"I said those things, but really I was just echoing what other, maybe smarter people than me said, so it's ok, it's not really what I think, but I'm not going to tell you what I really think because I'm not gutsy enough to put myself out there like that."
I've been to a few Venn Foundation events. Their goal, as I understand it, is to raise Christian Leaders for NZ. I am a fan of their organisation.
They do an excellent job of showing how it is the Christian responsibility in NZ to repair the damage done in the untold millions of te Tiriti breaches. That until things are healed in the relationship between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti, then God's plan for NZ is unfulfilled. They have a huge focus on social justice, and unpacking Christianity to make it relevant and useful in modern NZ.
At one event attendees were asked to come to a Q&A about stuff not focussed on during the event which was focussed on restoring Creation and Te Ao Māori. Several questions were about things in the LGBTQI+ spectrum and an appropriate Christian response. At this point, Sam made it clear that he was no longer speaking as a representative of Venn, and that other members of Venn did not agree with his views. He then presented some of these views that you've outlined at this the Bethlehem talk. Too conservative for most.
Another speaker, one of their Māori members, gave an opinion (also not from Venn) which I'm hoping I'm accurately describing/paraphrasing by saying: "if anything in the LGBTQI+ is actually an issue Christians should be concerned about, if it is actually causing harm somehow, then Christians should deal with those issues after we've fixed racism, climate change, war, poverty, starvation, exploitation, etc etc etc. Until then - there is no tangible harm being committed by members of the LGBTQI+ community that aren't also being committed by everyone else. So until we've fixed the real harm, we should shut-up about it."
Now that I've got to the end of that korero, I don't really know what my point is. I was trying to give perspective I guess? Venn, IMHO, is a powerful anti-racist force amongst Christians, who have been some of the worst perpetrators of racism in the world. I guess I really value what Venn has done and is doing, and want it known that it is separate from Bloore in that regard.
That being said... I don't know if Venn has since made any decisions about how to talk about LGBTQI+ stuff yet, I believe they profess never to preach/teach anything until everyone in the foundation agrees with it.
"I said those things, but really I was just echoing what other, maybe smarter people than me said, so it's ok, it's not really what I think, but I'm not going to tell you what I really think because I'm not gutsy enough to put myself out there like that."
Good job bro.
Celibacy is an option that's true.
What else you got? Got anything in hot sex?
I've been to a few Venn Foundation events. Their goal, as I understand it, is to raise Christian Leaders for NZ. I am a fan of their organisation.
They do an excellent job of showing how it is the Christian responsibility in NZ to repair the damage done in the untold millions of te Tiriti breaches. That until things are healed in the relationship between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti, then God's plan for NZ is unfulfilled. They have a huge focus on social justice, and unpacking Christianity to make it relevant and useful in modern NZ.
At one event attendees were asked to come to a Q&A about stuff not focussed on during the event which was focussed on restoring Creation and Te Ao Māori. Several questions were about things in the LGBTQI+ spectrum and an appropriate Christian response. At this point, Sam made it clear that he was no longer speaking as a representative of Venn, and that other members of Venn did not agree with his views. He then presented some of these views that you've outlined at this the Bethlehem talk. Too conservative for most.
Another speaker, one of their Māori members, gave an opinion (also not from Venn) which I'm hoping I'm accurately describing/paraphrasing by saying: "if anything in the LGBTQI+ is actually an issue Christians should be concerned about, if it is actually causing harm somehow, then Christians should deal with those issues after we've fixed racism, climate change, war, poverty, starvation, exploitation, etc etc etc. Until then - there is no tangible harm being committed by members of the LGBTQI+ community that aren't also being committed by everyone else. So until we've fixed the real harm, we should shut-up about it."
Now that I've got to the end of that korero, I don't really know what my point is. I was trying to give perspective I guess? Venn, IMHO, is a powerful anti-racist force amongst Christians, who have been some of the worst perpetrators of racism in the world. I guess I really value what Venn has done and is doing, and want it known that it is separate from Bloore in that regard.
That being said... I don't know if Venn has since made any decisions about how to talk about LGBTQI+ stuff yet, I believe they profess never to preach/teach anything until everyone in the foundation agrees with it.
Really glad VENN is being great on the racism from. This is really good commentary to have here - and part of why I love the comments section!
Venn is a variant of the old Maxim Institute. There is a large overlap of players.