Gay and Religious...how does this work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I'm atheist and gay, I just never got how you could be a homosexual and show love for a religion that deems you as a walking sin factory.

The same way that people who have divorced, cut off their father/mother, cheated, abused children and many other sins have shown love for religions that would deem them a walking sin factory.

All humans sin. The nature of Christianity is that the church can forgive and absolve and still include the sinner.

Again. You're equating LOVE with cheating and harming others.

[Anonymous]

If you’re sincerely interested in gay people who are obedient to their churches’ teaching about gay sex (don’t do it), I would recommend the writing of a guy named Wesley Hill, who wrote a book called Spirituals Friendship, and Eve Tushnet, who wrote Gay and Catholic.

[Anonymous]

https://centerforfaith.com/blog/gay-celibacy-is-weird-and-that-s-a-good-thing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can one be LGBT and religious when the teachings of the church pretty much condemn your existence from the get go?

Because the teaching also say that we are all God's children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I want to be very clear on this. I don't condemn your existence no one does.

You are much more than your sexual identity

You or your church just want to condemn OP to a lifetime of obligatory celibacy, against his or her will. Pretty darn cruel by any standards. Imagine if you were told you HAD to be celibate and couldn't form a relationship with the love of you life, that you couldn't have a family or children unless you went against your natural feelings and married someone of the opposite sex (which would be fairly cruel that person to, to marry someone who wasn't sexually attracted to him/her).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can one be LGBT and religious when the teachings of the church pretty much condemn your existence from the get go?

You can’t. The church doesn’t condemn your existence but it condemns sin.

The Bible is clear on homosexuality (Romans 1:26-28).

It’s be like trying to claim that murder is okay and claiming to be a Christian at the same time. It doesn’t work

The problem is people like you equating the love of 2 men or 2 women with murder.

Moreover, most people (like 99.9%) don't have an ongoing natural inclination to murder someone every single day, where it's part of your dna to murder. Whereas being gay isn't just an urge, it's part of your dna. Just like I could not decide to become gay and be attracted to my same sex, a gay man can't snap his fingers and decide he is no longer attracted to men but only to women.

I've never come across an argument that successfully argues for the evilness of 2 men or 2 women in loving, mutually satisfying relationships beyond God saying it's bad (even the argument where God says its bad because those relationships aren't meant to procreate, as if that's evil in an of itself).

There's no inherent evilness in homosexuality. There's just not. Unlike other sins such as murder, which even without God telling you it's bad, you know it's bad because you are harming not just the person whose life you took but all those who loved him/her.

I wasn’t equating murder with homosexuality, it was just an example. The point is that they are both wrong in the Bible.

Now you might not think that there’s anything wrong with homosexuality. It’s effects aren’t as apparent or obvious as something like murder, but that doesn’t mean the consequences aren’t there. The way you’re supposed to read the Bible is to be unbiased. You’re supposed to look for what it’s trying to tell you, not read your own meaning into it.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” If you’re gonna trust your own nature and what you FEEL is right, than you are ultimately deceiving yourself. We can’t always see the consequences of our actions.

Remember, the Bible calls us sheep. Sheep aren’t smart, they’re easily tricked and distracted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can one be LGBT and religious when the teachings of the church pretty much condemn your existence from the get go?

You can’t. The church doesn’t condemn your existence but it condemns sin.

The Bible is clear on homosexuality (Romans 1:26-28).

It’s be like trying to claim that murder is okay and claiming to be a Christian at the same time. It doesn’t work

The problem is people like you equating the love of 2 men or 2 women with murder.

Moreover, most people (like 99.9%) don't have an ongoing natural inclination to murder someone every single day, where it's part of your dna to murder. Whereas being gay isn't just an urge, it's part of your dna. Just like I could not decide to become gay and be attracted to my same sex, a gay man can't snap his fingers and decide he is no longer attracted to men but only to women.

I've never come across an argument that successfully argues for the evilness of 2 men or 2 women in loving, mutually satisfying relationships beyond God saying it's bad (even the argument where God says its bad because those relationships aren't meant to procreate, as if that's evil in an of itself).

There's no inherent evilness in homosexuality. There's just not. Unlike other sins such as murder, which even without God telling you it's bad, you know it's bad because you are harming not just the person whose life you took but all those who loved him/her.

I wasn’t equating murder with homosexuality, it was just an example. The point is that they are both wrong in the Bible.

Now you might not think that there’s anything wrong with homosexuality. It’s effects aren’t as apparent or obvious as something like murder, but that doesn’t mean the consequences aren’t there. The way you’re supposed to read the Bible is to be unbiased. You’re supposed to look for what it’s trying to tell you, not read your own meaning into it.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” If you’re gonna trust your own nature and what you FEEL is right, than you are ultimately deceiving yourself. We can’t always see the consequences of our actions.

Remember, the Bible calls us sheep. Sheep aren’t smart, they’re easily tricked and distracted.

