Church Retreat.

I tend to avoid religion as well. I think what you mention about avoiding church is natural if you think the churches you would go to would dislike people like yourself. As a part of my job at a rehab center, I have to take clients to a stereotypicly conservative church. It feels a bit awkward and demeaning when they start to talk about how sinful or evil certain groups of people are. If you can avoid unnecessarily exposing yourself to that sort of thing I think it would be for the best.

On the flip side and depending on the church it could be a lot of fun. I happen to be a non-believer and I enjoyed some of the church sponsored activities at my friends churches when I was in high school.

What is going to be going on at the retreat?

 

I'm Wiccan and part of the LGBT community... I still go to church with my family at times. The pastor usually preaches on things that can benefit everyone, like not being greedy or respecting others... so I'm usually not uncomfortable...

It really depends on the church I think, I know Methodists "accept" the LGBT community ((I say "accept" because a majority do, but you know there are the crazies sprinkled here and there...))

 

I know that some Methodists are not accepting, most in my town were not.

But usually on church retreats they talk about the things that MommaFrog mentioned.

 

Well I for one don't usually go to weekly mass anymore. Its not necessarily that I'm not religious, I just don't feel the need for organized religion in my life. I feel like my spiritual beliefs are very personal, and I don't need some old dude or an ancient book to tell me right from wrong. This is coming from someone who went to Catholic school for 13 years.

That being said, I do still help as an adult leader for my church's high school youth group. The other leaders pretty much all are gay friendly, and disagree with the church's stance on homosexuality. That are all pretty amazing people in my opinion.

I would advise you to give it a chance.

 

I'm sorry! According to the Methodist creed its "Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors" and they are SUPPOSE to accept anyone and everyone that wants to attend church and not judge anyone for any reason... I think my family's pastor summed it up well...

"Why should the preferences of another keep the love of God from them? They do not harm others with their desires, yet we are willing to take in a murderer if he claims Jesus! Take into your hears your homosexual brothers and sisters and treat them no different than you would the person in the pew next to you..."

 

I shy away from the term "Christian". I prefer Follower of Christ, so going to church is a big part of my life. I'm very involved in my local church. My dad's the pastor (which is both good and bad).

Sometimes I feel awkward around the people there though. I don't have my own car so I can't go to the church I want to yet, but I'm sure the awkwardness would go away if I found a gay-affirmative church.

 

Yeah, it's very unfortunate. I'm not saying that all of the Methodist churches don't accept LGBT people, I know that some do. It's just a good idea to check first. It's false advertising, what they are doing. It should be "Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors in certain places"

I totally agree with the quote from your family's pastor. We cause no harm being the way that we are, in fact we would cause more harm to ourselves and others in we hid who we are.

But my church did not believe that, so i was thrown out.
(they are coming around though, they invited me back the other day)

 

I go to a CofE (Anglican) church, though I am only out to a couple of people there. I also go to some church groups outside of Sunday mornings. I go because I find it fun, there is such a sense of community, and because otherwise I might well not read my Bible or learn about God at all.

 

I'm atheist and I attend church regularly with my family. When I tell my family about my sexuality, my 'change of faith' will follow soon after.

At school, I just ignore, because I can be openly apathetic without getting in trouble. XD I even fell asleep in one sermon. I was tired, but it was booooring. Although I am around some atheist peers and the grade is generally left-wing/religiously apathetic, so we have few people who are going to whine when nobody cares about church.

With family, I do everything. I never really find it awkward, but I don't find it terribly interesting. But it's only 45 minutes out of a week, and it keeps everybody happy, and it's not terrible or anything like that. Now and then at church they'll go on about how we need to mail our senators/MPs to say 'Marriage is between a man and a woman' and other social conservative agendas, but I just ignore it.

I will often 'sleep in' to avoid going, but I will make sure to go now and then.

As for a church retreat... I wouldn't go. No doubt they're going to ram quite conservative messages into your head to no end.

 

Do you think you'll enjoy going to this christian camp with your friend? Camping with friends has always appealed to me. Sounds like fun regardless.


Never been to church in my life. I've been inside one church before, I think, on a school trip.

 

I do go to church but the small group i'm in hates gays, and the leader said gays should not even be allowed in church because the church is a "clean" place. I wanted to punch him.

 

sometimes i have to go to church with my family, i was brought up in a catholic household and sometimes i do feel a bit uncomfortable and feel like i shouldnt be there with my family, seeing as if they knew the truth about me they probably would never be the same around me again. i also go to an all girls catholic school which can be hard at times, seeing as many there can be homophobic (however im not all out yet so they are not weird around me yet), i guess it really depends on the person, sometimes stuff like this doesnt bother them.