Si B Christians, who are gay and celibate, often feel ught between ex-gays and ntent-to-be-gay Christians.
Contents:
- GAY CELIBACY IS WEIRD, AND THAT’S A GOOD THG
- THE STRANGE NOTN OF “GAY CELIBACY”
- HOW CELIBATE GAY CHRISTIANS DEAL WH DIRE
- 'SO MANY OF THE CELIBATE GAY CHRISTIANS ARE CEL'
GAY CELIBACY IS WEIRD, AND THAT’S A GOOD THG
*The followg post is wrten by Greg Col. Greg is a Ph.D. stunt at Penn State and is part of the llaborative team for The Center. Greg is also the thor of the recently released book Sgle, Gay, Christian, which is published by InterVarsy Prs. I’ve always been bad at blendg . I grew up Indonia, where I was six ch too tall and seventeen shas too * gay but celibate *
Celibate gay Christians are an emergg group who are openly and unapologetilly queer and also follow their church’ teachgs to absta om LGBTQ2 sex. Some church, on the other hand, appld their abstence but disapprove of their gay pri.
” The terms origated nservative Christian circl the late 1990s on a webse lled Bridg Across the Divi, a discsn fom created to brg together Christians who “disagree about moral issu surroundg homosexualy, bisexualy and genr variance. ” Maggie Heeman, a gay rights advote, found the se alongsi an “ex-gay” man.
She unrstands s appeal to some gay Christians.
THE STRANGE NOTN OF “GAY CELIBACY”
Of late, much attentn has been given both the secular media and Christian media to those who ll themselv “gay celibate Christians.” As a man attracted… * gay but celibate *
Some church and Christian anizatns that once promoted nversn therapy (to “turn” people om gay to straight) have now shifted away om , cludg Exod Internatnal, an anizatn of “ex-gays” (Christians who claim to no longer be gay, lbian or bisexual) that disband 2013. “There’s nothg wrong wh beg gay — as long as you’re not gay any meangful sense of the word.
There’s a Facebook group for Si B Christians and a webse lled Spirual Friendship, which is n by gay celibate Christian wrers Wley Hill and Ron Belg.
“I unrstand why they want to make the distctn that they do, between inty and practice, or between orientatn and sire, ” says Tonstad of celibate gay Christians. When he me out as gay at 18, many of his iends were thrilled for him.
HOW CELIBATE GAY CHRISTIANS DEAL WH DIRE
But he had to figure out how to square his inty wh his membership the Roman Catholic Church, which still holds that homosexual acts are wrong. He eventually nclud that he tsted the church’s thory on the issue — beg gay was okay but actg on sir was not. C., stggl wh her church’s stance on homosexualy.
Th still n’t expla exactly what ma her tst the church’s teachgs on homosexualy but thks the charist, the sacrament which the bread and we is transformed to the body and blood of Christ, had a lot to do wh .
“It is possible to be a gay Christian. Derek Kaser is a 30-year-old celibate gay man who liv Pennsylvania.
'SO MANY OF THE CELIBATE GAY CHRISTIANS ARE CEL'
The Christian fear of sexual temptatn n make pannship very hard for celibate gay people, too. Then he rearched what he thought the Bible said about homosexualy.
“I wanted to believe that the Bible didn’t have what I read as the prohibn agast gay sex, but I uldn’t good fah actually say that’s what said, ” he says. At age 19, he me out as gay while attendg Try Wtern Universy (TWU), a private Christian school Brish Columbia that, until recently, mandated s stunts sign a pledge to not have gay sex. “The nversatn had progrsed far enough [on mp] that no one thought that havg homosexual sir or havg the sire to physilly alter your genr inty was sful, but actg on that sire was, ” he says.
“So I knew celibate gay Christians who were given rol as rince advisers, stunt learship rol, whereas male stunts who had boyiends were explicly told that they wouldn’t be given those posns.