The Religious Me and the Gay me....

Okay. Personal thoughts, no one take offense-

I believe that religions should not follow the bible word for word. In the bible there are hundreds of contradictions, and twice as many ways to quote it for your own agenda. I belive that the bible-a t least PARTS of it, were written to get the jews back into shape. This was a period of history when jews were inferior. Also, the bible has been edited. There was supposedly a large council (The council of Nicene, I believe) who ultimately decided what was in the bible and what wasn't. What you read in a bible today is probobly no where close to what it was originaly. The bible also condones slavery and degredation of women. You can't eat 3-day-old meat, wear two fabrics at once, or have sex with a woman on her period as these are crimes punishible by death. (Leviticus, somewheres arround verse 18.) I personally also think it's quite ridiculous to live your life by a book. It's a book, and you wouldn't live your life according to "Schindler's List" or "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", would you? No. (Except for me- i cast Alohamora spells on locked doors...tee hee. Jk.) I have found many reasons, consisting greatly of the reasons stated above as well as others, for not following the bible. I also feel organized religions are glorified cults. And the only reason they're glorified is because people swear they're doing "God's Work". But everyone in the world has a different opinion on just what specifically is god's word, and it's insane. I respect everyone's religion as long as they respect mine. (I'm not an Atheist, for thiose who think so. I am not part of an organized religion, I DO believe in a higher power, not god in his personified form, and attend the United Church on Christ on occasion because I have befriended the pastor. He is a bandmate of mine.) Anyway, back to what I was saying- the bible is riddled with contradictions and has been edited and revised so many times over that no one really knows the truth. It's not reliable and it's purpose was to scare people into shape so the government figures could have an easier time of it.

Again, I ALWAYS respect people's religions. I wouldn't piss all over you because you're a Catholic or a Jew or whatever. AS LONG AS YOU RESPECT MY BELIEFS, I will respect you. So any religious people out there, this was NOT a personal attack on you.

The only reason I don't respect someone's religion is when they preach about it constantly- so just don't tell me I'm going to burn in eternal hellfires unless I join your cul--err, religion, and change my same-sex tendencies, save it. But I don't think anyone here will do that...

 

I also believe that we are created in the Higher Power's image. Which is why I don't believe in the personified christian God.
By this, I mean.
God is: female, male, gay, straight, bi, transsexual, a killer, a peacemaker, a president, a pauper, rich, poor, middle-class- God is everything and nothing at the same time. God is the image of it's children.

sorry for the double post.

 

I definitely agree with you Half-Light, I think that homosexuality and christianity are not mutually exclusive. I also believe that people who say they are and condemn homosexuality as a mortal sin are merely trying to use the bible as a weak support for their own insecurities and predjudices.

I also agree with a lot of what you said, GuitarGirl, about how people really shouldn't take the bible completely literally. However, one part that I disagree with is your interpretation of "God's work." I'm quite religious and am very active in my church, and so I do a lot of community service with them. So this is how I really view God's work: just helping others and treating others equally and with fairness and mercy, or rather treating them like humans, just like God and, perhaps even more, Jesus told us to do in the Bible. I don't think God's work means trying to convert people or forcing Christianity down their throats at all, like some more, shall we say, "fundamentalist Christians" do.

Although I definitely agree with you on the fact that Christianity is not for everyone, and you can't force everyone to convert. I think that, as long as you live by Jesus' rules of love and equality and can fulfill yourself spiritually, it doesn't matter what you believe.

 

Suburbs- I think it's great that you're active in your church, what I meant by that was the type of any religion where people kill, hurt, declare war, etc, in the name of God. Alot of wars throughout history have been fought in God's name. Also, the ones who go around telling people they burn in hell for not following their religion and saynig it's God's work. So yeah...

I recently read (I think it was in a PDF posted here) about someone who killed a few gay people because it was "God's work". That's the kind of example I meant.

 

There are far better reasons to reject religion/Christianity, other than its homophobia.

I always find it alternatively amusing and enraging when people try to rationalize the horrors described in the bible by saying they should be interpreted differently. Which passages should be interpreted differently? Any number of passages can be interpreted to support all kinds of views.

The bible is nothing but a cobbled together mess written by uneducated sheep herders and insane "prophets". I find it staggering that so many people in this age of science and reason still believe in and try to rationalize Bronze Age myths that should have been consigned to the same scrap heap as Zeus and Thor a long time ago.

I have rejected religion on intellectual and philosophical grounds as well as for deep personal reasons.

