These qualities are seen across all personality types and ideologies, prophetic and pastoral included.

None of us are well.
We’re co-strugglers.
While church is a hospital for sinners, that is a worn out phrase.
Not because it isn’t true, but because we either pretend we are not sick, or go into biohazard level 4 behavior with our fellows.
Both are extreme.

The attributes above are not a model Focus on the Family follows, in leadership, organization or public presentation.

Personally I think the problem comes when we see others as sinners and ourselves as saints. I need to always see myself as a co-struggler. The minute I elevate myself I’m in trouble. It’s a lot different to see ourselves as patients in the same hospital who are all sick in different ways and who are at different stages of recovery. But none of us is well.

Be blessed.

Fotf was a ministry, I’m not going to dispute that, but I don’t think in good conscience I can say they are now.

If you believe you don’t need to judge others, then we’re cool, no email necessary. ;^)

It’s hard to tell who followers of Jesus are anymore.
I’m not talking about individual believers who genuinely believe in things like innerrancy, complimentarianism, and other spiritually conservative things.
I’m talking wilfully harming.
Think NARTH, Peter LaBarbara, Watchmen on the Walls, Exodus etc. This is a multi million dollar industry.

Micheal Brown, who was involved in The Brownsville Revival, and his Fire school is now branching out.
Exodus (Love Won Out) has been taking him out on the circuit for a test spin and his conversation over at this website is chilling. He is putting out a new book, and has started his own sexuality seminars. Lucrative.

The idea of seeing others as being in a ‘lifestyle’ is addressed.
Sorry Arthur, that’s just another meaningless evangelical code term.
Sounds like something I’m supposed to ’save’ you from of course, when what I really mean is I don’t approve of you.

This comment thread is very tough to get through, Brown has spent years burying his critics in words. But wow, as this guy is starting to see dollar signs from the fearful, the wounded, the hurting, the self-righteous, he’s got the reparative lingo down cold.

http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2008/01/the-fighting-words-of-michael-brown/

I must admit, Bene, that I am of two minds when it comes to Fotf. Some of their um,… positions,… seem reasonable, if a little conservative, and while I do consider them a ministry of sorts, I agree that they seem a little too political in many respects. Okay, a LOT too political….

I will however, defend their right to hold the viewpoint that certain practices are unscriptural, whether I agree with them or not. Many other Christian Ministries hold the same view in regards to homosexuality and other issues, I might add.

Here again I am of two minds, not being able to decide whether homosexuality is a choice or a genetic actuality, or whether the practising of a homosexual lifestyle is an un-natural abomination as many scriptures seem to indicate. (Please feel free to enlighten me via e-mail, if you so desire.)

Either way, I do not presume to be wise enough to judge the people who engage in such a lifestyle. That is not my place anyway.
I prefer to accept them as people and treat them as such without malice, or condemnation, or prejudice. I will also defend their right to practise their sexuality in privacy.

That has to be one of the most trite meaningless, bludgeoning, consumerist, empty excuse of a phrase western Christianity has managed to up with.

If you actually meant it, well, I feel badly for you.

Fotf isn’t a ministry as much as it’s a political organization.
Yes, churches and ministries get to decide what is orthodox behavior.

As long as they “love the sinner, but hate the sin,” that is?