In my previous post, I may have sounded as though I am no longer religious, or hate religion. That's quite the opposite. I do believe in God, and I do see myself as a Christian. I believe that you can be gay and a Christian. It's not "God still loves me even though I'm gay," it's God Loves me. Period. It was a long and hard road to get to where I am now on my thoughts on all of this. I, as I know many other gay men, hated it at first, would give or do anything to be made straight. I remember countless nights lying awake in my bed praying for God to change me and forgive me for the thoughts that I had. But that's because I was influenced by what "the norm" of society is. But after really searching myself, and questioning what it was that I believed, I came to my conclusion. I have no convictions for who I am. Why should I? It wasn't a choice.
One thing that really helped me, and got the ball rolling on all of this is a book that my dad gave me when I came out to him (which will be in a future post) called The Children are Free by Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley. (here's the link to it: http://www.jesusmcc.org/resource/free.html ) I definitely recommend this book to anyone struggling with this issue, it changed my whole perspective.
So, anyways, I'm not saying I hate going to a Christian University, I love the school, it's just, I have to take things differently. I believe there are two kinds of Christians: the christians, and the real Christians. The christians are those that take every single word in the Bible totally literally. They are the ones who have been fed regurgitated religion all their lives from pastors who don't want you to think for yourself. They expect you to take their interpretation as complete truth, and tell you not to question anything. They are the ones that would give up the Jews hiding in the basement when the Nazi's come knocking because the Bible says not to lie. Then there are the real Christians. These are the ones who love, no matter what. They question. Everything. They find out for themselves what they believe, and why they believe it. They realize that in the Bible a few verses after it says "men do not lay with other men as you would a woman" it says "do not cut the hair on the sides of your head or shave your beards." They understand that much of the Bible was written for the culture of that time. They Don't condemn.
Even if I'm living in sin (which I don't believe I am), at least I know what I believe, and love, and act like what the Bible says Christians should be.
Sorry, I didn't mean to get all religious, but it's an important subject to me, and I know it's a touchy one.
Just so you know, I'll be going back and forth between what's currently going on in my life, and the experiences I've had over the last 3 years while coming to terms with who I am.
More to come...
amazing post by the way. I'm also a gay Christian, and I understand your "situation". I also attended a conservative Christian College, and had to keep my sexuality under wraps.
ReplyDeleteOh, and The children are free is amazing...
feel free to email me, I would love to chat with you about how you handled it...
ReplyDeleteYou can be gay and Christian. It's how you conduct your sexual life. If you're hooking up with guys that's wrong.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to include a link. Sodomy(anal sex)is a sin whether you are gay or straight. See the answers for 8 and 16. What's it's saying is that God created you and it's important for you to take care of you body physically, emotionally, and spiritually. "Sodomy is the worst sexual activity as it causes a great deal of destruction on the human body."
ReplyDeletehttp://purplepew.org/biblical-dots/faq
God Bless!
Brian: You're the kind of person I'm talking about. You can't take what one person or organization says as absolute truth. Yeah it says that in the bible, but let me ask you this: do you cut the hair on the sides of your head or shave your beard? Do you eat shellfish? Do you wear clothes made from more than one type of fabric? In the Bible, it says we're not suppose to do those things either.
ReplyDeletePeople have been doing this for centuries: taking and following specific verses in the Bible and using those to condemn others, while they conveniently forget about those other verses. It's like Fred Phelps church that protests at gay funerals and say that "God hates fags" and "God hates the USA," when did they become exempt from Jesus' teachings on loving one another?
I think I'm gonna print a Bible of just the verses that people "conveniently" leave out.
The fact is, people can argue both sides till Jesus comes back, and to say that one side is the absolute truth is ignorant and ludicrous.
You need to read that book I linked to. It talks about how when the books of the Bible were written, they were written for a specific culture/society...
You're talking about the holiness code. Read this link and maybe you'll get a better understanding. Leviticus is speaking of incest, beastiality and sodomy as sins. It's not talking about homosexuals. You have to read it in context. Avoiding shellfish and other things mentioned are reflections of that time.
