Christian Views on Controversies

In last week's message I made the point that there are some beliefs and behaviors that are clearly incompatible with authentic Christianity (e.g. abortion as a normal option for birth control, or the willful practice--as distinct from the "orientation"-- of homosexuality)

This week I said people are shocked by certain beliefs or behaviors only when those beliefs and behaviors are different from what they consider to be "normal," and normal is only defined by what the majority of people do the majority of the time.

With this in mind, here are two important questions:

How should Christians determine which issues are nonnegotiable and which allow room for disagreement among equally authentic Christians?

How are Christians to go about finding the difference between what is "normal" and what is right?

MM