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LGBT and religion.

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by JimmyJam, Jun 30, 2011.

  1. JimmyJam

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    Hello everyone. This is obviously a complex topic, so I will ask a simple question: How has religion played a role in your life?

    Myself, I was raised in a christian family. My parents would often read me the bible and we would pray together. I went to a small church every Sunday. The pastor always rambled on about the old testament, it was quite boring. The lessons that they taught the children were substance-less things like "Jesus loves you very much" that never said much of anything.

    Where I really got into religion was at christian summer camp. After a week of passionate, modern lessons about the nature of Christ and religion I had a mind blowing religious experience during the final night of worship. It is hard to explain but I will try to put it in perspective. The transformation occurred in just a few seconds. All I wanted to do was love everything and everyone. It was like I was seeing the world through the eyes of Jesus himself. I understood everything. Call it enlightenment, call it brainwashing, call it being born again, call it nirvana - in any case it was the most powerful thing I have ever experienced.

    In the months to follow, I eventually lost my way. A few years later and I figured out that I was gay. I told my parents. Thought it was just a phase.

    I have a very unconventional understanding of religion now, and I have no clue what I believe. For now I have put things to rest. I am not sure what I would have to give up to be a true Christian, so for now I will just live my life as I please.

    It could all be a lie, a delusion. Maybe someone put drugs in the food or it was a strange form of hypnosis. All I know for sure is that there is something powerful at the centre of Christianity.

    So that is me. Share if your experiences if you feel like or ask a question or something. I may not get any replies, but I am ok with that. Peace.
     
  2. IanGallagher

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    I believe more in ancient religion, many gods, thus yeah - that means Zeus. I've had so many experiences and signs thrown my way that I just call him "dad" lol. It can even be as simple as asking for a sign/answer to something - turning the radio and getting the answer, or passing a sign and getting the answer. A ATM once malfunctioned when I was self-destructing and told me I had no money, I called my Dad the next day about it - money was still in there. Then, I was driving to get drugs and beer on a road where no cars usually are only to find road blocks at every turn. My friends have also commented on the weird things that seem to happen around me, making them question things. I'm in Hollywood now at a top film company with the execs and VP interested in one of my scripts, one of my mentors is connected to one of the actors I had a crush on growing up: everything out here has been "six degrees from Kevin Bacon" style. Definitely believe there's some higher power out there, seen it at work.
     
    #2 IanGallagher, Jun 30, 2011
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  3. Markio

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    Well, I was raised in a Catholic family! We went to church every Sunday and my Catholic elementary school held Mass on Friday mornings so I essentially went twice a week during the school year. When I was really young, before I understood the point of church, I used to make up surreal stories about people I saw; usually stories involving the grown-up men in the congregation. I didn't think of it as sexual, just interesting.

    I think I got a warped sense of spirituality because of my Catholic upbringing. I felt guilty all the time for all the bad things happening around me, like my parents yelling or getting bad grades in school, and of course for looking at men in a sexual way. I didn't think I was gay, I just thought I was crazy or had some mental illness.

    I waited years to hopefully find girls attractive, all the while hiding my sexuality for fear of being condemned, correctly, by the other Catholics at my high school. When I got to college and finally came out, I was sure I was going to go to hell. My gay-affirming friends did not understand me, because they were not raised as devoutly as I was.

    The most beneficial thing I ever did for myself was go to see a counselor. She helped me recognize all the habits I had developed from being religious that were really holding me back from loving myself. She also pointed out that you cannot truly love others unless you love yourself first.

    Since then I've strayed away from religion. I find it hard to trust Christian people, because I'm afraid that they will reject me for my sexual orientation. I'm trying to work on this, because I don't want to misjudge people for their religion. As for my own beliefs, I believe in God and Jesus' teachings about loving others. To me if someone strives to be kind and understanding, then they are going to heaven. To me kindness and love are synonymous with believing in Jesus, so either way, we're good.
     
  4. Shevanel

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    My Catholic up bringing and going to Catholic High School has helped my life greatly, and my realization of my bisexuality to be awesome and self-accepting.
     
  5. Kidd

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    My mother's family is Jewish (Reform) and my father's family are very strict and devout evangelical Christians so I was exposed to a little bit of everything growing up, and I still am. The university I'm at right now is ran by the United Church of Christ.

    Before we moved away I spent a lot of time with my paternal grandparents and honestly, both them and their religious beliefs depressed me so deeply that at times I considered suicide. I really do think that if we hadn't moved here to be with my mother's side of the family I would be dead right now.

