Are there any fellow Christians on here?

Preachers kid here, and PROUD! I have been bought up in an environment where I've always been told that homo is a sin, and I find it really hard to find evidence against what I've taught from a very young age. Its a constant battle I've had for a while now. All i know is that I'm hella gay. But, I don't know why or how?????

 

I am a Christian and a lesbian. I have no conflict with the two. I love and follow Jesus. That is all he asks if me. In return, he loves me and he is not going to abandon me because I love another women. Don't overthink it. Man has created the conflict not Jesus.

 

This is a really interesting thread. I'm not religious whatsoever (I'm an atheist), however I do respect all religions and I'm always interested learning more about them. Me and my friends were discussing this once, and somebody who studied RE and is going on to study theology at uni bought up that some people have said that the bible was only written in the views that suited that time and that we should interpret the bible differently nowadays. Another person said that the bible was written simply as a means to control the population at that time. (I hope this doesn't offend anyone by the way, that is not my intention)

Personally, I don't really mind as long as people don't use their religion as an excuse to hate or discriminate against me, as I believe that people should use the religion they follow as a reason to support, love and respect others rather than spread hate and violence

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Also, I have often been told that God doesn't make mistakes, and if that's the case than I don't see why He would have people be born gay, or why around 1500 different species of animal have homosexuals within their species, and then say it's a sin (really hope I don't seem disrespectful).

 

You reminded me of me... When I was younger, every second sentence from me was: I hope I don't offend anyone, I hope I didn't offend you, I hope i didn't make you sad...

Ahh, good times.

As I said in one another thread, many 'traditional' arguments for LGBT are just bad. I don't blame anyone who uses them, but they are very easily refuted. One of them is this one: "Homosexuality is common in nature, therefore, homosexuality is good..." We should never say "something is common in nature, therefore, 'something' is good".... This isn't a very good argument because, rape is very common in nature, does that mean that rape is good? Of course not.

 

:lol: I'm always super cautious on the internet, as it's hard for people to determine your intent through writing, and I feel like I'm more at risk of offending people online. Plus religion is a really sensitive subject for some people (I have a couple of religious relatives who I accidentally set off once when I was child because I said the Lords name in vain... it was not pretty :eek

That is a good point as well, though I only ever use that argument if someone claims that homosexuality is unnatural, as "you don't see animals being gay" . Apart from then, I try to use other arguments.

 

I don't think you should see that in that way. I mean rapping someone is a choice someone do (except if I've missed Something?) when not behing heterosexuel is not (at least I don't personnaly think it is). So with that point of view in mind, the fact homosexuality is really common in nature is a prove that it is natural (it doesn't prove that it is good it just prove that it's how we are made to be)
If we consider that we are meant to be gay and that we are by God, who don't make any mistake, then I can only think that being gay is what God wants from us. With that point made you could say that we are supposed to fight against to prove we are worth God but then I would have to ask why only a part of the population would have to live this? And I would have to remember you that the first and only need of God is to be love by us, and what is consider the greater prove of love to God? To love someone eternaly. In that point of view, I don't see why a homo-love could be less important to God than a hetero-love as long they are both (and I insist on the both) made to be long-term, sincere and true.
I am myself pan/bisexual and I'm on my way to God(so I guess I'm doing the inverse path of most of you) and the more I learn about God (I'm catholic so what I say is about that part of christianism) the more I see that he/she/they only wants us to be happy, loved and loving.

 

I am a Christian.

Previously, I took the same stance as you concerning homosexuality. But in more recent time I've come to change my mind.

Personally, I believe that Christianity and a healthy homosexual lifestyle (i.e. monogamous loving marriage) is acceptable from how I have interpreted the Bible.

 

Another Christian here. Thanks for this thread. In reading much of EC, I was beginning to wonder if there were many other Christians on EC. I see there are. And I appreciate the mostly reasoned, calm exchange of viewpoints in this thread so far. As someone who only recently realized I might be gay, this whole question of reconciling homosexuality and Christianity is a really thorny one for me.

