This Web Site Is Dedicated
To Sharing the Good News That
GOD LOVES YOU!
(As Jesus taught at John 3:16 and 17) PERIOD
Just love God and be the person God created you to be!
Click here to go directly to the biblical studies and bypass my preface.
The Christian religion is incredibly doctrinally diverse! In order to exist as the United Body of Christ, this diversity must be accepted and honored, even when one disagrees with some point of doctrine. What the Bible says about homosexuality is simply another of those myriad differences that exists within the Church. It goes without saying (so I'll say it anyway) that I fail in this attempt. I sometimes find it difficult to show Christian charity toward people who espouse what I believe to be prejudice and unchristian judgementalism, but that doesn't change the fact that what we are all supposed to do is LOVE one another, even as Jesus loved us... unconditionally.
"Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? To his own lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him stand."
The Church has always been doctrinally diverse! One person believes in the pre-trib rapture, another in mid-trib, another in post-trib and still others believe there will be no rapture at all! Each camp can provide scriptural evidence that supports their view. Some Christians believe they will spend eternity in Heaven living with the angels, while other equally faithful Christians believe we will spend eternity on the New Earth according to God's original plan. Some Christians observe the biblical Sabbath, some honor Sunday as the Lord's Day, while others believe all days are the same. Some pray only to God the Father, others to the Virgin Mary and the Saints, while yet others pray only to Jesus. Some Christians believe God tortures people in a burning pit of hellfire and eternal damnation, some believe Jesus provided universal salvation for everyone, while others believe in reincarnation and yet others believe in 'soul sleep' and a future resurrection at the end of the age.
There are so very many doctrinal differences within the Church! Who can authoritatively say, "This is the true teaching?" The fact is, as the Apostle Paul tells us, we are ALL looking as it were through a darkly tinted mirror (I Cor 13:12). Only God knows the answers to our countless questions with certainty and only God is fit to judge on these diverse questions or to decide whether or not any of our services and beliefs are acceptable. This, despite our well intended conflicting opinions, is the obvious truth.
Below you will find several of my studies on homosexuality and the Bible. You may agree or disagree with the conclusions I draw and that's alright. What I hope to demonstrate is that as in most cases, devout and sincere Christians should be able to agree to disagree on such matters. We all have scriptural reasons for believing as we do. Friend, God loves us ALL and only God can ultimately decide who to accept and who, if anyone, to reject.
Our Creator has cultivated an infinite variety of flowers for His Garden with myriad colors, textures and fragrances. All of these flowers are beautiful and all of them proclaim the glory of the One God who alone is blessed forever and ever, worlds without end.
You are heterosexual? Mazel tov! You are gay? Mazel tov to you too! You're transgendered or bisexual? Congratulations my friend! It doesn't matter to God any more than a rose in inherently "better" or "more righteous" than a daisy! Together they all make up the Holy Garden of Life. So be the best flower you can be for God's enjoyment. Let your leaves reach up towards the heavens and allow your unique scent to waft in the breezes! Love others and try to do good to everyone as Jesus taught us. Always remember that the title "Christian" means "Christ-like" so try and be like him in ever thing you do! Share the Gospel in love with everyone as the occasion arises, but don't tell people God doesn't love them (which many who proclaim anti-homosexual beliefs do), nor point out the alleged sins of others, that's the Holy Spirit's job, not ours! If we concern ourselves with our own sins and short-comings, this will keep us more than busy (Matt. 7:3)!
Concerned Christian friend listen, if people love God and seek to do His will, God can "zap them straight" if He wants to -- although personally, I've never known God to do so. And if they don't love God nor seek to follow His will, what difference does it make who they love anyway? (John 3:18).
Most so-called 'ex-gays' were never really gay in the first place. We all know that life can be hard at times and many of these people are emotionally distraught victims of abuse who engaged in homosexual acts as a form of denial or rebellion. Just read their testimonials, they were clearly reacting to some deep hurt in their lives. For instance they may have been abused as children by a trusted adult and wrongly determined they could therefore no longer trust opposite gendered people. Many such men will tell you they were neglected by their fathers. Craving his love and acceptance they turned to other men, not because they were gay but because deep inside they still felt like unloved sons who needed male bonding. To avoid more pain and sorrow, such people may enter into what some call "the homosexual lifestyle." "Being homosexual" is much more than who one has sex with however as any gay person will tell you. Many people who have engaged in same-gendered sexual acts are not "gay" anymore than those homosexuals who have engaged in heterosexual acts are "straight." Its just not this simple.
