LGBT people and religion

I was christian when I was younger and later became agnostic. Now I am an athiest.

 

I'm still trying to figure this one out. I was raised with no formal religion but nominally Christian beliefs. I actually became a Jehovah's Witness in my teens, left, came back, then left again. On this last hiatus I came out so the idea of going back isn't terribly practical. There are many things I love and respect about the faith but also things that I question and there isn't much room for that.

I am undecided about where to go from here. Many of my friends are atheist or agnostic. I can see the arguments for it but something about me still wants to believe in a deity. So for now I am researching different things and trying different experiences. I've attended services at Episcopal and United Church of Christ gay-affirming congregations. I'll see what else is out there too.

 

ex-christian, now thoroughly irreligious

 

I was raised Catholic and go to a Catholic school, but i honestly don't believe in what it teaches, so now im agnostic.

 

Raised in a Catholic environment but found my own path at 14/15. Now I classify myself as a Wicca, although I only really follow some of their practices.

 

Strongly considering Buddhism.

 

Great philosophy, but what about all the dogma?

 

Irreligious. I am slightly spiritual, I guess. If I do something I'm guilty about I do apologise to something, but not god. I always believe that if I do anything bad, bad things will happen to me - practically Karma, but just on non-religious grounds. Idk

 

The Soto Zen tradition dispenses with a lot of it. Rebirth is seen as a myth to explain the nature of arising and abiding, the six realms are a myth about states of mind/being, and I'm not really clear how Bodhisattvas work.

 

I have been irreligious (specifically, a theological non-cognitivist) since the very first point in which I could even remotely grasp the concept of "religious meaning." Which I believe was the 3-6 range - I recall specifically finding my grandmother's idea (the closest family member of our family that is actually religious) of an anthropomorphic god being wholly silly and illogical.

 

I see. I very much like a lot of what buddhism has to offer, but i could never submit to all the nonsense parts along with it. I was considering going to a free 10-day meditation retreat and seeing how it went, but i'd want to do so knowing that i wouldn't be internally scoffing (i don't trust myself in that regard). I'd be very interested to hear more about what you know

 

I believe that all organized religions are missing the point to some degree. And that they're all right in one way or another. Because there is no church for this thing I believe, and there is no group for this thing I believe, I guess you could call me spiritual.

The thing I believe comes from this story. It's very short, but if you don't have time to read it, I'll sum it up. We are all different parts of the same being. Kind of like each part of your body is unique, we're all unique, but we're all part of one thing. And in the same way that body parts work, when we feel something, the signal is sent to the rest of the body. When you put your finger on a stove, you get burned, even though your finger was the only part of you that was on the stove that got burned. When you pet a cat, it was you petting the cat, even though your hand was the only part doing the petting. We don't remember all the rest of our memories right now. The ones from other parts of us. But we will. We'll know all of it.

And when we've grown enough. When we've learned enough, and matured enough, we get to break out of the egg that is this world and move on to something so much bigger and better than we could ever imagine. And, yes, we will be a god, as there are multiple gods before us. There is only one god who created us, however. He's just one of many. But he's the only one that made us. Kind of like there are many grownups in the world, only a small number of them are true parents to us, raising us and loving us. He made the whole universe, for us to learn from and explore. All of the science, the infinitesimally intricate details, are all there for our classrooms. All the living creatures in all of time and all of the world, are there to learn different lessons from entirely.

That's why it's important that you live. No one can experience exactly what you can experience. And it's very very important that you experience your world just exactly how you do. And there is no way you can make a mistake in experiencing your life. Anything you do or feel is just as valid a lesson to be learned as any other. But, because your experiences affect you forever after, and everyone's experiences are yours too, it's important that you try to be kind to yourself and everyone around you, so as to make the best experiences. We want to teach what we will become that love is always better than hate, and so we love. But, I say again, there is no way to make a mistake. It is important that we live all of human life. And knowing about hate and power hungry people is part of that. It's not that we have to keep ourself away from the very idea of evil. We just have to try to show that love is the right thing to choose.

