Do “Gay Christians” exist? – In His Image

Contents:

• CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• IS CRISTIANO RONALDO GAY? KNOW HIS SEXUALY & PERSONAL LIFE
• YOUNG & RTLS’ CHRISTIAN JUL LEBLANC UNPACKS THE BAGGAGE OF HOMOPHOBIA: ‘I STILL LIVE WH THE LEGACY OF THAT AS A GAY MAN’
• Y&R’S CHRISTIAN LEBLANC OPENS UP ABOUT THE STGGL OF LIVG AS A GAY MAN
• IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• ARE THERE REALLY “GAY CHRISTIANS”?
• CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?
• 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
• RPONDG TO A “GAY CHRISTIAN” THE FAY
• FIRST-PERSON: WHAT IS A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• BEG A GAY CHRISTIAN N BE HURTFUL AND GELLG. BUT I REFE TO LOSE FAH
• DO “GAY CHRISTIANS” EXIST?
• CAN CHRISTIANS BE GAY?
• ARE GAY CHRISTIANS GENUE CHRISTIANS?
• IS ‘GAY CHRISTIAN’ A PROPER TERM?
• “MOM, DAD… I’M GAY.” A CHRISTIAN PARENT’S RPONSE

CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?

However, the Bible is very clear that gay sexual activy is nsired sful and that a Christian is not to take part such activi. Romans 1:26-27 not gay activy as "unnatural" while 1 Corthians 6:9-10 lists same sex activy as somethg done by those who will "not her the kgdom of God. In fact, Pl's list clus, "the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers" (1 Corthians 6:9-10).

Young & Rtls’ Christian Jul LeBlanc Unpacks the Baggage of Homophobia: ‘I Still Live Wh the Legacy of That as a Gay Man’. As the send of eight kids his large southern fay, LeBlanc revealed that he’s attend multiple terventns, lost his brother to AIDS when he was jt 25, and as a gay man, still suffers om homophobia and tolerance.

IS CRISTIANO RONALDO GAY? KNOW HIS SEXUALY & PERSONAL LIFE

Although the Emmy-wner allows that thgs are better now than years past, there is still homophobia and tolerance everywhere the world.

Do not be ceived; neher fornitors, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effemate, nor homosexuals, nor thiev, nor the veto, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers, will her the kgdom of God” (1 Corthians 6:9-10). While is unniable, biblilly speakg, that homosexualy is immoral and unnatural (Romans 1:26-27), no sense do the Bible scribe homosexualy as an unfivable s.

It is nsistent, for example, to clare those guilty of pre-maral sex as “disobedient Christians, ” while clarg homosexuals fively non-Christians.

YOUNG & RTLS’ CHRISTIAN JUL LEBLANC UNPACKS THE BAGGAGE OF HOMOPHOBIA: ‘I STILL LIVE WH THE LEGACY OF THAT AS A GAY MAN’

If the phrase “gay Christian” refers to a person who stggl agast homosexual sir and temptatns – y, a “gay Christian” is possible. However, the scriptn “gay Christian” is not accurate for such a person, sce he/she do not sire to be gay, and is stgglg agast the temptatns.

Such a person is not a “gay Christian, ” but rather is simply a stgglg Christian, jt as there are Christians who stggle wh fornitn, lyg, and stealg. If the phrase “gay Christian” refers to a person who actively, perpetually, and unrepentantly liv a homosexual liftyle – no, is not possible for such a person to tly be a Christian.

Y&R’S CHRISTIAN LEBLANC OPENS UP ABOUT THE STGGL OF LIVG AS A GAY MAN

God and the Gay Christian is a book that seeks to teach rears that the Bible ndon livg a monogamo homosexual liftyle. 1 He garnered natnal attentn aga 2013 when he started his mistry The Reformatn Project and hosted a nference to teach people how to “reform” the church on the issue of homosexualy. 2 And April of this year, V ma news once aga wh the release of his new book God and the Gay Christian: The Biblil Case Support of Same-Sex Relatnships.