Other so-called ex-gays are gay men or lesbians who are living lives of self-denial and repressed guilt. Out of a misplaced sense of shame such people pretend to be what they are not. They marry opposite gendered people, raise children and appear to be heterosexuals, or perhaps they live alone, and yet within their hearts they know they are living a lie, a painful falsehood they must keep from everyone. Such people have been convinced by religious teachers or society at large that homosexuality is a sin, a mental illness and so on, and therefore they deny this vital part of their true identities. This is truly heart breaking to behold and unfair to both themselves and those with whom they share their lives.
>
You who judge the LGBT Community, please understand the results of your condemnations: A significant percentage of gay and lesbian people want nothing to do with God and Jesus SOLELY because of the unchristian hatred espoused in God's name by well-meaning but doctrinally mistaken Christians. I have heard so many gay people say things like, "Well, if I'm not good enough for God then to hell with him!" Or, "If I'm going to hell anyway, why bother trying to know God at all?" It is a horribly difficult choice the Religious Right places before homosexuals: Either they must live unfulfilled lives in denial of their true natures, live as hypocrites, or experience the wrath of God. What a choice! For such unbiblical spiritual blackmail such misguided Christians will surely be held accountable to God:
"But he [Jesus] turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men."
And again:
"But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and [that] he should be sunk in the depth of the sea."
The Biblical example for Christians is to walk humbly before the Lord our God, to pray for one another and never to judge one another. This is what we're all called to do.
Maranatha,
~Pastor John
Pastor John invites you to join our LGBT affirming Christian E-Lists.
This one is for sharing Prayer Requests (no debates of discussions):
And this one is for discussing the Bible and Homosexuality
What was the "Sin of Sodom"?
An in depth study of Genesis 18 and 19
For an Orthodox Jewish Look at the Sodom Question
See: What Was the Sin of Sodom?
"In the words of the Talmud: "The men of Sodom were corrupted only on account of the good which G-d had lavished upon them... "
The name of our Santa Cruz congregation, Grace Inclusive Church,
reflects key principles of what we believe. In the next three studies
I discuss our name and explain our Christian beliefs.
Go to:Grace: Its Free, But It Ain't Cheap!
Go to:Inclusive: A Rainbow of Christian Diversity.
Go to:Church: Does it Matter What You Believe?
Go to: What We Believe Go to: Our Mission and Vision Statements
An introductory note by John of AllFaith (July 27, 2006):
I grew up in a Missionary Baptist Church in North Georgia. After certain experiences I left the Christian faith and continued my quest for the One elsewhere. In time I realized I had 'thrown the baby out with the bathwater' so to speak, and so returned to Christianity at various points along the way. One of these periods was during the late 1990's. At that time there was an upsurge in Church-spawned gay bashing going on, as there is today. I heard contradictory messages from many quarters of the Christian Church that left me deeply troubled. It went something like this:
"God loves everyone..."
"... except of course homosexuals, God's going to torture them for eternity for loving the wrong people!"
"Oh sure, they can still repent and embrace heterosexuality and be forgiven, but unless they do this, God will have them tortured for all of eternity in the Lake of Fire and brimstone!"
But doesn't the Bible say: "For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that [i.e. that faith] not of yourself, it [i.e. the faith to be saved] is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone might boast.(?)"
The conclusion I drew from this is that many (most?) Christians believe:
There is nothing a person can do to be saved, salvation is the absolutely free gift of God, it is not of works nor acts of righteousness that we have done etc. EXCEPT... for homosexuals. They must earn theit salvation by denying their sexual orientaion. It seems to me that anyone who can change such an innate and essential aspect of who they are in order to be saved does have something wherein to boast! They can boast, "I was saved because I had the willpower (or whatever) to become a heterosexual." And yet what does the scripture say? "... not of works lest anyone might boast.
