{"id":6299,"date":"2009-12-01T05:23:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-01T10:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/01\/seeking-advice-about-a-mom\/"},"modified":"2009-12-01T05:23:52","modified_gmt":"2009-12-01T10:23:52","slug":"seeking-advice-about-a-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/01\/seeking-advice-about-a-mom\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Advice about a Mom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Q.jpg\"<\/span>Here is a letter from a reader with some very specific questions: How do you respond when you discover your mother is now a lesbian? The traditionalist says such is contrary to God\u2019s will, so the question emerges for this letter-writer on whether one should apply the disciplinary instructions of Paul to churches within one\u2019s family. Assuming we can be civil here, and that means entering into the world of this letter writer and not just contending with him with our own viewpoint, I\u2019m asking for a healthy and vigorous conversation today about his questions.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Hi Scot,<\/i><\/p>\n

I am really having a hard time determining the appropriate response to my mother who is a professing Christian and is in a lesbian relationship. \u00a0When I started researching what the Bible says my response should be to her I immediately found the various articles on a well-known website endorsing \u201choly ostracism\u201d based on 1 Cor 5, 2 Thess 3:14-15 and 1 Timothy 1:18-20 (also Matthew 18:15-17) [Texts after the jump.] \u00a0I am finding objections to this interpretation, including the argument that these passages are not for personal relationships but for church communities.<\/p>\n

The problem is that my mother and her partner attend large churches and remain completely anonymous from the community. \u00a0It seems to me that the closest thing she has to a Christian community where she is known and loved and has the leverage to apply Paul\u2019s teaching is our family. \u00a0 Our family is actively seeking wisdom and guidance to how we respond and we are currently discussing the validity of \u201choly ostracism\u201d. \u00a0We want to do the most loving thing and we want to follow in the way of Jesus.<\/p>\n

I am very interested in hearing your perspective on this. \u00a0Do you think it is wrong to apply these passages to personal relationships? \u00a0If so, in what situations do we follow Paul\u2019s instruction to disassociate with Christians who make peace with their sin? \u00a0I would LOVE to be convinced that \u201choly ostracism\u201d is not to be applied to personal relationships because I don\u2019t want to do this to my mother.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p><\/span><\/div>\n


\n1 Corinthians 5<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

5:1<\/span>\u00a0It is actually reported that sexual immorality exists among you, the kind of immorality that is not permitted even among the Gentiles, so that someone is cohabiting with his father\u2019s wife.\u00a05:2<\/span>\u00a0And you are proud! Shouldn\u2019t you have been deeply sorrowful instead and removed the one who did this from among you?\u00a05:3<\/span>\u00a0For even though I am absent physically, I am present in spirit. And I have already judged the one who did this, just as though I were present.\u00a05:4<\/span>\u00a0When you gather together in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of our Lord Jesus,\u00a05:5<\/span>\u00a0turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.<\/p>\n

5:6<\/span>\u00a0Your boasting is not good. Don\u2019t you know that a little yeast affects the whole batch of dough?\u00a05:7<\/span>\u00a0Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough \u2013 you are, in fact, without yeast. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.\u00a05:8<\/span>\u00a0So then, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of vice and evil, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.<\/p>\n

5:9<\/span>\u00a0I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.\u00a05:10<\/span>\u00a0In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world.\u00a05:11<\/span>\u00a0But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.\u00a05:12<\/span>\u00a0For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Are you not to judge those inside?\u00a05:13<\/span>\u00a0But God will judge those outside.\u00a0Remove the evil person from among you<\/i>.<\/p>\n

2 Thessalonians 3<\/p>\n

3:14<\/span>\u00a0But if anyone does not obey our message through this letter, take note of him and do not associate closely with him, so that he may be ashamed.\u00a03:15<\/span>\u00a0Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.<\/span><\/p>\n

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