Gay people who love God have a tough time reconciling the two concepts. This is not because of its ‘paradoxical nature’, but rather due to the brainwashing we have to endure from childhood.
Homophobia is just one of many sad human afflictions and to truly find God, we have to rid ourselves from all these preconceived ideas, irrespective of our race, sex, colour, creed, sexuality, etc.
Late one night I saw a sermon on TV; the minister said that no person is greater than any other, but some people make greater choices than others. This struck me as a vital truth. We have a choice! We are free to choose a life of misery and oppression or we can stop wasting time, get educated and start living and loving!
Whenever I am unsure, God gives me direction where I will find an answer. I too prayed desperately to be straight. That was the beginning of my life in the faith, and five years later I know my sexuality was an instrument through which God saved me. Every person in this world has a cross to bear – it makes us ask questions. It is the quality of these questions that makes us whole, not the accuracy of the answers!
Although most of us white folk often deny it, I believe I am not alone when saying that discarding all the racist doctrine we were bombarded with was difficult. It takes a positive effort and re-assessment of our attitudes and luckily we now have society’s support. Accepting our sexuality is the same thing, only we have little support from the outside.
The Bible is full of verses that we eagerly use to prove or disprove our beliefs, from apartheid to liberalism, from pro-Nazi madness to suicidal cults, but let’s remember that it was written by people just like us.
Being too literal about particular verses require that we be literal about all of it, and this is impossible today. Take a look at some of the strange laws in the Bible on page eight.
To top it all many books was left out of the Bible by most Christian denominations, called the apocrypha, many others were not even considered or allegedly being held in secret by the Vatican!
The Bible, like many other books, is full of wonderful words of wisdom and with the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, will enrich us.
If we look at the ignorance of people today, just imagine what it was like 3000 years ago! Also the Israelites were, like today, attacked from all sides, procreation was thus imperative. Homosexuality was not a known phrase then. Apparently most straight men have a homosexual encounter during their life. Some Roman soldiers of those times had a chaperon or lover while away from home, so did the Greeks. It doesn’t mean they were gay, it’s not the same thing!
In Matthew 8:5-13 we read of a Roman Captain begging Jesus to save his sick ‘servant’. But then looking at historical fact, is ‘servant’ the right translation? Was he shy? Was it an unspoken fact?
I am not implying, just pointing out our lack of facts.
In those times, eating pork would have been dangerous due to poor health standards. Pig measles is a terrible disease sometimes affecting the human brain and can cause madness and death in some people, but with modern hygiene, pork is more healthy than beef!
In those times it was acceptable to stone your child until dead because he or she wouldn’t obey, imagine that! [Deut. 21:18-21]
God is love and truth, not stick and sword. There are no black and white rules that everyone must obey. People are as individual as snowflakes and if you try and make them the same like communism and staunch religions do, you will have problems. Both are having a tough time surviving anyway. Look at Romans 14, especially verse 14.
We don’t go to hell for a lack of knowledge, but ignorance and passing judgement is skating on thin ice!
Science is pointing more and more to biological components that affect sexuality and someday this whole issue may become redundant.
We must remember that the Old Testament is a book of laws and Jewish history, but as Christians we are subject to our Lord’s love and mercy as fallible human beings. See Gal. 3:22-25.
Stories about Sodom, Gomorra and Corinthe are used to scare us into conformity; these people were whoring, just as it is said. By the sound of it they were perverse, not gay! All people can get perverse!
While I was in England, they passed a law acknowledging male rape as the same as female rape with the same penalty. In a TV program on the subject it was stated that more than 80% of these rapes were committed by straight men.
We must differentiate between sexuality and lust and /or sexual perversion. The one is a state of being, the other a state of mind.
Lust, like greed and other bad attitudes, comes between God and us and is not justifiable. It affects our conscience and thus our relationship with God and the world around us.
These rules apply to everybody. Gays have been the heterosexual moral scapegoat far too long! We must refuse the abuse, we can afford it. The constitution affirms it!
Sleeping around is often an act of loneliness and if we give this to God, He will provide in good time, but first things first.
Finding a true and loving relationship is not impossible, just very hard because it has to be supplemental to our spiritual lives, not a pre-condition. There is no other way.
I hope that this publication and the loving support available in GCC will help those who find themselves on this journey.
God knows, it is a hard long one that ultimately does not revolve around our sexuality at all, but around finding ourselves and God’s plan for us, and about gathering treasures in heaven.
Alden Möller lives in Cape Town, South Africa.