Hi! I am just wondering if you are all thoroughly convinced that living as a homosexual isn’t sinful? I am not trying to be provocative … I am genuinely seeking answers. I go up and down with what I think. What convinces you that it is okay with God? How do you explain why it doesn’t seem to fit God’s ‘order’ set out in the bible (ie. marriage between a man and a woman)? Do you fear getting it wrong? Do you have a clear conscience? I am in a relationship with another woman and I constantly have fears and feel like I’m losing respect for myself as a Christian. I don’t want to stuff up my one chance at glorifying God in this lifetime. Sorry to ask so many questions 😳

Hey Sparrow, you can ask as many questions as you like. D

I dont believe I am living in sin at all, I wish I could marry legally and with the churches blessing but because I cant I have committed my r/ship to God and have asked him to keep us honest, truthful and open with each other and to watch over us as a couple and he has and we are blessed in many ways all the time.

I hide nothing from God about my r/ship since he knows anyway and I believe he just wants me to be honest, unhidden within myself with him and open with him about it all and again I have been blessed doing so. Im still receiving my healing and sense his presence on my life, nothing can seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, Im the only one who can move away from him but then, even then he still pursues us with love until we finally just accept that he loves us as we are and where we are at.

)

The greatest thing I believe that glorifies God is that no matter what im going through or whats going on around me, I still hang in there and believe in Jesus and allow him to transform in me what “HE” wants transformed in me and so far my sexuality remains untouched. I dont have a conviction in my spirit that it is wrong, I love and am faithful to one person and committed to one partner in every way, I cant see that being wrong.

The one thing that rattles my being comfortable with being with a woman is other people not God, other people make me feel uncomfortable, other people make me feel unaccepted, other people make me feel self-conscious but God doesnt. But even with the opinion of others I dont get swayed, if God is for me it doesnt matter who is against me, he stands by me. I really dont care what people think anymore but I am sensitive to those around me who are new to seeing two women together and my partner who is only recently really out.

The “order” of things is not as it was in any way since the big boot from the garden. shock The Old Testament is for the Jews, they had a set standard of living and God was wanting that they multiply as a nation and also more so since the promise to Abraham, so it would make sense that they would have laws regarding heterosexuality. The Old covenant was meant for the Jews and those that wanted to become proselytes and follow the God of the Jews.

We as gentiles are under the New covenant under Jesus Christ and he layed out what that was, also the Jews Old ways dont cut it anymore, in Hebrews it even talks of it having passed away, “everything” is now under the new way in Jesus, he spoke of Sexual Immorality and when you look up immorality it says nought about homosexuality and Jesus said nought about it too more importantly.

I dont see myself as perverse or pornographic, Im loving my g/f in everyway possible including intimately physically. Many hetero Christian women even struggle with the hetero sex act at times and what they can and cant do or should and shouldnt do, they deny themselves full pleasure because they believe its a sin or perverse or pornographic, it just shows how branding certain things or exploiting certain things can put people in a mind set that its wrong, I mean once upon a time anything other than the missionary position was considered of the devil, we all know that isnt true. The church coupled with society has been responsible for a lot of misconceptions and thrust out guilt trips due to a lack of understanding, fear and ignorance, all one has to do is look back in the not too distant past and see how many ideas and things have changed that were just out of context and unfortunately the innocent people at the time suffered or even were killed. shock

I love Jesus and love my partner, I could stand before Him with her and say ” Lord I dont understand everything but I love her and you are my Lord and I believe in you” and all I sense in myself saying that is that I would be head bowed or kneeling in respect to who he is and know he sees my heart and I sense no conviction but love and healing.

Wow someone else who asks as many questions as I do, what a relief! 😆

Does anyone remember the article ‘Homosexuality and the Church, Two Views” written by Eve Tushnet and Luke Timothy Johnson? The article is pretty funny actually with some of the conclusions it comes too but some bits struck a cord with me, not because they are true but because they are honest.

In speaking about interpreting the scripture it says:

“The task demands intellectual honesty. I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties. The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says.

I think it is important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture and appeal to another authorirty when we delare same sex-unions can be… [text cut off in my version] experience and the experience of thousands of others have whitnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us. By doing so we explicitly reject as well as the premises of the scriptual statements condemning homosexuality namely that it is a vice freely chosen [the bible says this?!], a symptom of human corruption, and disobedience to Gods created order.”

That adds a new demsion to this discussion and while it doesn’t answer any of Sparrows questions it does beg a few more (something I’m so good at!). Is that true? What is more convincing, a biblical reinterpretation of conservative understandings, or the experience you have of God and of life which exists outside of the written text.

So many people I have spoken to who are pro-gay, the majority in fact, claim to have made peace with God and have been convicted of his acceptance of their sexuality through experience and not the Word. The Word in fact comes in second and is, quite possibly, reinterpreted with this new view in mind or dispensed with all together as the above would suugest.

Sparrow,

Sometimes we have second thoughts, especially when things are not going well in our lives. Wrong relationship, wrong time, too many problems, sickness and any other factors can trigger old tapes. The religious background many of us came from has perhaps made it a bit harder to find acceptance with who we are. These old tapes are hard to erase, especially when society and the church are playing them over and over again.

There are a lot of websites, blogs and reading material available to all of us that we never had before where our people are discussing these issues and many of us are re-exploring the scriptures to find answers for ourselves. Thank God for that. But remember one thing, homosexuality is not the only issue many of our churches were wrong about. Our church leaders missed it on a lot of other issues also and much of the things we feared and were condemned for were “man made rules and traditions” and had nothing to do with scripture or the love of Jesus Christ. Many of the people who left mainstream churches have just as hard a time in accepting themselves and loving themselves as many of us do. Even tho they are straight, they carry guilt, shame, remorse and condemnation with them for years. Okay, I know. It ain’t like being a homosexual but it’s a good point.

Talk, read, search, listen, pray, cry, cuss, get mad at God and in the end, tell him you still love Him. And tell your heart to someone else. That’s how we find the answers. I think today that the most important fact in all of the world is that Jesus Christ said not one thing against us. Not one word. He loved us. And he still does. You think He doesn’t know how hard we tried to change. The God we were taught about is not the God of my understanding today. God is love. The church has forgotten that.

Take it easy on yourself,

Robert

I believe its called christian imperialism or tribal christianity