When we're grown, we'll have all the answers to all the questions we've ever had. Not because of some divine granting of knowledge by our parent, but because somewhere along the line someone will have learned it. And since we are all one, then we all learned it. And after we have learned all the lessons from this world, we hatch out of our egg, and are a baby god, so ready to learn so so many more lessons. I don't know what comes after that. No one does, you see. None of us have been born yet.
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I chose to believe this because it is the only system I've found where I agree with every point wholeheartedly. This is what gives me a true reason to live a good life. It gives me a reason to take care of myself, and love myself, and be healthy, and take care of others. Because I'm living for myself as well as everyone else. I must love me, and love you, and live for the benefit of everyone equally. And if I make a mistake, that's okay, because we need to learn that lesson too. It's the only system of belief that seems all loving, all inclusive, and all real to me. I don't even think "well, what if I'm wrong" anymore, because I believe it so much. And even if I were wrong, then I'd still be acting in love, and not hurting anyone else with my beliefs.

So... What do you think?

 

I approve.


I grew up Catholic. In fact I went to Catholic school for 13 years. I was, and still am a very morally conscious person. I was always concerned about doing the right thing as a kid. I would give my parents crap about speeding or other minor things. My mother would sit me and my sister down and have us say the rosary for like an hour a couple times a week. I had relatives that were priests and nuns. I was actively involved in my church youth group (and still do help on a retreat once a year, but I may not be allowed to as I'm transitioning now)

I believed everything I was told about the church, and being surrounded by it at home, church, and school, its not a surprise. In fact, the scariest thing I remember "learning" from school was that Sodom and Gommorah were destroyed as the result of their homosexual activity. I would pray for God to make me into a female, but it never happened, and I believed I would just not express my gender or sexual orientation, and instead get a wife and have kids because family and going to heaven was what was "really important."

When I was a senior in high school I took a world religions class at my Catholic school. My mother was very angry it was even offered because she didn't think a Catholic school had any business teaching about any religion other than Catholicism. It was a very positive experience for me, and it changed the way I viewed religion.

I had always been perplexed (even back in high school) as to how anyone can know they got the right religion. I mean, I was afraid to question it, but on some level I knew the only reason I believed in Catholicism as opposed to Judaism, Sikhism, etc. was that I was born into an environment that pushed it upon me. So I suppose I had a fair amount of dissonance about my view on religion.

When I took this class I decided to take up a new philosophy. That philosophy was that your religion was irrelevant. What religion you are exposed to cannot possibly be an indicator of how good of a person you are. Rather, I believed there was a God, all religions experienced hir presence, and the interpretation they took on it resulted in different views on the divine based upon their different cultural backgrounds. My dissonance was removed, and I could focus on simply being a good person.

Now I'm not so sure I believe in a God anymore. I find it hard to believe I could pray so diligently to a God that is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and have hir not help me with this transition or at least even confirm that I am making the right decision.

I do still consider myself spiritual though, as I have had spiritual experiences I cannot disprove.


tl'dr: Spiritual but with not interested in organized religion

 

I never thought of it that way. If it gives you peace and the power to love yourself and others without hurting anyone, I say go for it.

Myself, I'm Christian and I believe that the hate gay the LGBT people have faced doesn't coexist with the religion. Religion is naturally intended to bring people together, but if it doesn't do so, it is the people who are hateful, and it should not be blamed on the group itself.
I (personally) believe that everyone I see is going to Heaven until it is proven otherwise. My sexuality has not changed my beliefs. I can understand how you must've felt being raised Catholic and having to accept your sexuality, because people will always say "I thought Christians didn't believe in homosexuality." Ummm... what? We believe it exists lol and I personally am attracted to other women. I don't see why people have to be so hateful when love is so beautiful. I always tell people love is the greatest commandment. <3

 

I recommend watching Brad Warner's mini-interviews on Soto Zen. Here's a good one to start with:

[YOUTUBE]UJJa3s_U0wA[/YOUTUBE]

 

Evangelical Christian for life!

 

I was raised around observing/partaking in some Buddhist traditions, but my family wasn't devoutly Buddhist or anything. Then that sort of faded. Then an incident happened in my family causing my mom to turn to Christianity. She tried to make the rest of our family Christian, but I wouldn't accept it. I was "forced" to go to church for a while, and every time the preacher stood up there and said something bad about the LGBT community, it made me want to punch him in the face. After a while, I told my mom I refuse to go back to church and that I just don't believe in God.

Thus, I was once agnostic...after going to church, I became fully atheist.