For any person who is looking into their faith, I recommend the brilliant book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

Here is the complete first chapter of the book from the website of the Richard Dawkins Foundation.

 

My thoughts exactly. I suggest some of you read this, an essay I found in a thread by paul, that talks about homosexuality and the bible.

Personally, growing up in a mormon household has completely made me repulse religion as a whole (at least for now). Don't make me rant on that one. But for now I'd consider myself somewhere close to a deist in beliefs- one who believes that a higher being created the world but has since stopped having an active role with our world. I don't fully agree with all of its teachings, but deism is what I most closely identify, which doesn't really say much all things considered.

 

I read it already and found it brilliant. I read it when Paul posted it. Thoughts on it?

Deism? I haven't heard of it, but it sounds good. Maybe I'll look it up.

 

I'm Christian and gay and I once thought the two were not compatible. The Soulforce and Gay Christian Network websites (among many others) have a lot of good information and message boards on this topic. A long, but well-written resource is "Letter to Louise" which you can Google. There are a lot of Christians who believe that the Bible says being gay is sinful since that is what they've been told their whole lives by the church, but they've never looked into it on their own. I've studied both sides of this debate so that I can understand what the Bible really says on the subject and my conclusion is that it doesn't condemn gay people anymore than it condemns straight people. People often use Bible verses out of context, or only part of a chapter, to "prove" their belief, however, this is a very poor use of any text. Please do some prayerful research on the "clobber passages" and make up your own mind.
Any church that would reject someone who is gay is not following Jesus' example and are not really Christian. Churches that try to make people straight are even worse. It's so sad how many churches are giving Christianity a bad name due to their stubborn ignorance regarding this subject. I also find it ridicuous how some Christians say that gay marriage will ruin society and they fervently rally against it. Yet at the same time they wouldn't dream of suggesting that divorce should be outlawed even though it ends about half the marriages in the U.S. and Jesus speaks outright against that practice.
Something kinda related to this topic is how James Dobson (a conservative evangelical) loves to quote legitimate scientific research out of context to prove his illegitimate opinions. He also uses his puppet organization NARTH to write scientific sounding articles to support his opinions. You'll see a lot about this guy on http://www.truthwinsout.com/.

 

I'm a gay Christian, too!
Don't lose hope! Be strong in your faith and proud of your sexuality!
God loves you!

 

Hey! I know exactly how you are feeling. I am a Christian as well and I LOVE being a Christian. I don't want that to change for anything. However, I'm gay. I've heard people over and over again quote the bible that it's wrong and sinful. If that's the case so be it. It's no different than someone living their life smoking than being gay. After all, all sins are equal in God's eyes.

Everyone has their own interpretation of what the bile is and etc.. Even though the bible quotes homosexuality as an abomination, I don't believe that's how it's being taken anymore. When Jesus Christ died, he wiped out tens of hundreds of the Old testament laws because it was a new beginning. Some things should still be considered, but not like they used to be.

I do believe God put man and woman on earth to love one another, but perhaps not all of us to that extent. Even if he did, he gave us free will. Free will lets us to what we like even if it isn't pleasing to God, just like someone smoking.

I do not believe God will send someone to hell for being Gay. If that was the case, he would send people to hell for smoking, committing adultery, murdering, gossiping, etc.

If you'd like feel free to PM me and we can continue the discussion more. I'm going through the EXACT same thing as you right now.

Thanks for listening!

-Nate

 

I think you can be unapologetically gay and christian, for sure

 

I'm Christian and also gay.
And God loves me just the way I am.
It's really as simple as that. :icon_bigg

Stay strong.

 

It's DEFINITELY possible to be gay and religious.

 

People need to stop looking at the Bible as a strict set of rules, which to live their lives by. Moreover, use it as a guide line to identify your own relationship with the Lord.

I also find it odd that being gay is one thing that seems to stick out these days, whatever happened to:

No sex before marriage
no working on Sundays
No taking the Lord's name in vein
No eatting meat on Friday
Judge not lest ye be judged
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not covet
Sloth
Pride
Wrath (oh, yeah that's a big one)

But I promise onnce everyone takes all those things and stops doing them, I'll think about my being gay as a sin.

 

Well if God didn't like gays he wouldn't create them. He says that he loves all his children so he is gonna have to deal with it. I'm sure he would rather you worship and love him rather than not doing so just because you are gay. It says a lot of shit in the bible that we don't agree with today.

 

Wow, this thread is OOOOLLLLLDDDD.