"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame." [Hebrews 6:4-6]

It's always odd to see persons write articles like this with no apparent understanding of the subject at hand.

Well, there are a lot of passages in the Bible. Ascetic dogma is not popular, because you can't fill your megachurch when you're constantly kicking people out.

Modern Christianity tends to adopt the idea that people are tainted by original sin and doomed to lapse. I don't think there is any mainstream Christian sect that doesn't preach that believers get forgiven for their sins if they repent.

Even if they fail to realize that homosexuals are born, rather than made, it is too bad that Haggard and his ilk have been so focused on the "sin" of homosexuality versus those "sins" that actually hurt people - domestic violence, divorce and custody battles, poverty, hopelessness, racism and other categorical hatred. We have seen through history that those who speak in the most virulent terms on a subject are probably those with the strongest tendencies toward that which they despise.

When organized religion decided that the sins of others are "worse" than those of their own flock - for whatever reasons - they gained crude credibility with their ditto-head members, but they lost it with the general public. When they suggest that hatred of others in the form of reduced civil rights, etc. is okay because they are sinners - then they open the door to this behavior toward any group or individual with whom they disagree.

There are some Christian churches (ELCA for example) that do not take a stand on these issues - feeling that such distractions take them away from their main purpose of service to God and others. As Jesus dined with tax collectors and prostitutes even while condemning the Pharisees, so do these congregations have a much stronger case to be called "Christ-like".

Who are you trying to accuse here, Haggard or the article writer?

Dennis, are you suggesting that this passage means that if a Christian sins, he has lost his salvation and can never be saved?

It's always odd to see persons write articles like this with no apparent understanding of the subject at hand.

I'm guessing, yes.