Gay and questioning faith

Well, I don't identify with a particular religion. But even though I was raised Christian I don't really believe any of that nor did I ever really now I think about it. The whole concept of God and that stuff never really sat well with me. I said I believed in God because that's what I was taught and I learned that a lot of people wanted to hear that so that's what I said. But I remember even as a kid confiding in my best friend who is very religious that I didn't really understand the point of praying because I never thought God listened. I now identify as an atheist with a spiritual bend. I actually dabbled in paganism for a while, and am thinking of going back to that, only a non deity centered religion now, because even though I can think of god/gods as archetypes I can't believe in actual beings that really exist. I do believe in other stuff though. I meditate, and I do believe in creative channeling, things of that nature. Love is basically my religion.

 

At this point, I'm more of the thought that one should live life their own way now and worry about matters of belief once life is over. Any deity or giver of judgement would likely understand that so long as one doesn't set out to harm others...not condemn others based on lack of belief.

As for religious belief, part of me yearns for the idea of some sort of afterlife. But another part of me knows that that's no guarantee. Therefore, I don't claim to know the slightest thing about anything regarding 'the true faith.' I also feel that if there is a Creator, we either would've found Him/Her by now or that Him/Her doesn't want to be found. But even that's no guarantee.

See, one is almost better off living life now and worry about religious matters once death comes. At the very least, a person's dying day may be a day where he/she/they learn a lot. But for now, positing any idea of religion/deity ends up being a semantic Hydra--it creates two questions for every one potential answer.

 

Welcome to my world friend. I went from the most perfectly loyal southern Baptist good-boy who believed what he was told by the church his entire life to someone who now hates everything about southern Baptists in less than a year after seeing how quickly I was shunned and treated like dirt by people who preached love and acceptance just because I wasn't straight anymore. There was literally not one person who tried to offer support or encouragement in any way, the entire group acted the same way and even used the same insults verbatim.

I still believe in the basic teachings of it all like the whole 'love thy neighbor' stuff but want no association with the Baptist church at all. I still call myself Christian due to the beliefs but I'm probably more focused on spirituality at this point, believing in the existence of God and the basic path of living a good life without being so obsessed with rules and sins like actual religions are.

 

Well, for me, when I was not into Christianity anymore and looking for something new I was drawn to paganism. There are so many brands of it there is something for everyone. A lot of people think all pagans are Wiccans but that's not true. Wicca actually didn't interest me all that much. You could honestly just start googling and reading up on it, but if you want specific resources I used, I could point you in that direction if you're interested. I was really into it for about a year or two and still read and have a collection of books on that subject.

 

YouTube is a great resource too. I wish I had discovered the paganism 101 channel sooner. Lots of nice people on there, some of whom are gay. There seem to be a lot of non straight people into paganism. Which maybe was a sign in my case lol. And there are so many books and forums as well.

 

I am mostly a spiritual person, even though I was raised Catholic. I have distanced myself from the catholic faith/religion in general because I feel like religion is too controlling and it has too much fear. I rather have a life of freedom and still believe in God, but without feeling restricted to a certain religion - if that makes any sense. But I am in a similar situation.

 

I'm Jewish, so I can't speak from personal experience about the Christian faith, but I have a friend who has been deeply involved with Q Christian Fellowship (formerly Gay Christian Network). It brings in people from different Christian traditions who are LGBT and helps them reconcile their faiths with their sexual orientation and gender identity. They have some resources you may want to check out: https://www.qchristian.org/. I also went to a pride festival in my city last month and there were plenty of churches there. There weren't any Catholic ones from what I can recall but there were Episcopalian, Unitarian, UCC, Presbyterian, and nondenominational. I'm sure a Google search would turn up some more LGBT-affirming congregations in your area.

 

Love thy neighbor is my motto.

 

As I've already mentioned to you, the Scottish Episcopal Church is very tolerant towards LGBT people. It's a Christian denomination in your country that is similar in style to Catholicism, but very different in substance, with gay clergy and laity and marriage ceremonies for same sex couples. If you're looking for a faith tradition that feels familiar, but embraces the nature of life in the 21st century, with an emphasis on love and mercy it could be the way to go.

If you are looking for something very different that is soft-theistic or non-theistic (in other words, less inclined towards worship of God, or Gods) you might wish to consider Buddhism. You could begin by reading The Dhammapada; a collection of sayings of The Buddha - the founder of Buddhism.

 

I don't know if it's different based on the area, but nearly all LGBT people I've met identify as atheists. Most seem ok with people having a religion but they will definitely insult the religion in other contexts even if you're in the room, which certainly feels awkward. I can't even count the number of times I've heard the words 'brainwashed Christians' from LGBT people in random conversations.

 

Religion's been complicated for me, so I don't prescribe to any in particular. I was raised Christian in a fairly accepting church, but when I was a teenager it was pretty much forced on me. Had to go to church. Had to participate in youth group.

I believe in a higher power, I believe in an afterlife, I believe in a soul. I just don't follow the typical Christian beliefs in those regards.

Researching the mythologies of different cultures also helped broaden my scope. Many cultures were around for hundreds or thousands of years before Christianity and they're considered pagan and barbaric while Christianity is seen as true? Doesn't make much sense to me.

 

I have to say this really isn't my experience. I can't recall where Destin lives but in my experience gay people are slightly more likely to be atheists than the general population but only slightly. There is a fair amount of very unspecific faith and in my experience gay people are less likely to be intensely affiliated with a church. Joe, if you find something to believe in most gay people will respect that and if it gives you some sort of succor a lot of them will be a little envious...

 

I was also raised catholic growing up and used to believe everything my religion taught me. Luckily I was never really exposed to the whole "gay is a sin" which in retrospect is kind of surprising. Now I feel myself being more distant from my religion as I feel like I would rather treat others with respect and be a good person because I want to. Honestly it feels backwards to me to be nice to others to appease a greater power. What I can say that most religions do pretty well is that they preach you to "treat others how you want to be treated" or some wording of that. This saying is how I go about my life as I don't want to purposely be nasty to someone else and always take the highroad. I'm still working on this as I am not perfect and will never be but I always do my best. I can see that it can be hard for you to let go of religion so I would ask yourself what you're really looking for in religion and how it can help you. Personally I didn't need a belief system and I just go about my life trying to be nice to others.