Editor:
Thank You!!!! Thank you for creating this website!!! I am a lesbian who was raised Catholic and then Christian and now am condemned by my mother for being a lesbian. I have been “beaten over the head” constantly with the clobber passages and am so greatful that God has used you to put the “religious” in their place. I still want to know why they are trying to change the Constitution to reflect discrimination. Like we don’t have enough issues being GLBT but now we have to deal with this as well. I wish people would take the time to be educated on the realities we as GLBT have to face on a daily basis. Thank you again for stepping out and speaking on our behalf.
Sincerely, Melanie
Editor:
I would like to thank you for this article by Royce Beuhler [A Defense Theory] which I found of “profound” significance to me. I have read extensively on the Web many peoples writings concerning homosexuality and the Bible, but must say that his article has given me the most food for thought, and ammunition to use against the bigoted “faithful” Bible punchers.
Barry in South Africa
Editor:
I came across your site the other day. I was immediately drawn to it. I have read many of the articles about Bible passages and really feel much better. I am just getting familiar with your site but I want you to know you gave me hope. Hope to investigate the possibility that I can accept myself, and that just maybe, God accepts me too! And that if I DO decide to be in a lesbian sexual relationship maybe I WON’T be denied heaven because of it.
I know I sound like a scared child but I am sure you are familiar with my feelings or have heard others who have had them. Many times I felt like, “man I just wish Jesus would come down here and TELL me if being gay is wrong!” Wouldn’t that be nice.
Obviously, I still have some major inner work to do but your website has touched me and given me the spark of hope I needed to face this issue head on WITHOUT numbing myself with a drug or whatever.
You know, I STILL don’t know the answer to: “Is God okay with gays being gay or acting upon it,” but I HAVE to believe that Jesus must be happy that you are bringing peace to people who are inner angst. Jesus doesn’t want suicide or such suffering. I have to believe he doesn’t. And therefore, I think He would be proud of you.
Thank you, Ann
Editor:
I read your excellent article [What’s a Poor Gay Christian to Do?] with interest – you make some excellent points.
Coming from the other side of “The Pond,” I do notice certain differences in theology and approach. The majority of Evangelical churches that I’ve known here in UK have been Calvinistic in theology. However, they are perhaps even more hypocritical than the Fundamentalists you’re talking about, particularly in the way they condemn gay and transgender people.
Calvinists believe that we don’t choose God, He chooses us (the whole concept that we have anything to offer God, even so much as a choice, is anathema, according to this theology). So to the Calvinist, the gay Christian presents a particular dilemma. If he appears to be in faith, and yet continues in his “gay lifestyle”, there are only a few possibilities:
1. He’s lying 2. He’s deluded (probably by some kind of demonic oppression) 3. God hasn’t revealed His full truth to him yet and any day, the poor gay Christian is about to discover the full evil of his lifestyle (but at least this view does cut a little slack for the new gay Christian).
The option Calvinists won’t consider is that God has actually chosen a gay person to be His.
The downside of this theology is that if you say you are gay, and then say you are a Christian, you are, to the Calvinist Evangelical, committing the worst kind of blaspheme, for you are suggesting that God would choose a “disgusting pervert” for a disciple of Christ.
Calvinists are supposed to believe in Total Depravity ie “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and they are supposed to believe that perfection is not attainable in this world but that we must always have an attitude of humble repentance and gratitude towards God’s undeserved favour to us. Grace is supposed to be “God’s undeserved favour,” but in practice, they believe that they were significantly less “undeserving” than some poor gay person.
They get around this by accusing gay people of “Willfull disobedience towards God,” although you’ll never going to find any Bible verses supporting the view that “willfull” sins are necessarily worse than careless sins, or that sins of omission are necessarily worse than sins of commission. The suggestion that homosexuality might not be a choice tends to get them foaming at the mouth, even though a Calvinist, of all people, should recognise the concept of Predestination!
So, despite theological differences, I do recognise the disingenuous way that Evangelicals/Fundamentalists condemn Gay Christians and thus set themselves up on some kind of spiritual pedestal. Doesn’t the Bible suggest that the worst sin is the sin of Pride? Don’t these people see that they are doing exactly what the Pharisee’s and the Teachers of the Law were doing in the time of Christ? The people whom Christ called “white-washed tombs” and “a den of vipers.”
Ana
Editor:
I’ve been struggling with religious issues regarding my sexuality. I’m struggling to hold on to faith, and am working hard on studying (in all aspects) and developing my own belief system based on that. I’m glad to come across a website that is supportive and objective regarding these issues, and I wanted to say that I appreciate your efforts to put it together. I just wanted to say thank you, although I’m sure you get a lot of thank you’s.
Love and Peace, Tyler