Famous guitarist responds to Christian backlash for ministering to trangenders

[nebula]

Famous Guitarist Responds to Christian Backlash: “I’m Begging You, Please Stop”

Brian ‘Head’ Welch, guitarist for the nu-metal band, Korn, prayed with fans recently for transgender people. You won’t believe the backlash he’s received.

Read the rest:

http://www.tosavealife.com/famous-guitarist-responds-to-christian-backlash-im-begging-you-please-stop/#.V6tzCg73aOd.facebook

[Ezra]

32 minutes ago, nebula said:

Famous Guitarist Responds to Christian Backlash: “I’m Begging You, Please Stop”

Christian backlash for reaching out to others (regardless) makes no sense whatsoever.  If this man is trying to reach transgenders, he should be commended. It is only if he was condoning their lifestyles that he would be out of order.

[LadyKay]

Those who do the right thing often get back lashing from others. 

Edited August 10, 2016 by LadyKay

[Openly Curious]

I think the Christian voices should rise louder.  It's one thing to minister repentance unto salvation to homosexuals and the transgenders among us.  But it is quiet different to take up for them in public just to sell tickets for a concert and get the transgenders in a bathroom in which they do not belong.   

[nebula]

5 hours ago, Butero said:

All it says is these people asked him to pray for those in the transgender community.  It doesn't say they were Christians or even wanted to become Christians.  What were they wanting prayer for?  For all I know, they wanted prayer that others would accept them as they are.  I have no idea, because the story doesn't say. 

I feel like there are too many unanswered questions here to make an absolute judgment.  Do they want the bondages of their sinful lifestyle broken?  If so, I support such efforts.  The problem is, the musician and those who wrote this story never claim that is what was going on.  It looks to me like this is an attempt to normalize their sin, and gain acceptance in the name of "love."  I can't go along with that.  I think the story leaves us with more questions than answers. 

Please consider this Butero - 

After the concert was over, they gathered a small group near the venue and Welch let loose with the most powerful weapon in his arsenal: his testimony of how God set him free from years of drugs, alcohol addiction, and self-hatred.

"I always tell them, this was my life before," Welch said, reflecting on when he shares his painful experiences from his youth and how he carried the rejection, teasing, and self-hatred that led him into darker things. No amount of money, Grammy Awards, MTV fame could fill that void.

"I was drinking and drugging just so I could feel like I liked myself, trying to just feel comfortable in my own skin," he continued. "But when I encounterd Jesus He started to heal that thing, that root that took hold when I was a kid."

Welch then told the small crowd that had gathered, "Some of you guys don't want this, some of you think it's nonsense, but there are some of you who know that you are supposed to be here at this moment."

"There is always at least a few of them who are in tears, who know that God Himself led them there," he said. "So I pray with them and I say, 'If you want Christ to come in, He will never leave. He said He will be there for you and He will transform you.'"

One transgender man he met asked him "Do you love transgender people?" Welch replied: "What do you think? Of course I do."

"I then gave him a big hug and really started to melt my heart," Welch said.

http://m.christianpost.com/news/brian-head-welch-to-christians-transformation-doesnt-happen-overnight-let-god-do-his-work-interview-167745/?m=1

 

Now consider what Welch said in the initial response (in the OP article):

One of the people in the photo yesterday shared their pain and horrible abuse that happened to them that went on for years I think.

Another had ‘Christians’ attack them and throw them away like trash in the past.

These people and dozens of others on my tour this summer are getting some level of inner-healing. They are experiencing non-judgmental Jesus lovers who are planting seeds and speaking life into them. Some of them are having instant change, but for most of them, it’s going to take some time.

 

It sounds to me like Welch was praying for them with regards to their broken lives - after all, it was the sharing of God's healing his own broken life that drew them to open up with him. And it sounds like he was praying with them with regards to salvation. ("If you want Christ to come in....") 

I'm saddened that you fail to see this.

[nebula]

Some seeds sprout instantly. Some seeds take longer to germinate.

Some plant grow quickly. Some plants take years to grow.

Some wounds are easily mended. Some wounds take long term care.

#grace

[nebula]

30 minutes ago, Butero said:

What does that mean?  Are you saying you believe that all of those people that continued in their sin are in right standing with God because this man prayed a prayer with them?  I am trying to understand what you are saying. 

If someone's identity is so screwed up or shattered that they reject some aspect of who they are (in this case gender), do you honestly believe they can flip a switch and suddenly love who they are?

[nebula]

25 minutes ago, Butero said:

They can't on their own, but God can do it for them. 

Yes, but it can often take a lot of time.

Just like getting someone to break a bad habit.

[nebula]

1 minute ago, Butero said:

Are they saved in the meantime?  What about those that never repent, never change, and never accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but only got prayed for? 

A sower went out to sow. Some seed fell on the path, some seed fell on the rocky soil, some seed fell among thorns, but some seed fell on good soil.

Should one stop sowing just because not all falls on the good soil?

[nebula]

4 hours ago, Butero said:

I am just trying to understand if you are saying that everyone this guy prayed for is saved, but not completely whole yet?  What is he saying?  That is what I am really trying to understand.  Does he look at them as brothers and sisters in the Lord today, even if they are not really converted? 

I would imagine you can't answer that for him, unless you know him personally, so I will just leave things with the fact that I don't personally have enough information to decide how I feel about his actions.  I would have to ask him follow up questions to decide one way or the other if I agree with him or his critics.  That is just me.  I am in the undecided camp because I don't have enough facts to go by. 

Ministering the Gospel can be any stage from scattering seeds, to planting seeds to watering seeds to the actual harvesting. His ministry to these people could have been on any stage of this development.