Gay Christian 101 - Affirmg God's glor good news for all LGBTs.

Contents:

• 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
• IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• CAN SOMEONE BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?
• CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?
• GAY CHRISTIANS
• HOW TO BE AN OPENLY GAY CHRISTIAN

10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

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. 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.

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.

IS POSSIBLE TO BE A GAY CHRISTIAN?

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). 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. 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).

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. 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.

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

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. First, they claim that the vers have been mistranslated, misterpreted, or mised, and so, realy, the Scriptur do not prohib monogamo, mted, homosexual relatnships.

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....

CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN?

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. ”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.

GAY CHRISTIANS

”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? 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.

Contue Readg >> and Gomorrah addrs gang rape, not a lovg stctn of Sodom and Gomorrah is monly assumed to have been the rult of God’s wrath agast homosexualy, but the only form of same-sex behavr scribed the story is an attempted gang rape (Genis 19:5)—nothg like the lovg, mted relatnships that are wispread today. Although s unlikely that the biblil thors had any notn of sexual orientatn (for example, the term homosexual wasn't even ed until the late 19th century) for many people of fah, the Bible is looked to for timels guidance on what means to honor God wh our liv; and this most certaly clus our sexualy.

HOW TO BE AN OPENLY GAY CHRISTIAN

” In askg, “What do the Bible say about homosexualy” (or more appropriately stated, “what do the Bible say about attractn to someone of the same sex, ”) our task is to explore what the relevant biblil passag on the topic meant their origal ntext and what they mean for today. While grateful for the experience of beg gay, Hartley se his gay inty as somethg that go beyond jt sex — “I never say that I’m grateful for same-sex sexual sire, ” he said — also clus athetics, culture and worldview.

As Si B disurse was fdg s way to onle foms, the flagship Christian ex-gay anizatn Exod Internatnal closed s doors 2013 after s of g nversn therapy on LGBTQ dividuals. On the flip si, some progrsive crics, who are fewer number, said Hill and Hartley, see Si B as another eratn of the ex-gay movement or a form of rpectabily polics where LGBTQ dividuals reprs their sexualy to w approval om the broar church.

“The ia that Si B is jt the ex-gay movement wh a different veneer ignor or mimiz the fact that Si B people are fleeg ex-gay movements and ex-gay church, ” said Hartley. Th agreed and add that the motivatns behd Si B and the ex-gay movement are entirely different; one is tryg to make gay people straight, and the other is tryg to expand how the church views love and kship. “Si B me out of dissatisfactn wh the simple and easy answers of the ex-gay movement, ” said Hartley, “and so, embracg plexy or allowg plexy is ntrast to that sistence on uniformy.