Yours is away of approaching the Bible that not all religions accept. The idea that you are not to read your own meaning into the Bible would be news to all those theologians and rabbis who over the centuries have provided numerous exegeses on scripture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://centerforfaith.com/blog/gay-celibacy-is-weird-and-that-s-a-good-thing

Cruel. It's cruel, not weird, to force celibacy on people. You want to choose it for yourself, fine. Forcing others to "choose" it is cruel.

[Anonymous]

I can't get over how many people say, "The Bible is clear" on the topic of homosexuality. It's not. The words used to describe "homosexuality" didn't mean homosexuality as we know it. That term did not exist. The context and emphasis is much more about sexual immorality and 'excess.' During this time, it was common for men (mostly married) to take younger boys as additional lovers and this was a not a reciprocal arrangement. You can see this custom has survived in Afghanistan. Now that is truly evil. Prudish men who think homosexuality is "gross" have deliberately misinterpreted the Bible for hundreds of years and have pulled the wool over all the non-welcoming churches. It gives them power to convince their flock that they are being "strong" and are morally superior because they are the only ones willing to stand up for the "truth." This whole thing is probably a test from God to see who took his exhortation to love your neighbors as yourself seriously or if the sense of superiority was just too strong. Sadly, we're failing this test as a religion...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't get over how many people say, "The Bible is clear" on the topic of homosexuality. It's not. The words used to describe "homosexuality" didn't mean homosexuality as we know it. That term did not exist. The context and emphasis is much more about sexual immorality and 'excess.' During this time, it was common for men (mostly married) to take younger boys as additional lovers and this was a not a reciprocal arrangement. You can see this custom has survived in Afghanistan. Now that is truly evil. Prudish men who think homosexuality is "gross" have deliberately misinterpreted the Bible for hundreds of years and have pulled the wool over all the non-welcoming churches. It gives them power to convince their flock that they are being "strong" and are morally superior because they are the only ones willing to stand up for the "truth." This whole thing is probably a test from God to see who took his exhortation to love your neighbors as yourself seriously or if the sense of superiority was just too strong. Sadly, we're failing this test as a religion...

Yes the Bible never uses the word “homosexuality” Yet Romans 1:27 says that the “men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.” What else do you think this means? How much do you have to stretch the meaning of this to determine that it’s has NOTHING to do with homosexuality? What do you think the phrase “men having relations with other men” means? This isn’t some morally superior thing. We are literally just reading what it says.

Yes, God said love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know what love is? It isn’t always telling someone that everything they are doing is right. Why do parents discipline their children? Out of love. Do children like being disciplined? Not necessarily. But it’s good for them. If you truly loved someone, you would tell them the truth, even if it hurts.

[Anonymous]

The priest at my Episcopalian church is a gay woman. She and her wife seem to handle it just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't get over how many people say, "The Bible is clear" on the topic of homosexuality. It's not. The words used to describe "homosexuality" didn't mean homosexuality as we know it. That term did not exist. The context and emphasis is much more about sexual immorality and 'excess.' During this time, it was common for men (mostly married) to take younger boys as additional lovers and this was a not a reciprocal arrangement. You can see this custom has survived in Afghanistan. Now that is truly evil. Prudish men who think homosexuality is "gross" have deliberately misinterpreted the Bible for hundreds of years and have pulled the wool over all the non-welcoming churches. It gives them power to convince their flock that they are being "strong" and are morally superior because they are the only ones willing to stand up for the "truth." This whole thing is probably a test from God to see who took his exhortation to love your neighbors as yourself seriously or if the sense of superiority was just too strong. Sadly, we're failing this test as a religion...

Yes the Bible never uses the word “homosexuality” Yet Romans 1:27 says that the “men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.” What else do you think this means? How much do you have to stretch the meaning of this to determine that it’s has NOTHING to do with homosexuality? What do you think the phrase “men having relations with other men” means? This isn’t some morally superior thing. We are literally just reading what it says.

Yes, God said love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know what love is? It isn’t always telling someone that everything they are doing is right. Why do parents discipline their children? Out of love. Do children like being disciplined? Not necessarily. But it’s good for them. If you truly loved someone, you would tell them the truth, even if it hurts.

Whose "truth" ?? Your truth no doubt but not mine.

Nice going, comparing gays to children needing discipline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I'm atheist and gay, I just never got how you could be a homosexual and show love for a religion that deems you as a walking sin factory.

YOu're only sinful if you have gay sex. If you have straight sex or no sex, you're welcomed into any religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I'm atheist and gay, I just never got how you could be a homosexual and show love for a religion that deems you as a walking sin factory.

The same way that people who have divorced, cut off their father/mother, cheated, abused children and many other sins have shown love for religions that would deem them a walking sin factory.

All humans sin. The nature of Christianity is that the church can forgive and absolve and still include the sinner.

And if you don't go to church, you can avoid being forgiven and absolved and just live your life the way you want to.

[Anonymous]

I don't belong to a religion that recognizes Romans as a holy text. So that makes things simpler.

What my religion does say about homosexuality directly addresses only men, which I am not, and there are many different interpretations of what it does say.

Finally, I believe that all people are made in G-d's image and that G-d is infinitely multifaceted. I am fearfully and wonderfully made and while it is my duty to atone for my sins, I don't count who I love as one of them.