ReplyDeleteFrom site: "If sodomy no longer applies today because of the old 'Holiness Code’ then Paul would not have included in his list of sins to the Corinthians and in his letter to Timothy. To dismiss sodomy in the New Testament is to dismiss the New Testament. And to dismiss the New Testament is to dismiss the doctrine of Christ. When one dismisses the doctrine of Christ and the Word of God, one can no longer call himself Christian."
Straight people feel the mention of sodomy only applies to gay men and it's okay for them, and gay men want to just ignore it.
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind" is a man penetrating another man in the same way that a man penetrates a woman with the obvious difference being an anus instead of a vagina. In simple terms, anal sex is just as wrong for straight people as it is for gay men.
http://purplepew.org/god-matters/truth-matters/leviticus-homosexuality-and-the-holiness-code
Best of luck to you at college!
It's all semantics... There are also preachers that preach that no sexual act is a sin within the marriage bed because it is holy and can't be defiled.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, both sides can be argued till Jesus comes back. Personally I believe that what is a sin for one person, might not be a sin for another person. It's up to each person to question what they believe to find out why they believe it; and subsequently pray and figure out what things they have convictions about.
Get what I'm sayin?
If they're good preachers then they can't be saying all sex acts are holy. Sodomy, incest, and bestiality are not holy by any means.
ReplyDeleteSome preachers will say anything and they have skeletons in their own closets. You can't say "a sin for one person, might not be a sin for another person" and be serious. That would mean Christian child molesters and Christian murderers may rationalize their actions as being okay.
Wow. Projecting your feelings on me. Cool dude. But you shouldn't feel sorry for me, because I am Very happy with who and what I am. And no, I haven't been led astray, these are the choices I've made on my own. Everything isn't black and white. I hope that someday you realize that, and that one day you'll be a little more open-minded instead of just preaching what you've heard in the past, without actually thinking through it and figuring out why you believe it.
ReplyDeleteI am open minded. You are 21 years old, naive, and have been led astray by sodomites who have told you it's okay; they are the worst of the worst. And according to your blog you've been exposed to porn at a young age and have been promiscuous. It all makes sense now.
ReplyDeleteSodomy has never been okay and just because it's 2010 does not make it okay. You're right, everything is not black and white, but to pray to God about sodomy is certainly not right. The Lord would never okay you treating your own body and another man's body like filth.
I understand what Brian is saying. You can pray for peace, for sick family members, and many other things, but to pray that God accepts sodomy--anal sex--is wrong. "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind" was thought at one time to be against gays. It's not.
ReplyDeleteWe know a woman has an input and output between her legs. The input is for sex. The output is obviously for you know what. A man only has an output between his legs, so acting as if that's an input is wrong, sinful, effeminizing, and degrading to the man. And the man doing it is just as guilty. (They're lying with another man as a man would do with a woman.)
In the early 1980's gay men started getting AIDS. We know how they got it, sodomy. Some say it was God punishing them for what they were doing. We don't know that for sure, but we do know that many gay men got AIDS and many died from it. It's still happening. And then it spread to heteros. I've read the Purple Pew, many sites, and many books, and there's no way getting around that sodomy is anal sex and wrong for gay and straight Christians.
Seeing porn at an early age may have made you think that's what being gay is all about and that's what you're supposed to do. The men who make those films are not Christians, and if they are, they're not practicing their faith. As for your sexual experiences with men--like porn-- those men may have also told you things and made you assume all gay men do that.
As gay men there are many other healthy alternatives to express ourselves sexually with our partners other than anal sex.
This is a good explanation as well. http://www.carm.org/anal-sex
I see your points, but one thing you also must consider: A. The cultural and language the bible was written in. Sodomites, refers to the men in Sodom that took advantage over one another. It wasn't making love, it was rape, and taking something that wasn't theirs to have power over someone else. B. The words that have been used in translating the bible into english are only 1 translation of the original greek words.
ReplyDeleteHave you guys read this book? http://www.jesusmcc.org/resource/free.html
I'm not saying I have everything figured out. I KNOW that no one does. And for right now, this is what I believe. I may be wrong. If I ever feel I am, or feel convicted, believe you me, I will change my ways.
Like I've said before, both sides can be argued until Jesus comes back. Let's just agree to disagree...