Can i be a gay christian
Can You Be Gay and Christian?
One night I was reading the stories of people who had left the church because they thought God hated them simply because they were attracted to the similar sex.
I was so overcome with emotion that I put the book down, got alone in another room, fell to my knees and wept. The pain of these men and women for whom Jesus died was palpable and heartbreaking.
Could it be that we have been misinterpreting Scripture when it comes to their salvation? Could it be that there is some recent understanding of the Bible that would allow us to affirm committed, gay relationships?
If not, does that mean that we narrate a 15 year-old teen who identifies as sapphic, “If you want to follow Jesus, you will have to be celibate for the rest of your life, never enjoying the companionship of a spouse and abstaining from sex for life”? Accomplish we tell her, “If you do want to be married, you’ll include to find a way to be attracted to men”? Is that the good news of the gospel?
A spate of books and videos and article and blogs would reveal us that, indeed, that is not the gospel and that the nice news of Jesus is that you can obey Him and enjoy a committed, homosexual relationship to
This may not be a huge surprise, but we get A LOT of questions via email, social media, and in person on Tuesdays. What benign of questions? Successfully, anything from, Should I get advocate together with my boyfriend or girlfriend? to What should I do next with my life? to How should I lovingly hire those in the LGBTQ community?
In this blog series “Ask The Porch,” we’re answering real-life questions that we’ve received from you. Disclaimer: our highest priority is always to first respond with biblical counsel from God’s Word. The hardest questions to answer are those in the “grey” areas. So we’ll do our finest to share our biblically-informed opinion, but know that we may have other convictions on the non-essentials (vs. the essentials).
Now, let’s dive into the doubt for this week emailed in from an online listener:
Can a Christian be gay?
“Hey David,
I am a Christian and have struggled with same sex attraction since childhood. I would not want it on anyone. It’s very strenuous being alone and longing for someone to hold hands with. I crave the chance to love and possess someone love me back. I crave to live a life for God but I also don’t want to live on this earth alone.
Is it REALLY ok to be LGBTQ? A look behind and beyond the “clobber passage”
There’s a name for what’s happening here: proof texting.
Theopodia defines proof texting as “the method by which a person appeals to a biblical text to prove or justify a theological position without regard for the context of the passage they are citing.”
If you hear someone speak “the Bible says…” run in the other direction. The Bible says lots of things!
Here a scant things the Bible says:
That the Land was covered in water when created until God formed land (Genesis 1:9) but also that the Earth was completely dry until God brought streams up and watered the planet (Genesis 2:5-6).
That God created animals first and then humans (Genesis 1) but also that God created Adam first, then animals, then Eve (Genesis 2).
That’s right, the Bible contradicts itself in the first two chapters!
“The Bible says” in Exodus and Deuteronomy that if a woman is raped her rapist must either marry her or pay her father (because he’s “damaged” the father’s “property”).
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that Jesus will refund in his hold lifetime (4:15-17).
So what does the Bible say?
The Bib
Can I Be Gay & Christian? Navigating Your Spirituality & Sexual Orientation
I ran to the altar to confess to God what I’d done. The clothes in my suitcase still had sand in them from the beach vacation with a man I called my friend, but who was really my boyfriend…for 5 years. Tears running down my face, thinking I could hideous cry my way back into God’s graces, I pleaded for forgiveness and relief.
My days felt chaotically ambivalent: loving who I was at one moment, only to turn around and abhor myself the next. I stabilized life with tiny compartments. In one compartment was the wanting-to-come-out, bar hopping, vodka drinking, drunk driving, lost and scared part of myself. Another compartment held the hopeless and dirty sinner that fasted two meals a day, went to church, prayed silently any time a spicy man walked by, and the one who agreed to maneuver from New York City to straighten up (pun intended) by becoming a cloistered seminary student.
Living a double lifestyle was my expertise, for a little while, at least. When my drinking hit an all-time high and my change in orientation wasn’t happening, I realized I had to take a deep peek at who I was and what I believed.
T