    My parents are very hands-off in their parenting style, so I was always free to make my own decisions growing up. I identify as a Reform Jew, but I just say that for the recognition and glamour of it more than anything else. I guess I'm actually more of an agnostic. I want to believe, but the more logical side of me won't allow it. It's very conflicting. I like to think that if God exists it is beyond our comprehension, and it's stupid to even try to define it.
     
  6. Raeil

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    I could just do make some copypasta from my note, but that would take up half of the page, so I'll try to shorten it while still hitting the important bits.

    When I was 3 years old I said the Sinner's Prayer. Dad was a Youth Pastor at an Assemblies of God church, so I was always there, being taught from the Bible and it would have happened sooner or later. He continued to be a Youth Pastor in that and a different church for about 5 years, so I got really involved in the Children's Ministries at the other church (Church A). Ended up helping with our week long crusades and revivals, being on the worship team, and actually ended up influencing a bunch of the other kids' worship style (they would basically copy me). Anyway, church politics got bad, so we left and basically church floated for two years.

    In 6th grade, I ended up at Church B (non-denominational, but really close to Church A's belief system). Again, got involved there really quickly, and it was there that I actually started to own my faith, rather than it simply being a product of my heritage. This is also when I realized I was gay, so I basically prayed against it every time I had a stray thought about a boy. I knew if anyone found out I'd get kicked off of every leadership team, and would lose all of my friends, since they were rather homophobic because of the church teachings. I stayed at that church until I graduated, but left to go back to Church A after that as I had been helping Church A's youth ministry on the side for a year and a half. In college, I kept up my faith, and actually got three of the people I constantly hung out with to start going to church again (they had stopped since they got into high school).

    Last fall, I took a course in Logic and also came to accept that I was gay and that the fact was that I wouldn't become straight. I turned Logic on the Scriptures in order to show myself that Christianity and homosexuality are not mutually exclusive, and stopped there, content with still being able to be Christian. So that was all well and good, but then in January of this year, Logic went to war on Christianity and won in about 10 minutes (in the middle of a service where I was scheduled to be on the worship team at the end, no less!). So, I became a non-Christian, and over the course of the next few months I struggled with the fact that I now believed my whole childhood was a lie (not a horribly harmful one, but a non-truth nonetheless), and that I didn't believe in an afterlife, etc. Being able to call myself an atheist (which I started doing in May), was about as liberating as being able to call myself gay.

    Getting to this point was tough, but I'm at a point where I can look back on my upbringing without being upset at anyone. Sure, I spent seven years of my life attempting to forcefully remove a hugely important part of myself, but I've made so many amazing connections with people because of my former religion that I feel it's worth it. If I have kids I will certainly NOT be raising them in any sort of religion, but they won't be a sheltered as I was (homeschooled for all my pre-7th grade education), so I think the connections will balance out.

    Anyway... wow, that's a lot shorter than I expected! If you have any questions on specifics, I'd be glad to give them (through wall or PM), but I don't want to take up any more of the page!
     
  7. Black Cat

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    Religion is a very important part of my life. I consider myself to be deeply religious, but not tied to any one official branch of any one specific religion or belief system. My personal religion is simple:

    Growing up, church was not a staple in my life - nor is it now. I don't think it essential to go to church or to visit a sanctioned place of worship to communicate with God. God is everywhere, in everything, and all around us. And he/she (for some reason everytime I imagine meeting God, I imagine him/her to look like Whoopi Goldberg) loves everyone and everything equally.

    I also believe everything happens because God wills it. Sometimes to test us, sometimes to reward us, sometimes to force us to grow as an individual, or sometimes for a reason we learn after the fact. Everything, from the people who come in and out of our lives, to our trivial material possessions, to the catastrophic events that occur worldwide, and even the words we speak, are predetermined by God, or at least influenced by God, to shape us in ways we may never understand.

    I am steadfast in my personal faith in God. I love God. I firmly believe that God created us all the way we are, flaws and all, and we all influence the world through something like the butterfly effect, which is all set into motion by God's actions.
     
  8. Austin

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    Religion has made my life harder, the world worse, and I have to deal with annoying people... that's the roll it's played in my life.
     
  9. Revan

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    Quite an interesting story.