So, what's wrong with this picture?
I'll be among the first to agree that God can require anything He wants of us! God alone is perfect and God alone has the authority to make requirements on His creation. No question there, in my mind. My question is whether or not God actually requires this herculean task of homosexuals. To date I have found NOTHING in the Scriptures to demonstrate this is required or even beneficial.
In the studies on this web page I have covered all the scriptures I am familiar with that Christians commonly use to add this requirement on the GLBT community. If there are others verses I should consider or if you would just like to discuss this topic, drop me a line!
Homosexuality has existed since the beginning of time as far as anyone knows. Throughout the ages different religions have dealt with it in diverse ways. Many of the early religions had no problems with it. Native American tribes and others tended to celebrate the homosexual orientation as reflecting a dual spirit, an innate spiritual connection with the Divine as they conceived the One, often surpassing that of their one-spirit peers.
The Bible is the final authority for Christians and it should be the source of Christian doctrine and nowhere does the Bible condemn monogamous same gender relationships. Rather, the hatred and prejudices being espoused by many Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell,Beverly Lahey,Fred Phelps and others comes from their own innate prejudices and lack of Christian love (I John 4:7-10) and not from the Bible. Such prejudices espoused in God's Name are driving thousands upon thousands of people away from God. This is not good because Jesus came to draw everyone to God, not to cast them aside (comp. Luke 12:8)!
I'm not curently involved with any church or religious body, which doesn't mean my faith has failed me, but simply that at the present moment I haven't found a spiritual community to hook up with my area. Its pretty rural and very conservative here and I don't fit in well with such folks.
As always, I'll be happy to discuss these things with all interested parties. Just contact me.
Many of you know and love Marsha Stevens (Born Again Lesbian Music), the "Mother of Contemporary Christian Music" (and her great song: "...And Jesus said, Come to the water, stand by my side, I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied...". For a few years I hosted and managed her web site here at AllFaith.com and still handle her guestbook for her.
I think Marsha, who is one of the most committed Christ-like Christians it has ever been my honor to know, makes an excellent point that is applicable here. In almost every one of her Christian concerts she makes more or less the two following statements:
"I don't think Jesus is sitting up in heaven kicking himself for giving me that song (i.e. For Those Tears I Died) and thinking, "Who knew she'd go lesbian?"
And 2. "I tell Jesus that anytime he wants to zap me straight he is welcome to do so. So far, he hasn't!"
And again, my friend of many years Arthur Blessitt, a heterosexual man of God and probably the most devout Christian I have ever had to privilege of knowing; and possibly the most sincere Christian currently living on this planet IMHO (I'd put Marsha Stevens right up there as well). I've discussed this issue with Arthur as we carried wooden crosses on our backs preaching Jesus in Central America and elsewhere. His answer is that gays know more about being gay than he does, so he has nothing to say on the subject, he knows about Jesus and so that's what he preaches: 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified.' That's what matters. Get a person saved, love them in Christ, and let the Holy Spirit of God lead them as He wills. When you have sincere Believers who have walked with God for decades, as have many of the contemporary LGBT Christians, it is not your responsibility to change them into your image of what they should be! If your opinion is asked, share it in love. If you have sincere questions, ask them in love and with respect. If its not asked, just love them in Christ, because it is their own Master will determine if the stand or if they fall, and rest asured, God can make anyone stand!
Gay & Lesbian Rights - ACLU Freedom Files
This is a great vid!
A great story of marriage and love. This is what its all about
"We have deeply enjoyed your wonderful website.
We would like to award your site our Life of Joy - Site of Excellence Award.
This award is given to web sites of particular excellence that honor Jesus Christ.
God has obviously blessed you in your effort to reach His children through your web site.
Your site is exceptional and a blessing to all who visit.
May God continue to bless you and your exciting internet ministry."
Click here to go directly to the biblical studies and bypass my preface.
For an Orthodox Jewish Look at the Sodom Question
See: What Was the Sin of Sodom?
