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Christianity and the LGBTQ Community

Christianity and the LGBTQ Community

Last updated on: October 25, 2012 at 1:10 pm by Melissa

Christianity and the LGBTQ Community 2012-10-25T13:10:59-06:00 Melissa

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Since the publication of our coming out series, I have received many many emails and comments. They have ranged from people with similar experiences, to people who affirm LGBTQ persons and consider themselves allies, to people who cannot reconcile their faith with LGBTQ persons but are still accepting and compassionate. The other day I got my first email in a while that was judgmental and presumptive.

She said things like how I am rejecting god’s truth, and taking the easy path of the world, speculated about why I stayed in my marriage, discredited every question I had ever asked about faith in my writing because she now knows the whole story and therefore knows what I was truly thinking and feeling when I wrote, and ended by saying that she will quit reading my blog because I lack integrity.

It’s nothing I haven’t heard before, but I found myself feeling pretty cynical about Christianity as the morning progressed. People who tell me they have all the answers and that they know exactly what god has to say about my life and judge the entire person based on one aspect of that person start to grate on me at some point.

Even though I do not consider myself to be a Christian, I have many good friends who are, and one of them linked a post written by a Christian on LGBTQ rights, and I was reminded again that not every Christian is like the ones that send me nasty emails and comments. As the day went on I found more and more posts written by Christians in the wake of the first amendment vote in North Carolina, and so I go the idea for this post. I’ve collected many articles written by Christians on how they approach LGBTQ issues and rights from the perspective of their faith. Not all of them are affirming, but all of them are accepting. I hope that this post can serve as a useful resource for people of faith who are asking questions about how to relate to the LGBTQ persons in their life, or as a reminder to all LGBTQ persons that we are not abominations in the eyes of every person of faith.

There are 3 views that Christians seem to have towards LGBTQ persons.

1. God is fine with people who are LGBTQ and their relationships.

2. LGBTQ persons do not choose to feel the way they do. God requires them to live a life of celibacy and continue to fight against their understanding of themselves.

3. There is no such thing as a gay Christian. LGBTQ persons are choosing to feel the way they do and God is angry about it and will punish them in this life and the next.

Obviously I am not including anything from view 3. You will find some from view 2 though. These are people of faith who are asking questions, trying to accept and love all the people in their life, and who recognize that there is a difference between religious belief and government law. I have tried to steer clear of prescriptive or presumptive materials, and I feel like this is a good representation of the accepting, (affirming and non-affirming) Christian community.

Articles by Christians

Originally I planned on distinguishing between the LGBTQ affirming articles and posts from non-LGBTQ affirming articles and posts. But as I was linking these I found that it was hard for me to tell the difference sometimes, so I’ve linked them all together, they are all worth the read!

Trumped a beautiful post by Bethany at Coffee-Stained Clarity, talks about how our story affected her and how love matters most.

Justin from Crumbs at the Communion Table issues a Challenge to both sides of the Amendment One debate.

Glennon at Momastery talks about A Mountain she’s Willing to Die On, on what it would mean to her if one of her children were gay.

Rachel Held Evans made me cry with her post “How to Win a Culture War and Lose a Generation”.

Rachel at The Incorrigible Gingers asks if the Fight against Gay marriage undermines adoption.

Suzannah Paul at So Much Shouting So Much Laughter writes about how language has limits and half-truths can hurt in her post “Homosexuality is(n’t) a Sin”

Sarah Bessey is an Evangelical Christian, and explains why she thinks that same-sex marriage should be legal.

Blueberries for Me talks about how she supports Gay rights because she is a practicing Catholic, not in spite of that fact.

Lauren talks about how we are taught to fear the LGBTQ community in We Are Abominations.

Brooke Hammel at From Under His Feathers has a powerful post about how Amendment One is against what she believes as a Bible believing Christian.

Richard Beck asks how we can end the Non-Zero-Sum Conversation Between the Traditional Church and the Gay Community and start a real conversation.

Thought provoking posts that aren’t necessarily christian:

Dan at Single Dad Laughing is not a Christian, but he wrote this post “I’m Christian unless you’re Gay” which prompted the responses (Responses 1, Responses 2, Children home again response, Men in Uniform respond, Daughter home at last response, A teenagers response.) of many Christians as they thought through what their actions say about their faith. I think the original post as well as the responses are well worth the read, as people from all perspectives wrestle with what it means to love and accept someone even when they don’t agree.

Jason Littman at the Huffington Post points out that hateful treatment can go both ways and makes the point that we should respect everyone in “Can We Leave the Ex-Gays Alone?”

And Mikko Alanne also at the Huffington Post, asks Conservative Christian to put themselves into a Queer persons shoes for a minute.

Websites on this topic:

Canyonwalker Connections – A Straight Evangelical Woman writes about her journey to becoming affirming of the LGBTQ community and her continued work as a Christian Ally.

Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Alumni of Bob Jones University – This blog is filled with stories of what it’s like to know you are LGBTQ while being raised in a non-accepting environment.

The Gay Christian Network – Resources and Questions on the long-time debate between views 1 & 2.

Catholic, Gay, and Feeling Fine – A Catholic blogs about how he lives in full-communion with the Catholic Church as a celibate Gay Man.

Crumbs from the Communion Table – A blog written by Gay Christian Man about faith and the Christian church. He also wrote this post at Rachel Held Evans Blog answering many questions about being Christian and Gay.

I also wanted to include 2 films that may interest you: Through My Eyes and For the Bible Tells Me So

Enjoy, be encouraged, and share!

A big thanks to Jessica at Faith Permeating Life for her resource page,

it helped me find a couple of older posts I was looking for but had saved on my old computer.

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