As we broke down his arguments ncerng the creatn orr, we realized that God and the Gay Christian was not the typil progrsive attack on the thory of Scripture. However, I want to turn to exame two of the key assertns on which V reli God and the Gay Christian: the ia that “sexual orientatn” nnot be changed, and the relevance of celibacy to his pot. ” Ined, there are many profsg Christians who have adopted termology such as “gay Christian” as a scriptor for those Christians who stggle wh same-sex attractn (SSA).

Owen Strachan, assistant profsor of Christian theology and church history at SBTS, wr about the problem wh g the term “gay Christian” to scribe believers who al wh same-sex attractn. Some Christians argue that while inty Christ is of first importance for a believer to grasp, we should also enurage them to mata this other inty as a “gay Christian, ” as a way of classifyg their experience.

IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?

Many people alg wh SSA will be tempted to say what Matthew V has—that beg homosexual is simply part of who they are—and to treat that as a sendary inty to or as a replacement for their inty as a new creatn Christ.

ARE THERE REALLY “GAY CHRISTIANS”?

Moreover, such a msage also ntradicts the Apostle Pl’s msage 1 Corthians 6:11 when he said that Christians have been “washed, ” “sanctified, ” and “jtified” Christ—and Pl specifilly clus homosexualy the list of thgs the believers had left behd. V’s other key assumptn God and the Gay Christian is that celibacy should only be practiced by those lled to , and the men and women alg wh SSA who are not lled to celibacy should be allowed to fulfill their sexual sir through marriage. Homosexual behavr is s, makg the celibacy discsn relevant only the sense that a profsg Christian has repented of s such as homosexual behavr and abstas om for the rt of his life, even if that means acceptg celibacy and tstg God for the grace to live up to that ll.

He believ that the Apostle Pl simply was not aware of homosexual orientatn and wrote agast same-sex behavr out of ignorance:. Wh the issue of homosexualy, a rapidly growg mory the church has chosen the path of least ristance and affirmed same-sex relatnships.

CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?

The re msage of God and the Gay Christian is not to “challenge” or “dispute” the Bible self, or to qutn whether the text is spired and thorative our liv as followers of Christ. Matthew V is not placg his own dividual experience as a gay Christian over the tth of the bible [sic], and he is not even challengg the words of scripture [sic] bee of his personal experience. Rather—and this is an important distctn—Matthew’s experience as a gay Christian has led him to challenge his own personal, limed, terpretatn of scripture [sic].

Arguments for cln of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people fah muni have evolved over the past 45 years.

Christians who stand firmly on the thory of Scripture when to homosexual behavr may want to lash out at people who impugn the Word of God, such as Matthew V, or at church that embrace such a mixture of worldly philosophy wh biblil doctre.

10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

Takg on the tle of “gay Christian” and dismissg abstence om sful sexual behavr will not solve his problem, spe the elaborate arguments prented God and the Gay Christian.

A spate of books and vios and article and blogs would tell that, ed, that is not the gospel and that the good news of J is that you n follow Him and enjoy a mted, homosexual relatnship too. 4:12-13) we will humble ourselv before the Lord, keepg our foc on J and askg the Father to give His heart for those who intify as LGBT, lettg the unequivol ttimony of Scripture gui , we will fd, what do the Word of God say about homosexual practice? The ttimony of Scripture remas unchanged: The Bible forbids homosexual is clear that the vast majory of those who have changed their views on what the Bible says about homosexualy and now believe “gay Christiany” have done so based on eher their own same-sex sir and attractns or their teractn wh “gay Christians” (or wh any gay or lbian person who challeng their assumptns) other words, they have not changed their thkg based on study of the Scriptur alone sce no new textual, archaeologil, soclogil, anthropologil, or philologil disveri have been ma the last fifty years that would e to read any of the biblil texts another way, is not that we have gaed some new sights to what the biblil text means based on the study of the Hebrew and Greek texts.

This is the guaranteed path to Word of God, which reprents His heart and will for His creatn, is absolutely clear on the subject, prohibg all forms of homosexual practice.

