Trying to come up with a name for this blog post, I Google searched “liberal synonyms” so maybe I could stop writing the same word over and over. Synonyms include tolerant, unprejudiced, unbigoted, open-minded, progressive, advanced, and forward-looking. These are definitely words I strive for and would love if people used to describe me. I might not always be successful, but I never want to be the opposite of those words.
That’s why, I believe, a lot of my friends were thrown off guard when I came out as a Christian.
As a hippy-dippy, Democrat voting, left-wing nut liberal, this was unexpected. The Christian community has grown into a monolith of right-wing ideals. Christian people are often anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-progress and anti-science. What was I doing getting mixed in with those sorts of people?
It really comes down to the Bible, God, and Jesus.
Throughout my life, I had a mixed relationship with churches and Christianity. Growing up, we were CEO Christians (Christmas Easter Only). My high school boyfriend brought me to church with him and I learned that churches not only were open every Sunday, but also there were events and activities throughout the week that church goers did together.
I stopped going to church in my late teens, largely because of the church’s views on homosexuality. I have many queer friends and consider myself a part of the queer community. I have never felt more at home in any group of people. How can I be a part of a group that so openly makes these people feel like less?
Much later in life, I began interpreting (I’m a certified ASL interpreter) for a church every Sunday. I would meet with my fellow interpreters and we would analyze the service and find the best signs to fit. Unexpectedly, I was learning about the Bible. It wasn’t until I stopped interpreting at this church that I began to really miss and yearn for those Bible study meetings, even though at the time I hadn’t realized that was what we were doing.
At this point in my life (about mid-20s), I wasn’t thinking much about God at all. I wasn’t purposefully anti any religion, but I was anti bigotry and the persecutions I was seeing the LGBTQ+ community go through. People just living their lives and being who they were (how God made them, I later realized) were being bullied, shamed, and even murdered – for what? I decided to just keep living my life and being a good person and not thinking much about the whole “religion” thing.
That was my way of life – at least until I had a small medical scare that really shook me. On instinct, I prayed about it. After results came in and I was completely fine, I realized that it was a bit messed up that I only reached out to God when I needed something.
Here was this entity, this thing, that in my heart I could feel, but I only searched for it in times of trouble. I was reminded of verses from my time interpreting church. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 NIV)
I decided to start going to church again and see where that lead me.
I went to a few churches and saw again what I had seen when I left the church: close-minded people. I kept remembering my time as an interpreter and realized what great disconnect there was between the Bible and the Chrisitians I was seeing in every day life.
I then decided to do more research. If these people were right, and the Bible really is anti-homosexuality, then the Bible is not for me. For one, I have a fundamental belief and knowledge that being gay is not a choice and that there is nothing wrong with two people of the same sex being in a consensual relationship. I will definitely be exploring this more in future posts, but I know this to be a fact. There are many “bad” things in our world, and two consensual adults loving each other is not one of those bad things. If the Bible disagrees with this, it is opposing obvious truths I can see with my own eyes, and thus must be wrong.
Furthermore, my limited knowledge of the Bible was how much God and Jesus loves us and how most Christian beliefs are about loving each other and loving God. This limited knowledge was in direct contrast to how I was seeing Chrisitans behave towards LGBTQ+ people. So if in the Bible there was something directly attacking gay people, that would be hypocritical. And hypocracy is something I can not stand.
So I went to the Bible. The one place with words written by God Himself, translated into 698 different languages. Honestly, I was pretty confident at this point I was going to find something to turn me off of this whole Christianity phase I was going through.
But I have news, friends – the Bible is NOT anti-homosexuality!
Even moreso, I’m confident being gay is not a sin.
I know, shocker.
I’m going to explore this more in depth in future posts, but after really reading and analyzing all the Bible verses Christians have used to be anti-LGBTQ+, I honestly believe that many Christians are wrong. They’re using the Bible just as racists have used it for white supremacy. They’re making choices and picking words from here and there to fit with a preconceived idea that has been passed down to them.
I believe God took me on my specific path so that I could see and know the truth. If I had grown up in the church, I would be just as blinded to this idea as many of my Christian friends. Because of where I come from, I can see and read and interpret The Word without the biases of my family. My family’s biases (where I learned to love all others) fit in perfect tandem with God’s Words, unlike many fundamentalist Christian biases.
So, if you’re still here and I haven’t completely scared you off, I really hope you’ll join me as I go through the “6 Bullets” Christians use against homosexuality. We’ll explore the Bible, God’s words, and why these interpretations align more with the overall words of Jesus. We’ll also explore why it’s not okay to say “yes being gay is a sin, but we’re all sinners” and just how badly that damages what Jesus had in mind for us.
