Thank you for people like you who understand that we are equal beings. “Christ-centered monogamous relationships regardless of gender” – AMEN TO THAT!!

Though I am straight myself, I have been part of such a group for 8 years, and now created such a group for gay Christians here in Europe, for people who don’t speak English. I have been involved with these groups precisely to bring love and support to God’s precious LGBT children. I’ve seen people there whose lives are broken because they have been rejected by their church or even families at times. I’ve seen people who tried getting married to someone of the opposite sex and who struggle with staying in the marriage, I’ve seen spouses whose lives are destroyed because they married someone who is gay and they never knew. I’ve seen people who tried to take their own lives because they can’t bear living in a world that condemns them.
Why on Earth would anyone “choose” to be gay and go through all this ?

A lot of things are sin, such as being promiscious, and so on, and that goes for people of any sexual orientation. But loving someone isn’t a sin, and wanting to be committed to that person isn’t. We don’t choose to fall in love, and people who are gay are no different.

I know people in my life who are celibate (both straight and gay), and when God really wants for someone to be celibate, He leads their live to follow that path. But only a minority of people are called to this. The majority (both gay and straight) are not meant to be alone, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that God blesses ALL Christ centered committed loving monogamous relationships… regardless of the gender of the two persons involved.

You have shown incredible kindness, patience and grace to people who replied to your blog gaychristians. God Bless you richly for that.

You often direct people to a particular YouTube video, and I can see the point it is making. There are so many things in society that we do today, that according to parts of the Bible should be punishable. One oversight of this video however, is that we no longer live in Old Testament times. When Jesus died on the cross He ushered in a new era, one where the cavern between God and man has been bridged by His sacrifice. We live in New Testament Times. We live in a time of grace.

The God of the old testament is the same forever, but the grace provided to us by Jesus’ intercession means that we can have relationship with God.

You mentioned in a comment to someone that the Laws that we now live under are “Love the Lord your God”, and “Love your neighbour as yourself”. I agree.

As I said before we now live in New Testament times, and the New Testament also speaks out against homosexuality (Romans 1). If you do Love the Lord your God, then you do not go directly against what he has said. If you do then it is disobedience and rebellion.

I have no doubt that you have a belief in God, and I agree that God loves people, not matter what choices they make in life. But I do question why you completely dismiss or try to justify what has been laid out in the New Testament by God as a guide for our lives.

You seem like a genuinely good person, and I do not want you to think of this as any sort of attack on you as a person. But if you do indeed love God, then all I ask is for you to press into Him and ask for revelation on this topic.

Ultimately your life is between you and God, and no one can judge except God, but I would hate to think that such an obviously beautiful soul would continue to walk through life believing something that so many things in the Bible point at as being untrue.

As an aside, the term homosexuality has been improperly translated in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Properly translated, it means “sexual greed or gluttony.” And may I say, I know SEVERAL Christians who suffer with heterosexual greed and gluttony. (I can’t find my exact reference at the moment – take it or leave it, I suppose).

We often become locked on the idea that God would not condemn homosexuality AND create homosexuals – therefore gays are “choosing” to be sinful. Yet, children are born with both sex organs every day, somewhere in the world. Often the doctor “decides” for them what they will be through surgery, regardless of what the orientation their brain has already determined. So, what do we assume God thinks of hermaphrodites? This is never addressed in the bible, so what can we possibly deduce? Are these poor individuals to live a life of celibacy because God condemns homosexuality? They can’t control how they were born – so now they must live a life without love in a committed relationship?

I, of course, believe in the words in the bible. But I also understand that their is context, not only historically, but in who is writing the scriptures and where the words are located in the bible. We have evolved and have genetic predispositions now that never existed in biblical times.

Perhaps, when God created Adam and Eve, we were designed to have sex only with the opposite sex. If not, how could we possibly populate the earth? But, the forbidden fruit was eaten, and we live in a fallen world and not a single one of us is the way we’re “supposed” to be. I will never be so arrogant as to tell a gay individual that they do not have a relationship with Christ. How would I have any idea? How disgusting.

