This article in the Louisville Courier-Journal is really disturbing.
Protesters are demanding that Louisville business owners submit to their demands, which include undergoing "diversity training" and admitting their complicity in gentrification.
The protesters have created a "Social Justice Rating System" for downtown businesses. The ratings tell whether or not a business is conforming to the "NuLu Social Justice Health & Wellness Code." (I have looked online for this code, but can't find it.)
Businesses can be rated either A-"ally", C-"complicit", or F-"failed".
An A-rating is a business that supports "black liberation" and that "meets the requirements of the NuLu Social Justice Health and Wellness Code without critical violations."
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A C-rating indicates a business that has "2 or more critical violations of the NuLu Social Justice Health and Wellness Code." It also may indicate that the business was "closed during the time of inspection."
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An F-rating indicates a business that has "failed to meet minimum requirements of the NuLu Social Justice Health and Wellness Code." If the inspectors judge that the business is not a "safe space for black inclusion," then the business gets an F-rating.
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The protesters are demanding that businesses agree to this rating system and agree to posting the above placards in their store windows subject to regular inspections.
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Some business owners have embraced these demands. Others, like Cuban business owner Fernando Martinez have resisted them and called them "mafia tactics" used to intimidate.
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The Courier-Journal reports that Martinez maintains "that as a Cuban immigrant with Black relatives, he does not need to undergo diversity training."
"There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in... All good people need to denounce this. How can you justified (sic) injustice with more injustice?"
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"In Louisville, Kentucky, a black social justice organization...is threatening businesses in the NuLu district with public denunciation if they don’t conform to its demands, including making donations to black organizations."
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I teach the doctrine and SBC portion of our new members class at our church. And one of the things I try to emphasize is that Baptist churches are autonomous. The SBC exercises zero control over our congregation. None.
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An SBC church could call a flamingo to be its pastor, and there would be absolutely nothing that the SBC could do to counteract that. The SBC has no authority or power to do anything about who a congregation calls as pastor. None.
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Some Thoughts on the #AsburyRevival
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My prayer: "Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by."
No. All sinners (gay, straight, or otherwise) are justified by faith alone in Christ alone. The invitation is open to all.
But if the faith that saved you didn’t change you, then it didn’t really save you.
“No one who is born of God practices sin…” -1 John 3:9
“For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
-Ephesians 5:5
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals…will inherit the kingdom of God.”
“A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.”
-Deuteronomy 22:5
“You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”
Leviticus 18:22
“The men of Sodom… called to Lot and said to him, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them’…
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.”
“Let me say it loud and clear. Get back in the closet… We look at our sin through the crosshairs of an instrument of execution, not a selfie at the Revoice conference.”
-Rosaria Butterfield
To understand why Rosaria would give this exhortation, you have to come to terms with what "coming out of the closet" actually means in common parlance. Here's one example of how the term is commonly defined...
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"Coming out refers to the process that people who are LGBTQ go through as they work to accept their sexual orientation or gender identity and share that identity openly with other people."
The Bible teaches that all people are made in God's very own image and therefore have inestimable value worth.
"And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
-Genesis 1:27
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The Bible also teaches that God's image bearers come in two distinct genres--male and female. Genesis 1 teaches that "male" and "female" do not refer to so-called "gender identities" but to the human body's organization for reproduction.
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Some bodies are organized for reproduction as fathers (male bodies), and others are organized for reproduction as mothers (female bodies).
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