A young homosexual individual from Canada (Matt DeMerchant) has launched a petition to prevent Coming Out Ministries from speaking at Camp Pugwash for the 2018 Maritime Conference Camp Meeting in New Brunswick.
His complaint is that Coming Out Ministries does not reflect God’s message of love and acceptance. He claims that their (Coming Out Ministries) message is hateful and directed at one group of people, the LGBTQ+ community. Taken from his petition page:
Their views are harmful for the youth to hear since they are in an easily influenced stage in their lives.
By spreading hate, you create more hate.
The suicide rate for LGBT youth is four times as much as cis, heterosexual youth. Instead of preaching to the youth that their feelings are wrong, Camp Pugwash and the Maritime Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church should spread God’s love and seek to bring LGBTQ+ youth closer to Him.
I have personally heard Coming Out Ministries speakers give presentations, and I find them to be full of truth, encouragement, and God's love. But we live in a culture, where increasingly, truth is becoming hate speech for those who resist it. DeMerchant continues:
When I was younger the Coming Out Ministries came to Sandy Lake Academy (the only school in the Maritimes Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church). I attended these meetings in hopes to find a “cure” for myself. What I found was self loathing. I became deeply depressed after hearing their message, and even had suicidal thoughts. I was pushed further and further from God and from His church. Their message is dangerous. I have since found peace within myself. I have found God and will never stop worshiping Him, but I still lead a homosexual lifestyle.
No, the message of Coming Out Ministries is not dangerous. It is the lies of the enemy that are dangerous, and fatal. Pray for this young man that he would find freedom in the real Jesus Christ. And that he would refrain from opposing those who sacrifice to help others find freedom from the snares of moral sin. DeMerchent again:
By highlighting their opinion on a controversial subject, and not giving any other opinion the same exposure, Camp Pugwash and the Maritime Conference are creating a narrative and a mindset that being LGBTQ+ is wrong.
According to the Creator God, in His Word, it is wrong. No question about it. All the gay activism in the world can't change God's mind on it.
True to its defining ideology—gay activism yields its sentimental license to homosexuality. GayAdventism demands “gay marriage” in the church as its legitimizing ritual, without any basis in the Word of God.
"And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11).
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