    To be honest I have never really been sure what to classify myself with religion...see I often have believed there is a God, though at times I will admit my faith has never really faltered. When disasters happen, and people blame God/higher power, I always believe that "you expect God to protect you every single time?" Besides, Mother Nature and God are two different entities last I checked. I don't really believe God or a higher power has any real control over Mother Nature. But yeah I don't know, I'm kind of waiting for a miracle to happen. All my life I have however had this constant feeling that I'm going to have a huge impact on the world, I don't know if it's good or bad impact...though going on my personality and feelings, I believe it will be good. But yeah that's how I feel.
     
  10. bookworm43

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    I grew up in an episcopal family, went to church every sunday, went to church camp, the whole nine yards. even before i realized i was gay, i started to loose a little enthusiasm for my believe and now i only believe in God, but not the one in the bible. I believe that there is a divine force watching and protecting me, and i feel his/her presence all the time. i simply believe in being decent to people, and to be open to other's beliefs. so basically i have no religion, but i believe in the triumph of good over evil. I believe in karma, and that everything happens for a reason. i believe that if you have a positive outlook on life, pleasant things will happen to you in turn. I'm not sure I believe in heaven, but I do believe that I will meet my maker one day. I dont know if there's a name for the belief i just described- it's just what i've come to feel over time.
     
  11. aidan

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    I don't and have never had any reason to believe religion is true, and all the reasons that people put forth for why they are true are so easily debunkable it's ridiculous. I did have faith once, until I started caring about the truthiness of stuff. Then I kinda lost it.

    I think it kinda sucks that religious folk have to reconcile their 2000 year old torture textbook with modernity.
     
  12. Pseudojim

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    this is what i say when people ask.

    "Until i was 15 i was christian, but then i saw the light and was saved."
     
  13. LemonCake

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    I grew up in a southern Baptist church. In all honesty, religion frightened me to death as a child with all the teachings about hell and the end of the world and stuff. The religion I experienced as a child was about hate not love. The last time I went to church, ten years ago, the sermon was about how Catholics and Muslims deserved to die, and that God would destroy the world for their sins. (I know that doesn't make any sense because both Islam and Roman Catholicism have existed for over a thousand years longer than Baptists, but oh well... try telling THEM that :/ )

    For a long time I called myself an atheist. The god I grew up with was an evil being who wanted to make me miserable and who wanted to destroy the world that I thought was beautiful. I dabbled in things like Wicca and stuff also because i wanted to feel spiritual.

    Lately I have been studying the words of Jesus himself. It seems that he wasn't all about slaughtering gays or stoning people to death like I had imagined when I was younger, but was more like Buddha or something. He believed in love and acceptance and peace and that is something that I can believe in. Jesus was an awesome guy. His words are very inspiring to me. The rest of the Bible however, is a little bizarre, and I'm unwilling to believe that its anything more than Bronze age myths. I'm turned off by all the violence and strange rules. I don't think anyone has to live by Old Testament rules to be a good person.
     
  14. crazyhead

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    I used to believe in God when I was young but I just grew out of it. Not like I was mad at the world or anything. I just grew out of it like I did Santa Clause. The more I thought about it, the more the idea of him seemed like a logical impossibility. I don't see what makes it any different than any other religion that's come and gone. Greek mythology explained things that people didn't understand at the time. I think Christianity does the same thing.

    To switch lanes but still head in the same direction: I don't see a way to really be a Christian. I don't mean this offensively, just another logical impossibility. If you chose Christianity (for the sake of argument) because you agree with it, you're not following the word of God because God told you to. You're choosing this God among the other because this one happens to agree with you. If you don't agree with it, but you do it anyway, you're not being true to yourself, and are therefor not a true Christian. If you were to believe every word of the Bible and somehow follow it not because you happen to agree (which you do) but only because God said so, you're still ignoring your own convictions. (I also think you'd be a bit insane with all the atrocities in there). If you do the thing that most Christians do where you call yourself a Christian but ignore everything you don't like, that's like saying that I'm huge fan of The Mummy 3 as long as I ignore 80% of the movie. (... I'd actually have to ignore 100% of the movie). But some people don't literally believe it, they just recognize it as stories that help you make moral decisions. Aside from my disagreeing with lots of the moral teachings of the Bible, this is what I'm most okay with. But it's just not enough to actually call it your religion. But unless you ignore all other moral teachings (which would be crazy) you're not strictly Christian. You can get your moral teachings from the show Scrubs, but that doesn't make it your religion.
    I'm an atheist. I don't worship Satan and I'm not mad at God. I don't ignore him so I can live in sin. I sin no more than most Christians. I'm not an angry person and I have zero intention to offend. If I disagree with you (the reader) please know I very respectfully disagree. I assure you my reasoning was not an attack. It was just the logic that lead me to atheism.
    My head has more in there... but I'm done.
     
