Church's Newspaper Insert Delivers Truth About Homosexuality
by Mary Rettig
December 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - A church in Virginia recently released a paid magazine insert into The Washington Times and The Washington Post to tell people the truth about homosexuality.
BothSides Magazine is an outreach effort of Grace Christian Church of Woodbridge, Virginia. When the BothSides insert was placed in the November 19 issue of The Post, homosexual groups protested, saying the insertion amounted to the newspaper's endorsement. The newspaper disagrees, saying BothSides was a paid advertisement.
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Pastor Derek Grier |
Dr. Derek Grier, pastor of the church and editor of BothSides, says there is one main reason the church started the magazine."We feel that it's essential in our hour that the Church speaks with a very clear and strong voice," Grier explains. "It's been the role of the Church from its inception to be salt and light -- and the only way we can do that is if we take the message from the Church into the streets, the highways, and the byways."
Grier says homosexuality is not a civil right issue, and reports that his church felt it was so important to communicate that message the church took out a loan to found and publish the magazine.
As to the controversy surrounding the content of BothSides, Grier says many of those who protested do not understand the difference between race and sexuality. "As an African-American, my color -- or the melanin in my DNA that causes me to be brown -- is a result of simple chemistry," he says. "However, sexuality is not a physical trait; it's a behavior.
"To interchange the color of my skin, which is not considered immoral in the Bible or anywhere else for that matter, [and] to equate sexual behavior with the color of my children's skin, is quite offensive," Grier adds.
The pastor says the controversy has brought the church a good bit of publicity, but he urges readers to pay attention to the message of the magazine. There will be additional opportunities to do that, he says, as the church plans to publish more editions of BothSides.