As Christians, we must be diligent not to judge – especially with things none of us fully understand.

To the anti-gays here:
Heterosexuality as a social construct — and an oppressive one at that — only began to exist in the later part of the 19th-20th century. That is why most Bible translations have become so corrupt in the recent years. Even if I am a Christian, I believe that many important readings have been left out of the Bible. Paul barely conceals his animosity towards Mary Magdalene in his writings. (I’m talking about Comparative Literature and Comparative Religion here.) Or perhaps it was the initial translator’s fault that it seems that way. That translator was human, limited and bound by his own conceptual lenses. Since I’m already discussing the humanity of the Bible’s handlers, I’d like to point out that it was also a male human being that decided what the final four gospels are. It wasn’t Christ himself who did the choosing. It was not even Peter, with whom He entrusted His church.

And by the way, I own six versions of the Bible. If I were to translate all of them in my mother tongue, which is not English, I’d come up with completely different translations for each.

Suggested readings (for cross-referencing, since I don’t believe that one should only take knowledge from one source, no matter how all-encompassing that source is):

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. (New York: Routledge, 1999)

Katz, Jonathan Ned. The Invention of Heterosexuality, (New York: Dutton, 1995)

Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality (New York: Pantheon, 1978) – This is actually a three-part series. Foucault is not easy reading, as even scholars get headaches plodding through his dense writings.

@David – I will look that up. Thanks for the recommendation. I actually think I have that book but I am going to double-check.

God bless you both!

also just so everyone knows, “homosexual” didn’t show up in the bible until 1946 thanks to an anti-gay translator. It was never in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic texts. Every piece of scripture that now refers to gays originally referred to lustful acts and prostitutes.

Sodom was destroyed because they were lustful (they didn’t care whether they got the angels or the daughters) and wanted the rape the new people in town. Their biggest crime was against Hospitality and mostly Love for their neighbor.

…I see a lot of inhospitality and Hatred in America now a days…maybe we might meet the same fate..

Unfortunately, a shortsighted interpretation of bible verses out of context has caused indescribable suffering throughout the history of the church (think of Galileo, slavery women’s rights, etc.). The church has been wrong about its interpretation of scripture in those and other cases and whenever it did it departed from the highest command Jesus gave (to love God and our neighbor – as found in Luke 27). Augustine put it as follows in Christian Doctrine 1.35.40: “Whoever, therefore, thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all”. There have been thousands and thousands of gays who have been incredibly wronged by a wrong interpretation of Scripture, there have been far too many suicides, death threats, abuse (both physical and emotional) due to homophobia. Fear induces the worst of human behavior. Fear is also the one barrier to knowing the true heart of God. The bible says that “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” I know Living Hope ministry personally. I do not doubt that their leaders are well-intentioned based on their interpretation of Scripture. However, gay Christians and non-Christians alike, would be better served if we did not continue propagating an interpretation of Scripture incongruent with science and as several bible scholars have pointed out, not in line with the original manuscripts and the context in which the few often-cited passages, seemingly condemning homosexuality, appear. Rather, ministries such as Living Hope should help homosexuals gain a better understanding of who they are, help them gain trust and confidence in a creator who loves them and wishes to be in a relationship with them, and to point them to a moral lifestyle (ie. monogamous, committed relationships based on love and respect). Unfortunately, because homosexuality is looked upon the way it is, homosexuals often internalize the guilt, shame and fear they grow up with, and then often act out their negative self-perception in hazardous, immoral lifestyles since they believe they are worthless scum anyway and thus not worthy of a better life. Perhaps we should look at our own behavior that might contribute more than we may think to the very lifestyle we so readily condemn and judge. Did not Jesus say something about first looking at the log in our eye before pointing out the speck of sawdust in our brother’s eye?