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Religion and coming out

Discussion in 'Coming Out Advice' started by British Lad, Feb 6, 2012.

  1. British Lad

    British Lad Guest

    Ever since I have come out Religion has being F***ing with my mind ever since, I never had this problem, but for some resone it has tried to convert me, I not bashing religion but I want it out of my head, the facts don't lie and there something pulling me in but I keep rejecting and fighting for my sanity(no offence everybody) and finding the very thing saying I am evil. Any help?
     
  2. Sunsetting

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    Hey bro, I know where you are at and God is on your side and wants the best for you. You are not evil, you are just working things out man, give yourself that flexibility.
     
  3. British Lad

    British Lad Guest

    Thanks, that meant alot.
     
  4. Sunsetting

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    We get this concept that God wants us to be drones of perfectionism, but all I see is a God with a relentless love who wants us to engage in the process of being loved by Him, loving Him back and Letting Him love through us. He is also the incarnation of patience with us, so He's not desiring us to join in with condemnation of ourselves, but to truly, deeply and passionately join in with His Love.

    Wow, that's intense, I hope it makes sense.
     
    #4 Sunsetting, Feb 6, 2012
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2012
  5. Bradley

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    Honestly, I stopped going to church because of this issue. I was getting pretty sick of them all telling me that I was going to hell. It's God's job to judge us, not people's job. If all the churchgoers insist on judging people based on THEIR interpretation of the Bible, then I don't want to be in their little club. When I read the Bible, I read about a loving, forgiving God. Not once does Jesus ever even mention homosexuality.
     
  6. Alexandria

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    My vote is this - if their religion is more important to others than your happiness, then you need better friends.

    If religion is bothering YOU directly, consider this -

    What has been the greatest influence in resisting the right for you to love whomever you wish?

    What has been the justification to harm and murder those like you who only sought their happiness?

    What has it engrained within its own hard writings that people like you - us really - are to be condemned, hated, and ultimately forced to convert or be destroyed?

    The answer to all of these is religion.

    Or, the tl;dr version - To Hades with what any god or people want. If *YOU* are happy in the embrace of another, that is YOUR Business. Not gods. not religions. YOURS. Loving another, as one adult to another, with consent, regardless of gender, harms NO ONE.

    btw - Sunsetting - you almost nailed it in one with the first part of your comment -- "God wants us to be drones of perfectionism". I personally would add the part of 'without the ability to think, feel or love based on our own feelings, our own wishes, our own intuition - the true definition of drone."

    Reality is, religion - xtianity and islam in particular - fight things like the LGBTQ so hard because deep down it recognizes that someone that is happy and with someone is MUCH harder to cow into submission than someone that is terrified or scared or alone.
     
  7. fedora777

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    sunsetting, that is exactly how i view God.
    His love is everlasting and undying, all He wants is you, as long as you give him yourself you will be fine :slight_smile:
     
  8. GoogieHowser

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    my advice with trying to reconcile a strict interpretation of the bible in regards to homosexuality is not to
     
  9. sanguine

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    or you can throw it in the bin and do the right thing instead of being told what to do, afterall there is more than one way to God
     
  10. Alexandria

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    .....

    -facepalm-
     
  11. Zontar

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    Are you suggesting you were once religious, am no longer, and still feel afraid about yourself?

    Organized religion's most powerful tool has been fear; the fear of death, the fear of eternal torment, you name it. The important thing to do is to sit down and continue to conduct the questioning that led you out of religion to begin with. "There is no basis for an afterlife, much less eternal torment" or "Churches use this rhetoric to keep their numbers up." Don't let fear run your life, you'll never move forward.
     
  12. Alexandria

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    THANK You, Zontar.
     
  13. BradThePug

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    I agree with this.
     
  14. Fiddledeedee

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    Seconded. Which is why I don't interpret every part of the Bible literally.

    British Lad, God does not think that you are evil and he does not ask you to be perfect. I believe that he loves you just as you are, and he doesn't want any of us to try to change our orientation.

    I love what Sunsetting said about "getting the concept of God wanting us to be drones of perfectionism". Thing is, he doesn't. He gives us the choice to do what we want and to choose whether or not to follow him, because he loves us. Since he loves us, he wants us to return that, which we cannot do if he is controlling every aspect of our life.
     
  15. insidehappy

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    hi british lad. i do not know what religion you are. but it sounds as though you believed in a higher power at one point and maybe still do but whatever specific religion you are a member of and its doctrine is suggesting that you are evil.

    i am not well versed on things so my comments will be short but think of it like this. imagine one day someone said anything with sugar in it is bad and you were evil it you ate it. you would have some peopel continuing to eat sugar and loading up on it. you would have others that ate it behind closed doors but around their friends they would say they did not. you would have some that technically never ate refined sugar but there was actually natural sugar in all the foods they were eating so they were also guilty of eating it too. and you would have other that would manage to never eat processed sugar or natural sugar at all but they craved it each and every day so it was almost like they were eating it anyway. my point is, everyone in this scenario would be "evil". a lot of times we tend to listen to whatever others say about religion, we tend to listen to others about what God says about thsi or that, instead of going directly to the source ourselves and developing a relationship directly with the source.

    Read the scriptures for yourself. Research things for yourself. Find out the true context for what is being said and why. Talk to God in whatever way you do this directly.

    Think of it like this. IMagine that a teacher left the room and before she was going to leave the room, she had one of the students to be in charge of the room. She told gave the student a list of rules that she shoudl make sure the other kids followed. Then teh teacher leaves the room. The girl she put in charge personally had her favorites so she let some things slide for some kids she liked and enforced the rules on others she didn't like. She also forgot some of the rules the teacher gave, and when she forgot them, she sometimes made up her own version of what she could remember. When the teacher got back, she found her classroom was in total chaos. When she asked the girl if she remembered the rules, the girl admitted that she may have forgotten a few and that she was easier on her friends. When the teacher returned to the mess the girl had made of everything, she had to get everyone back on track and retrain them.

    Sometimes religion is like this. What God wants for us and what God feels is often misinterpreted by "people" and they put their own spin on things and say they are doing it in God's name. I encourage you to pray and seek God for yourself and study for yourself.
     
    #15 insidehappy, Feb 6, 2012
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2012
  16. British Lad

    British Lad Guest

    Well I am not part of any religion I have never been to a holy place of worship, it all this stuff from the internet.
     
  17. malachite

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    I'm not sure Religion is the villians, so much as the people who use it as a weapon to attack people.

    The fact is if we're going to take the homosexuality is "wrong" then we must abide by all the other "wrong" things like:
    Eatting shell fish
    wearing polyester (seriously)
    shaving


    Look, you have to know that fanatics are going to say whatever they can to prove their point, because if they wrong the world will cave in on itself, or so they think.
     
  18. Alexandria

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    Malachite (love the Sailor Moon name btw :wink: ) - When a scripture - the written word - of a religion declares people to be enemies that must be destroyed, then the religion itself IS an enemy of peace. Christianity and islam both fall under this category.
     
  19. Hexagon

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    You want religion out of your head? Consider this: its logically improbable for god to exist and completely unnecessary for it to exist for the world to function the way it does. So I very much doubt that any divine being is considering how best to punish you for the 'sin' of loving someone.

    That isn't intended to offend any religious person - even the OP if thats the case - take it up with god if you are, and I'm sure it'll deal with me. But while others have been telling you without proof that god is on your side, I'm injecting logic as I see it. Personally, I've always found it much more comforting than religion.
     
  20. Robert

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    The Bible does not condemn homosexuality, it condemns straight people having sex with other straight people from the same gender.