But so far, in all the research I've done (and I've spent hours reading and learning and searching the Scriptures) I agree with Hunter. Much as I want to, for myself I can't interpret the Bible any other way than that my same sex attraction and living as a lesbian is a sin. No, it's not a "worse" sin than any other sin, but all sin for the Christian is something we walk away from, as Hunter said, out of gratitude for our salvation and as living demonstration of our trust in God.

But, as Hunter says too, I respect the views of fellow Christians that differ from mine and I judge no one else for other choices or beliefs. I do believe that other interpretations could also be right. But for myself, I can't live any other way.

To all of us Christians out there who struggle and seek to live in open relationship with the Father, and also have or struggle with a different sexual orientation, may God's grace cover us....

 

I assisted Matthew when I volunteered at the GCN conference in January! I was kind of star struck.

 

The one and only. I agree with him 100% myself. I am completely affirmed in my relationship with Jesus and my sexuality. It is some of the modern Pharisees within Christianity that I have problem with. And don't get me wrong...I understand(to a point) those who disagree with homosexuality.

What I don't understand is why some of these same people preach hate and judgment. Only God can judge. Jesus said to not judge others for having a speck in their eye when you have a plank in yours.

Jesus was toughest against the religious leaders, "Hypocrites, brood of vipers..." is what he called the Pharisees.

 

"A plank in your eye." Jeez, that sounds painful. I'm not Christian, though.

 

All metaphor. Did you see the one South Park episode where they formed a Christian band and hit it big? Hilarious episode.

 

Yes. I've seen every episode in seasons 1-11. As for the plank thing, I was just messing with ya. I know it's metaphor. I just couldn't resist making that joke.

 

I WAS BAPTIZED CATHOLIIC. UM...why is my caps lock on? Eh...the forum will take care of that. So I guess no harm. (WTFf? I'm not changing it.) Anyways, I was brought up in a relatively homophobic household courtesy of my parents. My mom is gung-ho on Catholocism and my dad is Presbyterian. So growing up was so much fun and coming out was just as much, if not, more fun. I think me wanting to come out to the fam brought me closer to God in a way. I say that because I started listening to the Word, going deep into Scripture, and leading a life most like Christ. I dove into scripture not only to get closer to Him but I also wanted to see what he truly said about the homosexual lifestyle. I didn't know what the coming out stage was gonna be like with my parents, so I started diving deep into the Bible. Little did I know, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. It was awe-taking how close I got to Him in that time though.

 

Thing is, i doubt you will win many friends in either community with this position. Many theists and churches will reject you even if you stay celibate (i know a church that lost over half its members when its pastor came out), and many lgbt don't accept anything short of atheism, seeing religion as their lifelong enemy.

Of course, you don't have to care, but that conflict will always be in you, to an extent. You're on occasion gonna wonder "am i living single needlessly? Is anything i do enough?" But you know, a lot of heterosexuals have the same doubts, because they're on their 4th marriage or 'commit adultery in their heart'. Everyone has their cross to bear. You just gotta decide for yourself - and you'll remake this decision, or change your mind, at different points in life - if this particular cross is a worthy one

 

I was brought up Christian but now consider myself to be mainly agnostic. I feel like whenever someone says they are religious it can be taken in a negative way, and sometimes I do have negative connotations with religion. This is because I had a friend who was very religious and she wasn't supportive of lgbtq+ things, which hurt me, leading me to take forever to come out to her (came out a couple weeks ago actually). But there are religious people who are accepting and supporting, and it's really great to see people like that here! It's helping me feel more comfortable with the idea of religion, which I had started to push away after having negative feedback from some religious people. Even though there was some positive feedback from some other religious people, the negative stuff tends to stick in our minds instead of the positive stuff. Just sharing my thoughts with the world, and I don't mean to offend anyone.

 

Yeah sorta. I was raised in a really religious environment and still hold theistic views. It was hard at first to be LGBT+ and Christian but now I find them to be highly compatible.