  15. Bowie

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    I was raised mostly catholic. My parents were never very religious, but my grandmother was, so she mostly took care of that. When I was 13 or so, I started getting to know other religions. After that, I spent a few years not really knowing what to believe in. Studying philosophy and science, however, has led me to stray from any kind of religion, until, in 2008, while living in Europe, I decided I was an atheist. I gave the matter some more thought and found out that I was actually an agnostic. That's where I stand today.

    I have, however, a deep respect for religion. Some of the wisest people I've known were deeply spiritual. I actually think that religions provide a very powerful, effective way of coming to terms with oneself and some of the more mysterious aspects of life — they just don't work very well for describing a metaphysical reality (science does a much better job at that). I've been reading some taoist and buddhist philosophy, and I can see how practising some of those ideas could make you happier.
     
  16. ilayis

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    Not going to get into how I got to this point.I will just say as much as I would love and believe that there is no God.One of the Most Biggest Reasons why I have not killed myself is out of fear that there really is a God and he will have me lay dormant as I await to start a new life,where I have to re live all the things that brought me to suicide and until I overcome those obstacles,which supposedly I will not know of from previous life and live a full and productive not sinning life,will never be allowed into so called heaven.

    Why do some people have it so easy in life and supposedly get into heaven and I have to fucking suffer my entire life and hope that I did what you wanted?
    Fuck You God
     
  17. Shmoe

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    My close family weren't very good Christians and didn't take me to church very often but I am pretty spiritual. I consider my self Christian but sadly my outer family (Cousins and aunts and what not) are very Christian. They say things like "We should follow our lord blindly and faithfully" and things like that. My faith sort of makes me hate being gay every once in a while, Thinking things like "What if it is just a test from god that we can get over?". Luckily I get over that pretty quick. I prefer my deity to be more loving and accepting than fire and brimstone.
     
    #17 Shmoe, Jul 19, 2011
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  18. FJ Cruiser

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    I grew up in a Southern Baptist church and attended elementary at an evangelical Christian school in a city that purportedly has the most churches per capita in the US. Yeah...there's a reason I'm still in the closet.

    I personally don't see how someone can logically come to the conclusion of atheism. There's no scientific proof for or against the existence of a higher being (there can't be), so logically speaking, it takes just as much commitment to believe in nothing as something.

    That said, I consider myself a Christian, though I hold some views that are quite different from most of the people here. I don't believe God will ever incontrovertibly prove Himself because it takes away the faith aspect of following Him. I believe anything other than Jesus' words should be viewed in a contextual light, including the scriptures on homosexuality. I was never taught the intolerant, fire-and-brimstone god that so many resent. Instead, God was loving, someone you could have a personal relationship with.

    To say that my bringing up in the church has been wholly positive would be a lie, but I feel like the pros outweigh the cons. Sure, there are plenty of blind and/or hypocritical followers of religion, but there are plenty of the most genuine, kind-hearted people on this planet to whom you can talk about almost anything without judgement. Homosexuality is one of the few exceptions, and I feel that most in this city are misguided about it and certain other issues.

    Since the issue is coming more into the political spotlight, homosexuality has been, at the very least, taboo if not a point of crusade among some here. Their intolerance and misinterpretation has led to a lot of internal pain for me, and certain attitudes have caused me to abandon organized Christianity for now, but I could never lose my faith.
     
    #18 FJ Cruiser, Jul 19, 2011
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  19. nerdyboy87

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    I tried to follow Christianity. I'm not ready to just give it all up just yet, but I'm having trouble accepting that God would create people like us, and then forbid us from having relationships.
     
  20. solarcat

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    I was never particularly religious. My dad was raised Catholic, my mom was raised a mormon. I may have gone to church in my youth (my brother and I were christened, i believe), there may have been some church-sponsored daycare I went to, but I don't remember it much.

    Later on, my mom allowed some mormon missionaries to read to us, talk with us, and we went to temple a few times to look around, but ultimately I was never a believer, though I do like some of Jesus' teachings.

    So my brother and I were brought up fairly secularly, but with an open mind. My dad's probably an atheist now, but my mom still has some belief. I was an atheist, but now I'm more agnostic. There's a lot that science can explain, but a few things, like the creation of the universe, that almost necessitate some sort of deity. What better than a god to do the impossible? I do have the theory that I myself am god, but I'm not stupid or insane enough to test it.

    Ultimately, though, religion was never a big part of my life.