Saludos,
My name is Raul. I am 25, Cuban (now living in the United States), Christian, and Heterosexual.
The comedian, Jane Lanning once said that, “Unusual turns of fortune make for unusual people”. So it is with me, I find.
I converted from Atheism due in large part to one of my college professors (himself an Irreligious person) who advised me to study the argumentation for and against religious belief on all sides and to look deeply within my own mind for answers. Two years of study and meditation later I converted to Christianity, brought into the faith via the same avenue of Chesterton and Lewis.
While I was a nominal Christian at first, my faith took an upward swing when I became interested in Apologetics. In studying the Scriptures, the history of my faith, and the context they all took place in, I found myself growing closer to the body Christ, both intellectually and spiritually.
But more often than not I found myself defending my faith, not from the outside, but from my own brothers and sisters in Christ. I appealed to Scripture, to reason, to the very heart of all that we knew and loved about our trust in Christ.
As a result, I find myself alone more often than I would before. Oh, I belong to a church that welcomes my brothers and sisters just as they are, irregardless of their orientation. But I still feel the hurt.
“Burn in hell, you f$# enabler!”
“Eat @#$%, xian! All you sheeple are the same!”
“Why would a straight man care about gay people? We don’t need or want your help.”
…and so on.
I know that to be a Christian is to always be on the outside of society: to be with those in pain and to bear their pain along with them, to stand up to the corrupt and to bear the buffeting winds of oppression, and to know that all throughout it, the Lord walks with us.
But it still stings.
Many of my former friends from my Atheist days have rejected me. One of them even called me a “Faith head traitor” and threatened to put a bullet in my skull if he ever saw me again.
Even amongst my brothers and sisters in Christ, I find so many that are either misinformed about the passages often used to condemn homosexuals or don’t care to listen.
Sometimes, in my darkest moments, I begin lose hope.
But then I see people standing up. I see gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons who have stood up and embraced the cross, either for the first time, or returning to the faith. I see other heterosexuals who have felt the love of Lord and have embraced our homosexual brothers and sisters. I see religious leaders from the Catholic Church, to the Protestant Denominations, to countless independent churches standing up and saying in one voice, “No more! We are standing up for the children of God”.
I see people like you and communities like this.
Thank you. Thank you for giving me strength and hope.
I hope to talk to you soon!
Yours,
Raul
|