RPONDG TO A “GAY CHRISTIAN” THE FAY

This is so clear that a number of leadg gay and lbian theologians acknowledge that they n only jtify “gay Christiany” by rejectg the full thory of Scripture. First, they claim that the vers have been mistranslated, misterpreted, or mised, and so, realy, the Scriptur do not prohib monogamo, mted, homosexual relatnships.

Isn’t this evince of homophobic attus the Church rather than a reful reprentatn of God’s heart as exprsed His Word? To the ntrary, was so important that every sgle recipe the book mak no mentn of is exactly the same when to the Bible and homosexualy. There are a few, very strong, very clear, referenc to homosexual practice—every one of them cidly negative—and then not a sgle reference to homosexual practice throughout the rt of the Bible.

Throughout the Word, the only relatnships that were acceptable God’s sight or nsired normal for society were heterosexual relatnships, and so homosexual practice was eher irrelevant (bee had nothg to do wh the God-ordaed relatnships of marriage and fay and society) or, if mentned, explicly give jt one example out of hundreds, when a gay uple reads the Word and they e to Pl’s words Ephians 5:22, 25, “Wiv, subm to your own hbands, as to the Lord.... A man pl a man or a woman pl a woman nnot possibly share the same unn as a man and a woman sce they do not share the sential of fundamental samens and rephrase the famo axm of John Gray, namely, that men are om Mars and women are om Ven, Mars + Mars or Ven + Ven nnot ever equal Mars + the words of a man who has lived as a homosexual all his life (he’s now past 70) but has recently found the Lord, “Even an atheist n unrstand the lack of anatomil plementary and therefore blogil purpose male-to-male or female-to-female sexualy.

FIRST-PERSON: WHAT IS A GAY CHRISTIAN?

”To everyone who profs to be a gay Christian, I ask you to get alone wh God and ask yourself, “Did God create and sign me to be wh the same-sex or the oppose sex? What the biblil thors rejected, we are told, was man-boy relatnships, or male prostutn, or homosexual the sful practic were certaly rejected, but biblil thors like Pl were certaly aware of long-term, male-male importantly, Hebrews 4:13 stat that “no creature is hidn om [God’s] sight, but all are naked and exposed to the ey of him to whom we mt give acunt. Are gay theologians willg to say that the Lord Himself did not unrstand morn-day, still-evolvg ncepts like “sexual orientatn?

”And are they willg to say that the Lord J, who lerally looked to the hearts and souls of human begs—John 2:25 says that He knew what was man—didn’t unrstand that certa people were “gay?

BEG A GAY CHRISTIAN N BE HURTFUL AND GELLG. BUT I REFE TO LOSE FAH

The gospel brgs good news to homosexual men and theologians tell that the tradnal gospel msage is a “bad tree, ” brgg forth the bad u of prsn, apostasy, and even suici among gay men and the ntrary, the msage of the gospel brgs fivens, eedom, hope, and liverance, as untls thoands of ex-gays n attt, by which I mean followers of J who no longer practice homosexualy. I’ve worked up a good lather the so-lled “culture war” around homosexualy and same-sex marriage for about two s now.

However, to bate the issue serly and tthfully, we mt seek an hont picture of what our opponents actually believe — workg om what we thk they believe is neher helpful nor there are people of many diverse beliefs and nvictns — cludg gay and lbian people — who oppose same-sex marriage, here are 10 foundatnal tths that rm the tradnal, orthodox Christian belief.

Some morn Bible translatns say that “homosexuals” will not her the kgdom of God, but neher the ncept nor the word for people wh exclive same-sex attractn existed before the late 19th century.

DO “GAY CHRISTIANS” EXIST?

While the Bible rejects ltful same-sex behavr, that’s very different om a nmnatn of all gay people and relatnships. Requirg that all gay people rema celibate is at odds wh the Bible’s teachgs on celibacy, which are ground Scripture’s re affirmatn that God’s physil creatn is good. Mastream nomatns like Prbyterians and Epispalians now orda openly gay clergy, and there are seeds of change evangelil church as well.

