The 3 - June 14, 2020

In this week's edition of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance to the Christian community, there is continued action against Christian churches in China, where there continue to be reports of numerous crosses on church buildings being removed.  Church attendance, or lack of it, related to the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to be an issue, and a Missouri senator is concerned about limitations of church gatherings, even in light of large protests which have not been limited.  And, a denominational report on the Bible's teaching on sexuality has been released.

More crosses coming down in China

One of the troubling news stories that we have seen concerns the removal of crosses in the nation of China. The Christian Post reports that in just one Chinese province in the first four months of 2020, in excess of 250 crosses were removed.  The article, released last Thursday, says that the publication Bitter Winter...

...reported on Tuesday that the 250 crosses were removed from churches affiliated with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in cities that include but are not limited to Lu’an, Ma’anshan, Huaibei and Fuyang.

One of the churches that had its cross removed from outside its building is The Gulou Church in the center of Fuyang city, a Protestant church that dates back over a century.

The church had its cross taken down on April 2 after over 100 congregation members tried to stop authorities from removing the cross from the church the previous day.

The article states:

One congregation member told the magazine that local officials told the church members that the cross' removal was done in accordance with a national policy requiring the removal of all religious symbols, not just Christianity.

The Christian Post pointed out that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an arm of the State Department, "In its 2020 annual report...noted that not only have authorities removed crosses from churches across the nation but they have also banned youth under the age of 18 from participating in religious services."

Church worship continues to encounter legal issues

The move to reopen churches across the nation has progressed slowly, and not without some bumps in the road.  Locally, concern over the growing number of Coronavirus cases in the River Region has resulted in some churches perhaps considering a slower phase-in of a return to worship than had originally been planned.  And, in Lexington, KY, a church that had re-opened has closed in-person services due to a spike in cases among church members.  The Courier-Journal reported:

Clays Mill Baptist Church in Jessamine County, Kentucky, has temporarily halted in-person worship services after at least 18 members recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

But pastor Jeff Fugate, who stood alongside Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in April and called for Gov. Andy Beshear to lift restrictions on in-person worship, stressed there is "no indication" anyone contracted the virus while at church.

And, the governor and pastor traded comments early last week, with the newspaper saying, quoting the governor:

"I hope that everybody (who) tested positive from services at Clays Mill has seen or talked to a doctor," Beshear said near the end of his daily briefing on the coronavirus situation in Kentucky. "We want all of you to be OK."

Beshear then mentioned how Fugate stood with Cameron in April and said, "Governor, we can do this safely."

"Well, he couldn’t," Beshear said.

Fugate responded to Beshear in a Facebook post Monday night, telling the governor his statement earlier in the day was "wrong."

The pastor wrote: "There is no evidence that anyone contracted the virus at our church. That was only an 'insinuation' by the media," adding,"They may have got the virus at a grocery store or another place of business that they had visited. ... Your bias and misinformation against 'church' is too obvious."

And, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri is asking the Department of Justice to look into why churches are still facing restrictions in the size of gatherings while peaceful protesters are apparently not being required to abide by those limits.  The Washington Examiner reports that:

In a Tuesday letter, the Missouri Republican decried a double standard in closing churches and limiting the number of people allowed to attend services while protesters have been permitted to gather in large crowds across the country after George Floyd's death in police custody.

"State officials have violated the free speech and free exercise rights of religious Americans by treating religious gatherings and speech differently than the speech and mass gatherings of protests," he wrote. "I urge you to launch a full civil rights investigation."

Hawley said he supports the right of people to protest peacefully but asked for equal treatment for those seeking to worship in a physical space.

The day before the Senator released the letter, Attorney General Barr, according to the Examiner, "said First Amendment rights need to apply equally to everyone, whether they are protesters against police violence or churchgoers looking to worship together."

Presbyterian Church in America offers report on sexuality

The movement within the evangelical church that exalts "gay identity" over identity in Christ, expressed in a visible way through the Revoice conference, has led the denomination in which the two previously-held conferences originated, the Presbyterian Church in America, to issue some strong statements on a Biblical view of sexuality.

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, on its website, offered a summary, written by Colin Smothers, who wrote:

Last year in Dallas, amidst an ongoing controversy surrounding Side-B “Gay Christianity” and the Revoice conference, the Presbyterian Church in America’s (PCA) General Assembly voted to commend CBMW’s Nashville Statement as a “biblically faithful declaration.” The General Assembly also voted to form a study committee that would “study the topic of human sexuality with particular attention to the issues of homosexuality, same-sex attraction, and transgenderism and prepare a report.”

Even though the PCA did not hold its General Assembly this year, it did release a report, which Smothers describes as a "biblically faithful declaration."  Some of the highlights include:

• Declares same-sex attraction to be morally culpable: “The experience of same-sex attraction is not morally neutral; the attraction is an expression of original or indwelling sin that must be repented of and put to death” (Statement 4).
• Rejects “gay Christian” identity: “[W]e name our sins, but are not named by them.” (Statement 9). “We affirm that those in our churches would be wise to avoid the term ‘gay Christian'” (Statement 10).

The document also "Affirms all desire for sin is sin, including unconscious and unwanted desire," declares that "internal temptations to same-sex desire are sinful.." and "Rejects celibate same-sex partnerships and romantic relationships..."