Can I be Lesbian and Religious?

treatmeright, you are in good company as so many people on EmptyClosets have struggled with this question. The short and simple answer is yes. You can be lesbian and religious.

I am gay, in a long term committed relationship and I'm a practising Christian with responsibilities in my Church. I have spent many, many hours studying the contentious passages from scripture that supposedly condemn same sex relationships and I've come to the conclusion that there is no case to answer.

I'm afraid some people of faith (and some without) are so wound up by the wording and syntax of scripture that they lose all perspective on meaning, history and context. If we pay little or no consideration to these deeper questions about scripture we end up in a viscious circle that poisons our thoughts and drags us into an emotional tug of war between faith and sexuality. It doesn't have to be like that.

 

God made you, humans made religion. Who do you think screwed up?

 

Don't let your life get all caught up in religion. Most of the bible is all about people so caught up in religion and making rules to define rules, that they totally miss the part about having a relationship with God.

The real question you need to ask yourself is, can you be the authentic you and still have a relationship with God? That answer is an easy YES.

 

Treatmeright, welcome

im not sure what religion you follow so i can only speak from a Judeo/Christian point of view. however i do know that the God of Abraham is the same God of Issiac and of Ishmeil (sp) and He has made each of us in His image, so if we are made in His Perfection then we are perfect as we are. it is only the twists and misunderstanding of His word that brings us such greif and strife.(*hug*)

 

This is what my Catholic priest told me ,"the church only condemns the actions and not the person doing the action, just do not act out in church." Take it how you will but I think it means as long as I look like a girl amd sound like one... He does not care if I am transgender.
Erika~chan

 

Most of the religious 'rules' and sins are completely outdated at this point in time anyway. The christians I'm friends with follow liberal morals, many of them support gay marriage, have casual premarital sex, etc, so It's obviously not fitting with the time we live in.

 

Hi,

Most theological students can tell you the true circumstances of the old bible stories that were twisted.

Cain and Able... It recounts the first range wars between farmers and herdsman. Same story was acted out in early American west between farmers and cattlemen and there too people died.

God was not part of that story originally. Makes a lot more sense now don't it?

Organized religion is about power, money and control with a social aspect. Early politics.

God is something totally different.

---------- Post added 31st Dec 2014 at 04:30 PM ----------

http://youtu.be/CE8ooMBIyC8

 

Look no further. You just answered your own question ... in the snippet I quoted above.

 

Hey, I've been through that too when I was younger. I'm Catholic, and my Baptist friend once told me "Why would God make you gay and then send you to hell for being gay?" We should all think outside the box. People are all born with their sexual orientation and gender identity, which is an example of diversity and diversity is beautiful. You're perfect the way you were born.
You're welcome to talk to me about your struggles; but I can only do the wall message thing currently, and not the private message thing; I just joined this month.

 

You mention your location is Dubai, you might also be Muslim. And in Islam as in Christianity and Judaism, acting upon ones homosexuality is condemned. I am a Muslim who is struggling through for an answer too. I even was convinced earlier in my life that getting married would "fix" my sexual orientation. Now at 49, married with two kids I can tell you that it didn't work.

Believing in God and practicing your belief is important and I see no conflict between ones sexual orientation and religion, it's us human beings that interpreted the word of God in our own ways. I do not want to confirm or deny homosexuality sinfulness. But, as you mentioned, God is fair, and we should be treated with fairness, exclusion from the society by criminalizing homosexuality is not the answer, they (the scholars) should find solutions and not only punishments for the issues in the society, all the society.

 

my catholic priest (a Jesuit) told me to stop pretending to be someone I am not, and to come out and live authentically as the person who God created me to be. He said that I could never reach my potential until I live authentically. He told me to come out to my wife, and told me that sex is part of being gay. I told him that I would rather try to be chaste and not tell her anything, and he told me that was not possible, that he could guarantee that I would have sex again. When I brought up my understanding of the Church's teaching, he gave me an answer kind of like what PatrickUK said, and said that he could have me talk to several canon lawyers who will say the same thing (PatrickUK said "I'm afraid some people of faith (and some without) are so wound up by the wording and syntax of scripture that they lose all perspective on meaning, history and context. If we pay little or no consideration to these deeper questions about scripture we end up in a viscious circle that poisons our thoughts and drags us into an emotional tug of war between faith and sexuality. It doesn't have to be like that."). and more bishops, particularly in Germany, are coming out and saying the same thing as well. my priest was right, so I'm working on the coming out part. and here I am!

