Hello I'm back

Hello Tommy and welcome back to the EC! It's nice to meet you.

 

Tommy.....Hello and a great big LGBTQIA+ welcome back to Empty Closets! I am so sorry for the situation that you find yourself in. My situation is similar to yours. I finally accepted that I am and always have been gay in December 2014 at the age of 64. After that my biggest conflict was my faith. I was not raised in a church and my parents did not attend any church. All of the decisions that I made about my faith were ones that I personally made. That made the conflict very difficult. Over the period of about a year I studied the six "clobber" passages that are used to condemn our LGBTQIA+ Family in the original greek and Hebrew/Aramaic. I also read quite a few books on the subject of Gay Christians. I came to several conclusions. First that the Bible does not condemn same sex relationships as we know them today since they simply did not exist at the time the Bible was written. Second, that most of the passages that are used to condemn the gay/queer community have been mistranslated, whether accidentally or intentionally they have nonetheless been twisted to be used against us when the original meaning was directed towards pagan temple worship by temple prostitutes. And third, the Apostle Paul invented a word to describe a type of temple prostitution with young boys when there were many other Greek words he could have used if he wanted to say what amounted to homosexuality. As a side note..."homosexuality" the word was invented in 1869 by a German
physiologist and was not used in the Bible until 1946. I am a member of a very conservative Evangelical Church. I have served on the board of deacons, taught the adult Christian Education Class and the teen/youth class. I have been the chairman of the board of deacons, the secretary and the treasurer of the church. I have been a member of this church since 1973. At first I was terrified that the church would find out that I was gay. However, over the last several years I've come to realize a few things. If everyone who is LGBTQIA+ leaves the church that they attend, there will never be any representation to show that we are good people who simply love differently. And if I am outed to the church, I feel that the problem will be theirs, not mine. They will have to reconcile many years of knowing me and watching me with the stereotype of what a gay man is. I will not fit their image of the sex-crazed pedophile and they will have to admit that they are wrong or that I have been putting on an impossible act for decades! Nonetheless, it is a difficult situation, and all the more so as you are a pastor. I've come to the personal conclusion that I don't have to be out to to everybody in order to be authentic. I'm out to those whom I feel have a need/reason to know that I'm gay and I don't feel like I'm living a lie because I'm not out to the whole world. I just don't think that my sexuality is something that needs to be broadcast on the front page of the morning newspaper! If the time comes that I feel it's necessary to come out to my pastor or the entire church board, then that's what I'll do, with the Lord's strength and support, realizing that He does have everything under control! I don't know if what I've written here will be a help...but I can hope that it will be. I would welcome a continued conversation with you about this. You can post a message on my profile wall, or if you feel that you like to talk about things that are more private, you can send me a PM (Private Message). Any member can send a staff member a PM at any time.

 

Welcome back.

 

Welcome back to the community, Tommy.