Help on Religion

Well the underlying theme of Christianity is belief in Jesus Christ, not full submission to obscure passages from controversial books.

The Bible says a lot of things. The Bible claims that seafood and wearing mixed fibres are as much an abomination as homosexuality. Notice that over hundreds of years, people have taken the argument against seafood and put it aside. Why? Because it doesn't fit society any longer. Over many many years the Bible has been translated and the context has changed. This means that you are in every right to look at its context in relation to modern society. The modern Christian would keep in mind the essential teachings, such as loving your neighbour, the Decalogue, sermons as spoken my Jesus. It is not important to search deep within the scriptures to find passages which seem to condemn people. This would be letting to Bible lead you blindly, whereas most Churches established in recent times say that teachings of the Church (Note that in most Churches homosexuality is not forbidden) and personal conscience is very important to being a good Christian.

My religious studies teacher last year was also a priest. He was under the strong belief that homosexuality itself is absolutely fine. Many of the top religious leaders are homosexual themselves or supporters of gay rights. He also pointed out to me that the Bible has a habit of exaggerating things to get the message across. Off the top of my head, there is one passage in the gospel of Matthew which says that simply looking upon someone lustfully is counted as adultery, which is clearly a sin.
Now obviously everyone to live has looked at people with lust, it's very human. This passage is an example of how things are exaggerated to the extreme to get their point across.
So you can take this two ways. In the literal translations, we are all sinners. So being gay may be a sin, but really so is most other things we do. So it's not a bad thing to do.
If you look at it with a more educated and critical eye, homosexuality is just as fine as heterosexuality.

If we go back to as recent as 80 years ago, racism was rife in certain areas of the world, notably in the deep south of America. People claimed that they could fit their racist beliefs in with the Church and thus they could justify racial discrimination. This led to bigoted and racist groups forming who claimed to be part of Christianity (The KKK being a classic example). My point is that people will take their twisted bigotry and try to fit it with religion. Just like racism and religion is clearly a bunch of rubbish, as is homophobia and religion.

Sorry about the long post. But basically you don't have to let your sexuality and religion clash. Because they can get on great together.

 

i dont believe its a sin. the bible says many things- whos to say whats right and what isnt?

 

The bible was written by MORTAL hands that are not almighty.

Please, do yourself a favor and go to Greg's thread under the LGBST section and watch the movie called "The Bible Tells Me So." It's very informative, neutral, and will dispel any feelings of living a sinful lifestyle.

 

I have found that is really important to find your own thoughts and views. I dont mean like creating your own religion or anything, but more or less not going by what other people preach to you, or AT you for that matter. I have grown up in church practically my whole life and being gay and having a very religious background has taken a huge toll on me and my faith. But I do know that God made me who I am, and so that is good enough for me. If you ever need to talk or you want some opinions from someone who has been there send me a wall message, I'd be happy to talk with you.

 

Here is a very good video, the same one Enigma was talking about:

http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showpost.php?p=444011&postcount=10

To every argument there are two sides. Some people may tell you "homosexuality is a sin" but for every one person who does, there is another out there who does not believe that. You just need to hear both sides of the argument, thats all. This video does a great job of that.

 

I would get your mother and sister to watch the video i linked then. Maybe also "Prayers for Bobby". And then give them some PFLAG material to seal the deal. Those three things together are almost full-proof if used on anyone with half a brain

 

Religion is something that will be very, very touchy when it is mixed with the heated debates of homosexuality. I am very religious and still find a struggle on combining my religious life with my homosexuality.

Being gay isn't a sin. God made you that way, for a reason. You serve a purpose in this world, and being gay might be one key factor on it. God is love and I feel he sent most of us, if not all, to end the hate and discomfort it is felt against our community by setting an example: Gay != Evil.

Many people are amazed when I tell them I like boys and not girls. And that's because they think of gay people being lustful, immoral and just against whatever society says it's right. Just be confident that God doesn't hate you, and He won't ever hate you.

Being irresponsible with your sexuality is a sin. Same thing with straight and bi and whatever sexual orientation you feel identified with. Having multiple sex partners, having sex just for the sake of it, etc. basically most of the things that we're teached are wrong are really what God feels is a sin. Why would God make you a sinful person from the moment you were born?

Think about God as a friend who cares about you. He really does. And He is there with you when you're struggling. As your friend, God doesn't want you to be sad, or depressed or insecure. He wants you to be happy for the wonderful things He has given you in your life. He wants you to be happy so you can make other people happy. He loves you.

 

I was of the understanding that all sins could be forgiven. I think far too many people forget that and I'm an atheist!

 

(*hug*)

I think you're in a tough spot. You're obviously being raised in a Christian home and are surrounded by people that share certain beliefs. So you have naturally take up those beliefs as your own. That in itself isn't a problem.

However, now you're realizing that one of those beliefs is in conflict with who you actaully ARE. Only someone that IS gay can know that it is something that we ARE. And that is our challenge. Sharing with those around us the fact that we didn't choose to be gay, nor is it healthy to pretend we aren't gay. And I don't really believe that, if put in our shoes, anyone would continue to insist that we simply 'stop' being gay...

I think you need to spend some time thinking about what it means to you to be gay, and how you can reconcile in your mind some of your religious beliefs along with the fact that you're gay. Get to the point where you can feel good about it. That you strongly believe that this is who you are, and as said above, it's who God wanted you to be, and that you're OK with that.

