WCC Confirms Protestant Denominations Losing Members Over Permissive Homosexuality & Other Liberal Positions
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is holding a meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil to discuss (among other things) declining numbers in followers of their faiths.
The WCC, which collectively has a membership that covers more than 500 million followers, is made up of mainline Protestant denominations, Anglicans and Orthodox churches [However, I believe this does not include churches belonging to the Southern Baptist Convention].
The main topic for discussion appears to be the fact that WCC member denominations are losing members to Pentecostal and Evangelical churches, largely because of the WCC members' more liberal and permissive attitude towards issues like homosexuality. According to a recent CNN.com article:
The stunning growth of Pentecostal and other evangelical-style churches has left many WCC members struggling with shrinking congregations and declining influence in some regions -- particularly in Africa, Latin America and increasingly China. At the same time, the mainstream denominations are watching church attendance fall steadily in Europe and elsewhere.
Accordingly, the WCC is expected to reach out to Pentecostals, evangelicals and related movements. However, the WCC is facing division from within because member denominations like the Anglican communion is splintering over homosexuality.
Conservative factions [within the Anglican Communion which includes the Episcopal Church] have threatened to formally break ties to protest liberal trends, including the ordination of homosexual priests and toleration of same-sex blessing ceremonies. [...]
The Anglican crisis escalated sharply in 2003 following the election of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. A growing number of churches in the West have split from their dioceses to join traditionalist blocs often led by African and South American bishops, who have threatened to break away from the global communion unless the liberals are marginalized.
Conflicts over blessings for same-sex partnerships also threaten the unity of the Lutheran church, and the issue is set for debate by other Protestant denominations. A document prepared for the conference said it was no longer possible to avoid once "taboo" debates over sexuality.
"Churches and Christians are divided and keep dividing over such issues," it said.
It appears that the mainline Protestant denominations' once popular worldly, humanistic, rationalistic, politically-correct attitude towards sin and church growth is falling by the wayside because sinners in search of salvation are too smart to believe that that there is safety in ignoring God's promise of punishment for sin. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Accepting homosexuals in the pulpit does not excuse sin, but perpetuates it. Homosexuals may have found preachers to espouse a new gospel (Gal. 1:6-10) of false doctrine (1Tim. 4:1), but the world is not buying what they and their preachers have to sell (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
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