# PCUSA approves additional sin (satire)



## Bill The Baptist (Mar 24, 2016)

I don't know how many of you have heard of the Babylon Bee, but it is a satirical newspaper from a Christian perspective. Here is a recent "story" on the PCUSA that had me cracking up. http://babylonbee.com/news/pcusa-oks-additional-sins/


----------



## Berean (Mar 24, 2016)

Thanks, Bill. Excellent! And they even have an RSS feed.

Report: Average Christian Spends 37% Of Prayer Time Saying Word ‘Just’/


----------



## Edward (Mar 24, 2016)

I used to get my news about religion from Lark. Glad to have a new source since Lark has run out of steam.


----------



## Ask Mr. Religion (Mar 24, 2016)

What a hoot!


----------



## Dekybo (Mar 24, 2016)

Both articles were hilarious. Thanks for a good laugh.


----------



## Parakaleo (Mar 24, 2016)

Anyone remember the Sacred Sandwhich? I wasn't a regular reader, but I remember some humorous features.


----------



## Tom Hart (Mar 24, 2016)

Ha! This is brilliant.


----------



## Ryan&Amber2013 (Mar 24, 2016)

I thought that was funny, I'm just a little confused. Are they just making up stories completely or are they taking some truth and just distorting it? Did the PCUSA really embrace certain sins?


----------



## Bill The Baptist (Mar 24, 2016)

Ryan&Amber2013 said:


> I thought that was funny, I'm just a little confused. Are they just making up stories completely or are they taking some truth and just distorting it? Did the PCUSA really embrace certain sins?



Well if you consider approving of homosexuality to be embracing sin, then yes. However this site specializes in stories that are completely satirical.


----------



## BGF (Mar 24, 2016)

Ryan&Amber2013 said:


> I thought that was funny, I'm just a little confused. Are they just making up stories completely or are they taking some truth and just distorting it? Did the PCUSA really embrace certain sins?



Unfortunately the satire seems uncomfortably close to reality.
http://spectator.org/articles/59722/presbyterians-become-silly-church


----------



## Ryan&Amber2013 (Mar 24, 2016)

BGF said:


> Ryan&Amber2013 said:
> 
> 
> > I thought that was funny, I'm just a little confused. Are they just making up stories completely or are they taking some truth and just distorting it? Did the PCUSA really embrace certain sins?
> ...



Wow, that is crazy. So sad.


----------



## augustacarguy (Mar 24, 2016)

Banylonbee is great for fun. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## johnny (Mar 24, 2016)

I think the titles on BB are almost as funny as the articles.

Can someone please explain to me where he is coming from doctrinally.
I'm thinking he is a Reformed Baptist, which church does he attend???


----------



## Jake (Mar 25, 2016)

johnny said:


> I think the titles on BB are almost as funny as the articles.
> 
> Can someone please explain to me where he is coming from doctrinally.
> I'm thinking he is a Reformed Baptist, which church does he attend???



Not just any satire site would post an article about James White circumnavigating the globe on his bicycle..


----------



## Bill The Baptist (Mar 25, 2016)

Jake said:


> johnny said:
> 
> 
> > I think the titles on BB are almost as funny as the articles.
> ...



Probably because few outside of the Reformed world would get it.


----------



## Jack K (Mar 25, 2016)

The site has published consistently sharp, witty "articles" in the short time it's been live. That's impressive.

There's a difference between humor and satire. Good satire is humorous, in a sense, but its purpose is not primarily to entertain or amuse. Rather, it is commentary and critique. It points out absurdities we need to see.

We must always be careful not to poke fun at the church's errors just for the sake of amusement, but this particular site does not seem to be doing that; there's a serious purpose to the commentary it is making. We should also be sure not to be mean-spirited, but I don't sense that either from this site. I tend to be wary of criticism within the church and slow to join in, and I could do without some of the articles that mention people by name, but I still think this site might be speaking words the church needs to hear—and doing it effectively.


----------



## StephenG (Mar 25, 2016)

Jack K said:


> There's a difference between humor and satire. Good satire is humorous, in a sense, but its purpose is not primarily to entertain or amuse. Rather, it is commentary and critique. It points out absurdities we need to see.


Good thoughts, Jack. 
I rather enjoyed the article. I found it witty and funny, but I don't think it made me any less saddened by the PCUSA's decline as a denomination. I'm still disheartened by that. Let us make sure we are praying for them!


----------



## Bill The Baptist (Mar 25, 2016)

> Richard Owen Roberts, Puritan Sermons (Vol. 1, p. 631):
> We may offend in speaking of the faults of others, if we be not duly affected in speaking of them.—It is too common a thing to speak of others’ sins in mirth, and with some kind of rejoicing, as if we were tickled with it . . . If Christ should step into your company, as he did into the disciples’, while they were walking sadly one with another, and say unto you, while you are speaking of other men’s sins, to make yourselves merry, “What manner of communication have you here?” (Luke 24:17 could you approve yourselves to him in this matter? It was a fault among some of the Corinthians, that when they heard of the great sin of the incestuous person, they were “puffed up,” when they should have “rather mourned.” (1 Cor. 5:2.)​
> Brethren, I do not post a lot anymore, because, well, I'm really busy. I hope that my absence does not make this post seem like a drive-by-"judging," because it would be quite hypocritical (and I have a little Pharisee in my heart who is too often fed with his hypocrisy bread, instead of starved with the exercise of grace). _*This is also not a blanket condemnation of everything on the website*_ (haven't really looked at it, and don't plan to). I realize- and desire charitably to assume- that these are instances of laughing-to-keep-from-weeping. When I see, however, the same vestiges of sin in my own heart (difference in degree, perhaps, not _necessarily_ in kind?), and being reminded of the state of my own heart (which is downright frightening at times), I remember that sin should never be a laughing matter. I hope this does not come across as "I would *never* do this, laugh at this, say this," etc. Quite the opposite is true. I believe I have wasted much time in mirth, when, perhaps, that mirth should have been met with a somber consideration of verses like these I reference below. There are many things about which we can express laughter, I'm simply not so sure that sin, _especially_ the sin of those who call the Lord their God, is one of those things, under name of satire or not. I think it rather softens the blows of conscience for our own sins because we are focusing on the more egregious and public sins of others, and that, in a lighthearted manner.
> 
> ...



Thank you for your words brother. This is a reminder that no doubt we all need. I do think there is value in satire such as this in that it helps us to see the absurdity of selective morality. No doubt the PCUSA would bristle at the thought of approving of such things as sorcery, and yet they effectively do the same by condoning homosexuality. However, as you point out, we should also be weeping that such sin not only exists, but is excused and approved by even those who claim to be a part of the church of Jesus Christ. May God grant us all repentance.


----------

