big_nick_86 saidHey guys,
I am a young gay Christian male. I believe homosexuality is a sin just like any other sin such as murdering or gossiping. I hate it that I am gay however I have had homosexual relationships I have come out to my friends but am considering just suppressing my homosexual side and just maybe being single for the rest of my life I don't really know. Whenever I am in a homosexual relationship and it gets serious or goes for a relatively long time period I start feeling even more guilty and am forced to break up with him. I am really lost don't know what to do or feel. I can't abandon my faith. Thoughts? Experiences? Anybody willing to talk about this? I can skype or message or whatever.
Many thanks,
L
JamieJfromtheA saidNo One is Perfect, Gay or Not, we are sinful and will always be. Even if we are saved or born again..we still will sin.
Even if you think being gay is wrong, you still would have sin if you are straight, and all sins are equal if you go by the bible you are applying your reasoning too.
meninlove saidJamieJfromtheA saidNo One is Perfect, Gay or Not, we are sinful and will always be. Even if we are saved or born again..we still will sin.
Even if you think being gay is wrong, you still would have sin if you are straight, and all sins are equal if you go by the bible you are applying your reasoning too.
Hmmm....I feel that if we focus and obsess on sin in ourselves and others there is no room for the joys of the existence given to us and the joy in the existence of others.
If all sins are equal, wouldn't that mean the sin of not honouring the father that beat and raped you (which happens to some people, just read the news) is the same as the sin of murder?
Commandment 5
intrigued,
-Doug
cvilleguy saidI believe in the tenet that we ALL have sinned, but that if we believe that God sent Jesus to die for our sins and redeem us, and we have faith...we will go to Heaven. Obviously this means that EVERY Christian should try to live a life that follows Biblical-New Testament principles. That means that if we become Christians and still do the same sinful things we did before we became zchristians, then it should give you pause in realizing what you need to do differently. There's a reason why you feel guilt for what you do that is not right. You could be straight, gay, whatever...it doesn't matter. If you act immorally, you won't feel good about it. You can be gay and have a Christian life if you have faith, repent if you do sin, and do your best not to do thm again. God doesn't expect us to be perfect. Jesus took that upon himself. But we do have to accept God and Jesus in our hearts.
Matt_TO saidSo much jargon gets thrown about with this type of discussion. Often our own cultural understanding of teaching that was recorded thousands of years ago in multiple other languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and other tongues), gets quoted in the tiniest of phrases, and is somehow used to prove or disprove what is right and what is wrong.
As the child of an ordained minister and growing up in a Pentecostal church for my entire childhood, I learned a lot of things about life. For one, that nothing is black and white, that EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE has done things that are considered pretty big sins according to the teachings of the modern day churches.
There were forced weddings after girls get pregnant, date rape, stealing, coercion, abuse, people pushed into taking anti-psychotic medications, and most of these things were enabled by people who all thought they were doing it in the name of what is good and right, some who were naive and more often than not those higher up who were trying to cover up these shameful acts to the detriment of others.
The truth is all of these things happen regardless of whether you grow up in a church or not, it's just that 'religion' tells us to pretend like it doesn't. That somehow by believing in God we suddenly become better than the rest of our fellow humans on the planet. "Religion" is really our enemy here, not belief. It's the big systems of religion that teach people to throw aside commandments like:
1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
and put more emphasis on verses like this:
1 Leviticus 18:22 "Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable. "
One pastor really woke me up one day when I heard the way he spoke about the bible. What is rarely taught, and often de-emphasised is that the bible is collection of writings from the spiritual people of that day. The old testament is primarily written to the Jewish people, because Christianity came out of the Jewish faith.
Most Christians seem to loathe this fact, and pretty much ignore our Jewish brethren, even though most of the bible is entirely written from their perspective. This fact however brings to light new understanding. For instance, Leviticus is part of the old testament and was written to the Jewish people.
When you think about it, having a rule against homosexuality sort of makes sense in these conditions. When you have a small group of surviving Jewish people who escaped from Egypt after being enslaved for hundreds of years, it's more important for people to pro-create to prolong the race then it is for you to have your own person happiness. Guys like us would have families so that our children could grow up and become strong and protect us as we got older. If everyone did as they wished, the Jewish people may not have survived.
However there is a lot of speculation if this rule was even interpreted from the ancient languages correctly or if it was really speaking against male prostitution as it was highly popular in other cultures of that day. Then we also have to ask ourselves, which person of that day decreed these laws? Where did they come from. Ultimately, who is saying this, and who are they talking to?
Here's a great quote on the whole "Gays are an abomination" topic that comes up so often by the crazy hate-filled right wingers:
"Lev 20:13 is giving the penalties for the Lev 18:22 "abomination" or in the Hebrew "toevah" Unlike what the English translation implies, toevah did not usually signify something intrinsically evil, but something ritually unclean for Jews. Eating pork, shellfish, lobster, eating meat 3 days old, trimming beards, etc is just as much an "abomination". It is used throughout the [Old Testament] to designate those Jewish sins which involve ethnic contamination or idolatry. In many other [Old Testament] verses it simply means idolatry. Lev 18 is specifically designed to distinguish the Jews from the pagans among whom they had been living. The prohibition of supposedly homosexual acts follows after the prohibition of idolatrous sexuality of worshipping Molech, whose cult included male cult prostitutes and bestiality. "
(You can read more here: http://www.lionking.org/~kovu/bible/section05.html)
I think what bothers the fundamental Christians so much about gay people is that we show that the world is nuanced. We challenge their faith. Us existing and genuinely searching for happiness, and finding strength within ourselves to be who we truly are means that for once they have to face their own selves. To realize that their cobbled together, culturally-biased and misinformed interpretation of the bible that has proliferated through our society for the past 200 hundred years is flawed, and that it's time that they wake up to the world for what is really is, and not what they wished it was.
It's a generation of people who want to live in a Leave It To Beaver, black and white world, when really it's all just a lot of shades of grey. I pray for a day when people can find the peace with all the shades and tones in the world around them and within themselves, while still striving to the be the best people they can be.
A long spiel I know, but it's a complex subject. Just my take on the whole thing.
Outlands saidDude, you had better realize who and what you are and get over it. Sounds tough, but if your faith doesn't allow you to be yourself, how can you believe in something that doesn't believe in you?
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