When you're in that place, then you can contemplate coming out to people who are going to challenge you on that. Because it sounds like they are going to. And you don't want to live the rest of your life convinced that it's 'bad' to be gay, knowing that you're gay. Because that will wreak havoc with your self esteem.

Hand around here. It helped me a lot, and many others. And feel free to PM me if you want to chat - as I'm one of the moderators here on the site. Good luck!

 

You are correct that in the Christian teachings, that all sins can be forgiven.

The trick is that one has to be truly repentant and make a genuine effort to "sin no more." That said, the conservative Christian sects believe that homosexuality is a behavior, and as such, if one CONTINUES to be gay, then they're not truly repentant and are a sinner. Of course, homosexuality is not a behavior that one can change, so it's a Catch 22 that basically sets up gay people to be damned to hell according to the Christians.


Now, I'm going to provide a different insight. Some people here have suggested that god is your friend and that he has no issues with gay people.

Really? What evidence is there of that?

Well, as to the second point, god having no issues with being gay, that's true. All eight of the "anti-gay" verses in the bible, when one researches them, turn out to be not applicable to anything. The Leviticus verses were meant for early Jews as part of their holiness and cleanliness codes, and they weren't meant to apply to anything or anyone else (and were later overturned by the new covenant anyway). The Corinthians 6 verse, in the original Hebrew, does not use the word "homosexual," as no word for homosexual, nor the concept of a homosexual, existed until around 1850. The word that in English translations is "abomination" was "toh'bah" (there are several spelling variants) in Hebrew, which does not at all mean abomination. It's the same word that was used to describe eating shrimp in Hebrew earlier in Leviticus. Even the Romans 1 verses about men trading "natural for unnatural" verses, which sound like they're pretty iron-clad, fall when one bothers to read the rest of it and put those verses into context. Romans 1 speaks to all sorts of sins, but when one reads Romans 2:1, it basically sums the whole thing up and says that the ones who JUDGE the sins laid out in Romans 1 are the REAL sinners.

But as to the first point-Is god your friend? No. Bible god is not your friend. Bible god is a mass-murdering woman-hating (and effeminate men, which ARE spoken against in the bible) unstable psychopath. All told, bible god's kill count is well over 300,000, and realistically, anyone that would send you to ETERNAL punishment for breaking some arcane rule is, frankly, an asshole. Honestly, bible god was that conservative bigoted asshole, and the reason Jesus "had" to die on the cross was because Jesus turned out to be his liberal socialist hippy son, and that just pissed bible god off to no end. Seriously, if he's willing to kill people, or send them to hell, or anything like that, god really doesn't care about you and is not your friend. Friends don't send friends to hell for eternity.


Ultimately, as much as you don't want to hear this, SOMETHING has to give if you're going to reconcile being religious and being gay. Since being gay is not optional, at least some aspect of your religious belief cannot stand. Whether that means becoming a more liberal Christian or dumping it entirely in favor of something else is something only you can decide.

What I will say, however, is that you shouldn't just automatically presume that just because you were raised Christian that it's the right answer. You need to take some time and consider not whether you can integrate being gay and being Christian, since those are ancillary questions, but instead whether being Christian is actually what's right for you.

 

I'm glad those two videos helped you feel better in yourself - there's also lots of info at Soulforce.org if you still need convincing. I would still consider myself Christian if it weren't for the disgusting behaviour of much of the Christian church - as the man says "I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians". I certainly did consider myself Christian when I first realised I couldn't keep up pretending to be straight. It's a very tough internal battle at times, but remember God will always want to see love and happiness trump fear and hatred. (*hug*)

I would suggest that you don't tell your family until you feel more comfortable being gay, until you're surer in your knowledge that you are exactly as God wants you to be - if your sister has moved by then, that's ok, you can call her up or send her a letter. Tell them when you feel ready, and not before.

 

I am also from a fundamentalist christian family, and have just come out recently to them. It helps that I don't personally believe the whole "homosexuality is a sin" but it's exhausting, overall, knowing that my family thinks I'm sinful.

What the Bible says - and doesn't say about Homosexuality is an excellent article on the subject. The basic premise is that a)No interpretation of the bible can be considered final, as history has shown that previously accepted interpretations were wrong and b)The bible is not a book about sexuality, and thus doesn't say whether homosexuality is wrong or not. It is written by a gay man with extensive biblical education and a knowledge of the greek and hebrew in which the bible was written.

I'd say you're welcome to talk to me if you need to, about the religion thing, but I'm not a full member yet, so I don't think I can receive pm's. So I'll just say this: educate yourself from a wide variety of sources, and don't let anyone make you feel ashamed of yourself.

 

I understand the difficulty you are encountering - reconciling one's faith to one's sexuality is difficult at best.

Since coming out to the few people I have, I have actually become more religious, and find real value in attending church. However, I also chose a church (Anglican) which was less zealous about issues like homosexuality than say an evangelical church or a catholic church.

I listen to the sermons, and find that frequently they speak to the issues that I am going through as I adjust to this new reality.

I have a straight friend who is actually going through what could be described as a crisis of faith - he too is having difficulty reconciling some things against his own faith.

I believe that regardless of whether or not one is gay, we all encounter times when we feel what is right or necessary doesn't match with what our religion would have us do and feel.

Having friends around you who can support you through this struggle is important. I am thankful for my roommate (who is straight and religious) as he has helped me with these issues over the past while. I also think he has learned to look at being gay and religious differently too because of me.