Matthew V is the thor of God and the Gay Christian and is the founr of The Reformatn Project, a Bible-based non-prof anizatn that seeks to reform church teachg on sexual orientatn and genr inty. For example, clarify that there will be no overt displays of homosexual affectn nor any sharg of the same room while unr your roof.

If he persists argug that the Bible has nothg to say agast homosexualy, remd him gently that the evince all pots the oppose directn.

CAN CHRISTIANS BE GAY?

(BP) — I recently read of an terview wh a “gay Christian, ” and at once I was stck aga by the e of this peculiar phrase. We n observe at least two fns of the phrase gay Christian — the scriptive and the culturally normative:— The scriptive fn of “gay Christian.

” In this sense, gay Christian is merely a scriptn of a Christian who experienc homosexual sir but who may neverthels agree wh the Bible that homosexualy is sful.

In this sense, to say that one is a gay Christian is to regnize a genue disciple of J who scerely and hontly stggl agast this particular s. This is the way that Wley Hill the term his book “Washed and Wag: Reflectns on Christian Fahfulns and Homosexualy” (Zonrvan).

ARE GAY CHRISTIANS GENUE CHRISTIANS?

He lls himself a gay Christian, but he affirms the biblil teachg about human sexualy and remas celibate spe of a life-long stggle wh homosexual sir. ” In this sense, gay Christian scrib a person who is both a genue Christian and who has embraced homosexualy as nsistent wh Christian fah. Those who e the term this sense argue eher that the Bible’s moral teachg on this subject is mistaken, or that the Bible’s apparent nmnatn of homosexualy has been misunrstood.

Brian McLaren the term the normative sense, and he is clear his book “A New Kd of Christiany” that homosexual acts and sir are patible wh beg a there are two different sens which people employ this phrase. The phrase gay Christian creat an inty tegory that we would not accept for any other, the scriptive sense of gay Christian is not well-tablished. ” But the culture war often obscur how, wh actual Christian muni, discsn on homosexualy is often personal, nuanced, and difficult.

Yet even when I’m 90% sure the person I’m addrsg will be acceptg, I still get that ltle jerky stomach-knot right before I say the words “gay” or “girliend” to someone new. Durg my unrgraduate gree, I basilly gave up gog to church altogether bee felt like all the Christian stunts were harned anti-gay ’s a time and a place for what I ll “activist church-gog”: gog to a church where you know you won’t be accepted jt to remd them that queer Christians do exist. It has bee fashnable, even many nservative circl, to eher style onelf as a gay Christian or to support people who are eher practicg homosexuals or who intify as gay but celibate wh the church.

IS ‘GAY CHRISTIAN’ A PROPER TERM?

I fd very ironic that homosexualy and transgenrism are the only ss for which we attempt to fd a geic predisposn for; you will never see someone claimg they mted adultery or murr due to a geic predisposn taken serly. This also ti to the ia of a celibate gay Christian who claims to not be practicg homosexualy but still intifi as gay.

If you have homosexual or bisexual tennci, this is not jt a theologil bate, but speaks to the re of how you see yourself and how God views you.

“MOM, DAD… I’M GAY.” A CHRISTIAN PARENT’S RPONSE

The homosexual nversatn impacts not jt those who intify themselv as LGBT (Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr), but all of .

You will have to make cisns about whether to go to a same-sex weddg, whether to have your dghter and her partner over for dner, and whether to attend a church wh a gay pastor. In today’s changg world, statg that homosexualy is anythg but an acceptable liftyle, approved by God, is seen as unlovg, judgmental, hateful, and some plac, crimal.

If you have read much on this issue, you know that there have been valiant attempts to reterpret the six passag that specifilly addrs homosexualy (Genis 19, Levic 18:22, Levic 20:13, Romans 1:24–27, 1 Corthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10). The ncept of a homosexual orientatn was first suggted the 1890s, ironilly around the same time as the field of psychology was tablished.