 

Yes you can believe in God and still be a lesbian. The issue of whether being a lesbian is even a sin or not is according to the traditional old school religions of the world. In most religions, old men who lived 3-4 thousand years ago wrote that God told them it was a sin, just like wearing clothing that had both cloth and leather was a sin, or that a guy could make women slaves and rape them was not a sin, under certain circumstances.

Believing in God and believing that everything in the original Bible Torah or Koran is actually the world of God or not is two different things.

 

Yes, you can. I know I can't say much, being agnostic, but I know for a fact that a god worth worshipping would not judge you just for being you.

 

Dear treatmeright :

In your letter, you asked if you could be a lesbian, and be religious ? the answer is;
YES, this is your life, and how you choose to live it is your business, no one else's.

God put us on this earth as babies, we were only labeled as children. But, for some of us, as we grew, we began to question our strange feelings of attraction toward
members the same sex. Your life is that of a lesbian, my life is that of a transsexual,
and there's not a thing wrong with this because it's only our nature, and only our business. You question why god made us this way, I think god is an idiot because if we're created in his image, does that mean that god is gay too ?



So, go right ahead and attend religious services. You're a human being first, and we're all god's children, and, according to the bible, he loves us all. True, you are a lesbian, so ? I'm gay, so what ? that's our business and nobody else's.

And, if you want to practice your thoughts, go ahead. Nobody's going to stop you.
Heck, I wear women's clothes almost all the time, and the only one that can stop my
behavior is ME. I hurt nobody, never have, never will. And if people question my
stupidity, F*** T***.

Jaymegurl

 

Aloha! Welcome to EC!
Although not religious myself, I come from a very religious family, and the short answer is yes. Although your religious leader may not accept the idea of homosexuality, if there is a god (i don't know) he/she/it has been around a lot longer than humans have, and even longer than a concept of religion that doesn't involve worshipping things such as the sun, or plants, or spirits. So, yes, I, and most other people here believe that, of course, you can be religious and LGBTQ+!
Hope this helped.

 

I disagree here. He had no business TELLING you what to do. You are the one that is supposed to make that decision. He should have merely suggested the pros and cons of the options.

Many people tend to discuss these issues with religious leaders in their congregations. They sort of have a psychological aspect to their work, to some extent. However, since they may not be privy to what's going on and, as far as the Catholic priests go, and who are "supposed" to be celibate, they are among the least qualified to discuss matters having to do with sexuality. The Catholic church has too many black eyes when it comes to issues surrounding sexuality. Let's not even go there.

This won't be popular, but it's what I believe: I don't believe in seeking counseling from either endpoint - from a church affiliated therapist/clergy member or from a LGBT center affiliated therapist. Their vested interests, if you will, are polarized on both ends. That creates a challenge: finding a therapist or someone to guide you who doesn't have that "one size fits all" answer.

However, with your maturity and wisdom, you know what's right for you. Most Later in Life folks have very different circumstances, making the "one size fits all" answer even less relevant. You might consider a custom made solution that you can put together, possibly with help of others.

 

I personally don't even think gay sex is a sin. Just look at all the religious girls that have oral and anal sex before marriage and think they're not committing the sin of pre-marital sex (when they are). And a lot of people support these acts after marriage which is, in my opinion, wrong. You can't pick and choose religion; either God hates all non-reproductive sex between ALL couples (straight AND gay) or he doesn't care as long as your heart is good.

 

Honestly - it depends on who you ask. In my opinion, a lot of religion is what people have created to make sense of God and our world around us. People also create rules to govern society which historically have become tightly wound up with religion, and claim the authority of God to justify those rules. It's a lot more difficult to disagree with a rule if it's supposedly God you're disagreeing with, and thrown into that you're threatened with hell and eternal damnation. Religion has justified a lot of things in the past which the majority of people now would see as unjust, such as slavery and racial inequality.

Despite all the above, I still have a strong faith. I despair when I see religion being used to treat certain people as somehow inferior. I believe in a God of equality and love, and find it very difficult when my fellow believers seem to think that I or other gay people deserve less, purely based on which gender we are attracted to.

It has taken me a long time to reach where I am now, but I can now be more fully myself when coming before God. I honestly feel God has made me this way, and I am to rejoice in it. So can I - can you - be lesbian and religious? Yes.