Si B Christians, who are gay and celibate, often feel ught between ex-gays and ntent-to-be-gay Christians.
Contents:
- WHAT IS WRONG WH GAY CHRISTIANY? WHAT IS SI A AND SI B ANYWAY?
- HOW CELIBATE GAY CHRISTIANS DEAL WH DIRE
- THE JOY-ROBBG FALSE HOPE OF SI B GAY CHRISTIANY
WHAT IS WRONG WH GAY CHRISTIANY? WHAT IS SI A AND SI B ANYWAY?
* gay side b *
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.
HOW CELIBATE GAY CHRISTIANS DEAL WH DIRE
The belief that you n embrace same sex attractn and / or gay inty but that same sex sexual relatnships do not honor God. * gay side b *
Many LGBTQ Christians who had been harmed by the ex-gay approach — but still held to tradnal church teachgs on marriage — turned to Si B for a more acceptg muny. Bridget Eileen Rivera, a celibate gay Christian and thor of “Heavy Burns: Seven Ways LGTBQ Christians Experience Harm the Church, ” don’t e the Si B label.
“When a gay person lands the more nservative, tradnal mp, ’s helpful to distguish them om those who are really theologilly a different place, ” he said. 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 JOY-ROBBG FALSE HOPE OF SI B GAY CHRISTIANY
Mudblood Catholic (Gabriel Blanchard) wrote a really tertg seven-part (as well as an excurs and a postscript) seri of blogs a while back on beg “Gay and Catholic.” I enurage you to check out each post, startg wh the first one that I’ve lked to.[1] In “Part I: Gaystatn 2,” Gabriel, a Si-B gay Catholic,… * gay side b *
“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.
The unrstandg of “Si B Christians” is siar to the CRC’s posn, tablished by Synod 1973, that homosexualy is “a ndn of personal inty which a person is sexually oriented toward persons of the same sex” and “explic homosexual practice” is “patible wh obedience to the will of God as revealed Scripture.