Hi, I' m Lutheran (Christian), and I'm confused about my sexuality. What will I do later in life if I am gay? I wanna stay in my religion, but is there really anyone gay that still is religious? I want to get married, and have a family. I don't know if that can happen, unless someone out there is religious, or I make my life a lie, and say I'm straight, even though I might not be. Please help me and tell the truth about this. Thanks.
Hey Chew, Welcome to EC :smilewave. This is a tremendously supportive community to help you answer the questions you have posed. FWIW, I was raised Methodist but left the church because there was no good answer to the question who created God? Had nothing to do with my sexuality. I'm a bi-married guy 51 who has lived a life that is a lie in order to have a family. I came of age before gay marriage was an option. Since Illinois has legalized gay marriage, you have more options for starting a family than I did. I would encourage you to be true to yourself and not enter a straight marriage until you have clarity around your sexuality. The cost of unwinding the marriage later in life in too high, especially given that gay marriage is an option. There are others on EC who can help you comes to terms with your sexuality. I'll let them chime in. Take it a day at a time.
I'm not up on the Lutheran Religion but I am through and through Roman Catholic and still attends mass every Sunday. I don't always take the priest word at bay but I know that being there journeys my way to Jesus. Everyone believes different but long as you believe you will be in his hands.
The same as there are gay Catholics, Jews, Muslims … I bet there's plenty of gay Lutherans around .. it makes statistical sense!
I'm not Lutheran personally, but I am somewhat familiar with a spectrum of Christian denominations in terms of how they view LGBT+ people. What type of Lutheran church do you attend? By that I mean, is it ELCA, LCMS, WELS, or something I haven't heard of yet? If your church is a part of the ELCA, then chances are maybe not 100%, but still quite good that you could feel at home there (each church is unique, and not every church in an affirming denomination is guaranteed to be affirming, unless it's like the MCC, LOL). Here are a couple of perspectives that I found that might give you something to think about until a real Lutheran comes along to fill in the details and point out anything I've gotten wrong: Stances of Faiths on LGBT Issues: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America | Resources | Human Rights Campaign Human Sexuality - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Edit: I'm gay, and I still consider myself a follower of Jesus, even though I'm not terribly happy with the Baptist church I go to right now. I could easily see myself ending up United Church of Christ (not to be confused with Church of Christ, the UCC is the LGBT+ affirming one) or PCUSA or even ELCA Lutheran if I could make the shift in thinking (Lutherans are great thinkers, but the train of thought runs a little different compared to what a Baptist-born and raised person is used to!).
I'm Catholic. I believe in Jesus Christ. One of the people that was most helpful in me coming to terms with myself and my sexuality was a friend who is a Catholic Priest. So believe in whatever God you do. As a friend told me who is a very devout Catholic, God don't make junk.
I have no doubt there are plenty of Lutheran LBGT. Will you find one? Wee, in order to do so, you will need to go looking
Gay kids get dragged by their straight parents into Lutheran churches, just like gay kids get dragged into Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Muslim, and Jewish churches. Then they figure out who they are and discover they are someplace where they are supposed to hate themselves for being "sinners". If you were raised as Lutheran by your parents and comfortable with their views about homosexuality, then that is where you need to go looking for other gay men. They will probably be hard to find if they also feel they need to be closeted to other church members. I don't know diddley squat about what your local Lutheran church feels about homosexuality and homosexuals (there appears to be no single unifying central steering organization for dogma), but I can assure you that somewhere, there is another gay man in a Lutheran church, who got brought up there by his parents just as you did and is wondering the same things you are. Maybe you can find each other. It would be easier on both of you if you changed to another Christian church which is openly accepting of LGBT people, if your local Lutherans aren't. There are many, such as MCC, which openly build their congregations from LGBT populations; you would not have a hard time finding another gay man there; pick almost anybody in the room. :smilewave
