just a little bit of difference in interpretation of Scripture and that I had been nurtured as a fundamentalist. But during my faith journey, God had led me away from fundamentalism to the my current views. But, I reminded him, I still was a born again Christian.

I questioned him about homosexuality. He made the statement that all homosexuals are that way by choice and that there is nothing to the myth that it could be genetic in nature. I asked about the theological position of one who had accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour prior to coming out of the closet. He reply was that they made a choice to violate God's Word when they chose to become gay. I asked about their salvation once again and he implied they were not genuinely saved. I responded that I thought he had a lot to learn about salvation and homosexuals.

While I appreciate the views of others, this young man was so judgmental that I found it hard to believe. He expected us to interview him that day and have him ordained in September when the larger body met. The chairman and others told him that would not happen as there was a process he and others had to go through. That did not seem to rest well with him.

Before he left the room, I apologized for loosing my cool and tried to assure him that I would not hold his views against him as we went through the process.

It has been a very long time since I have given into my "Irish temper."