Christians, how do you deal with the bible's perspective of being gay?

Hiya, I'm pan and ex-catholic, it all depends on what you believe darling. If you truely believe the catechisms like I did for a long time, it calls for you to live a celibate life trying to find God. Basically, if you were to "act sexually immoral" and were consistently giving God the finger, I would have in the past said you were hell-bound. But Matthew says that's not my decision and nobody can judge you but yourself and God. So it's up to you to find what you think will a.) please God or b.) suite your own thoughts of the matter. I can't recommend enough exploring other religions and cultures, it helps to alleviate one-sidednes. For the record, I don't think you're going to hell for being bi

 

I've been going through another thread that might help you out a little...here.

And a youtube video I've started to watch that I found somewhere on EC: here.

I personally am ex-Christian. I was raised (brainwashed) as a Christian. I've moved passed all that and currently consider myself agnostic. With that said, I'm still doing a bit of research on God vs. homosexuality for the day I go to war with the parents on the subject.

 

I'm also a Catholic and am scared of going to Hell too. However, I know that God loves everyone no matter what and I personally believe that he doesn't send anyone to hell except for some special cases.

 

You could deal with it the same way most Christians deal with eating shrimp, working on the Sabbath, shaving their beard, etc...just ignore it.

Another way to look at it is being a certain way or being tempted to act a certain way is not a sin, the action would be the sin. Also, the Bible says that all have sinned and that all sins are viewed as equal by God. Humans are the ones who make a big deal about homosexuality, not God. But I think it's pretty obvious that some crusty old pharisees just hated the gays and shoehorned those verses in there.

 

The bible is outdated. Some parts of it are no longer true, or were put in there by homophobic translators.

 

I'm ex catholic. I now am more spiritual and have my own beliefs. You won't go to hell for something you didn't choose.

 

I dealt with that a lot at your age ..& honestly still kinda have that thought in the back of my head, ..according to my priest, & what the Catholic faith teaches, the feelings aren't wrong ..but he would say that acting on them are, much like pre-marital sex between heterosexual partners & that those were the only negative conditions for it. This was a recent conversation we had by the way; it's conflicting because, I want that relationship with Jesus but at the same time, I wonder how I can deal with my sexuality as well, but back to you; I don't think you're gonna go to hell, I think you should talk with a church member who won't be too hard on you & see their response, or talk to a family member, I don't want to give the wrong advice because this is a very tricky subject, especially on this site that is all about support, but maybe talk to different church members if you go to one, & see what advice they give, for me being older I'm still trying to figure it all out.

 

Aside from reading or studying it, there's hoping that God will, one day, just come down and say, "Hey, this is what I want. Got it? Good."

 

The problem, of course, is that many people believe that's what happened with Moses. Others believe that's exactly how the Bible came about. Others think that's exactly what Jesus was (God saying exactly that). Others think that's exactly what God did with Mohammed. So the scenario you posit is one that has been considered several times already...with pretty disastrous results.

 

Individually, perhaps. But a universal appearance is more so what I'm hoping for, instead of relying on somebody to convey the message. Maybe have it rain glitter and the sky flash like a neon sign, to announce the presence, then let folks know what's up.

Five minutes, tops. And that's assuming God sticks around to sign autographs.

 

Gotcha...that makes much more sense.

But I think the autographs are out. I don't even think the *Pope* does autographs. Not that I'd know.

 

In my opinion, me not liking what God has to say does not automatically mean I don't believe in his existance.
If he thinks that we deserve to burn in hell just for liking someone with the same genitals, he's just a huge jerk. I honestly don't know how else to put it. If he really does detest what has become of humanity (even when it comes to the simplest and most harmless things), and he knew it would come to all this, he should have just made Noah and his family unable to have children so our species could go extinct.

 

Pick and choose like most other Christians?

Everyone interprets the Bible individually (and collectively, based on denomination). Take into account that the Bible was both written for a world that didn't understand its position on the globe, let alone universe, the present, the future (till the Second Coming) and everything in between; then, you realize it had to be "dumbed down" to be ecumenical and time-less (assuming an all-knowing God that realized his audience would span 4+ millennia of human culture and development).

Imagine having to have a book to teach 1st-12th grade that must be understood by all (in this case, "grades" correspond to human knowledge and cultural development). The common denominator will be a 1st grade-level book. It will deal in absolutes because children don't possess the ability to rationalize and critically think and know about gray areas and that the world doesn't have absolutes (you tell a first grader that killing someone is "bad," but a twelfth grader should possess the mental development to understand the legitimate use of lethal force as self-defense by both people and nations).

 

I'm an ex-Christian, but I feel like it's worth saying that as long as you feel like you're being a good person and doing good in your life you shouldn't be worried about God judging you for something as trivial as sexual orientation and gender identity. As long as your relationship with God is good with you and you're doing good, you'll be fine.

 

You are bisexual, there's nothing you can do about it and you aren't hurting anyone by being bisexual so there's nothing wrong about it. Being afraid of what a book written thousands of years ago say about who you are or how you live your life, doesn't make much sense. Wouldn't you rather rely on what we know in this day and age and not on a book written by homophobic, xenophobic, etc. men who lived in an age where people were opressed, tortured and killed for the most absurd reasons. Just imagine how primitive peoples lives were and society was back then.

Now even if you want to believe in a personal god, you can't possibly live undeviantly by the bible. Actually no one can, because it is full of contradictions such as "love thy neighbour" but if he is gay, do I still love him? Because in that other verse we are told to "put them to death". Do you understand what I'm saying? It is impossble to live exactly by the bible.

Besides no one believes everything in the bible. All christians pick and choose what they believe, so there is really no reason for you to believe that homosexuality is wrong when there are so, so, so many other things that are considered "wrong" according to the bible, that no one ever takes literally.

 

I'm Protestant and bi.

God is about love. Once Christ came to earth, most Christians believe that the Old Testament law was fulfilled. When the verses in Leviticus are quoted, please understand that the main reason the verses were there was to keep the numbers of the Israelites strong. The law was there more to encourage procreation to keep the lineage to Christ intact.

And speaking of Christ, he never spoke against homosexuality. Jesus even healed the centurion's servant, who historically was said to be his lover. And although Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6 APPEAR to speak against homosexuality, it is important to keep in mind that verses get "lost in translation". Many scholars suspect that the verses were speaking against pedophilia originally, but King James in the 1600's was trying to overcompensate for his sexuality. As a result, he changed the translation to speak against homosexuality.

 

And thus the cycle renews...

 

What do you mean?

 

The only advice I can offer here is that hell doesn't exist and you're silly for worrying about it.