Comments on: Their Own Receive Them Not

By: T.J.

T.J. — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:01:37 +0000

My partner and I would like to have an cermoney.celbrating all of who we are. both with our faith an our families. are familes are not rich people so we are asking for help from our communinty.

By: Kit Williams

Kit Williams — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:03:35 +0000

Greetings, I am very confused, to say the least. I guess my confusion is based on what the written word of God says. If I have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and I’m a new creature in Christ then I was taught that this new creature will take on the spirit and heart and life style of Christ. I was born into sin, that sin consists of fornicating, lying, killing stealing and perverstion etc. I guess what i’m asking and/or saying how is that when I was living a lifestyle of fornicating and I know I was in sin and I was delivered from that lifestyle because I wanted to please God not man. I made a conscious decision to be pleasing to God not myself and my own desires but what God would have for me. How is it that having a homosexual relationship is OK with God but fornicating is not? Basically, not to sound underminding, but my question is a retorical one. If I decide to go back and live that type of lifestyle that I was living prior to me accepting Christ into my life then that’s my own decision. God says He lays before us good and evil we are to choose. I also have battled with drug addiction. God has truly delivered me, why, because I no longer wanted to live that type of lifestyle based on getting a revelation of God’s word not man’s philosophy. Again, not to sound rude or disrespectful, but should I then thumb through the bible to find a way to fornicate and use drugs and say that is acceptable to God and then right a book about how hypocrites in the Church won’t accept me because I use drugs and fornicate to justify my loved willful sins? I know what sins I still battle with within my flesh and my heart, but I know that is is not of God. I am Christian enough and real and honest enough not to try to hide behind rejection of people to validate what I know to be unGodly. If i want to fornicate then i will, if I choose to go back and use drugs and live a destructive lifestyle then that’s what I will do, but I will not try to justify it, write a book and point the finger at the usual hypocrites in the Church to take the pressure off of my loved sins that I want to do anyway and don’t want anyone to tell me that i can’t. I am woman enough to say to myself, yeah I want to get high, yes I want to fornicate, but I know God is not pleased with me and take it for what its worth. I’m by no means a pastor, overseer or any great person, I’m just so confused about the body of Christ. Between the hypocrites in the Church and people who live unGodly lives based on God’s word not man and try to justify and say what they do is ok, i don’t know if I even desire to be apart of such craziness and foolishness. We need to be real. I’ve been put out of church auxilaries because of being pregnant and undwed. I’ve been ridiculed by church folk for my clothing. I feel sadened in my heart to read about hypocrites in the churhc whether black or white. If i was delivered and if Christ and the power of God’s word and spirit that lives within me can keep me from willfull sin that is so plain in God’s word, then why can’t a homosexual be delivered, set free and kept by the power of God’s word and the indwelling of God’s spirit? Doesn’t the word speak about God not being a respective of persons. Should I say look i’m a pastor and I accept fornicating and drug use in my ministry and here some scriptures i’ll manipulate and try to use to justify me fornicating and using drugs? The simplicity of a matter is what reaches people not the accolades of humanity. Even on my job they accept this lifestyle provide health insurance for this lifestyle, but if i wanted to get insurance for my male boyfriend then that is not available. Bottom line to all hypocrites, and people who don’t want to be delivered from their loved sins, truth is what it is. We can battle this same demon until Jesus returns and sin is sin.

Much love to all who reads this, peace out, Kit~

By: terrance

terrance — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:47:14 +0000

I’m probably not the right person to ask for advice. I ended up leaving the faith I was raised in, but what’s right for me may not be right for someone else. Depending on where you are, there may be gay-affirming churches in your area. Of course, what I’ve heard from other black lgbt people is that “it’s just not the same” in term of the style of worship or “spirit” they’re used to.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:09:47 +0000

I have struggled with my own standing in the church I attend now (as well as those I attended in the past) because of the same issues raised by the columnist and some of the posts above. I don’t quite understand why the church as an institution has to be so bigoted and ignorant in its belief system. It’s not the church’s place to stand in judgment and certainly not to be so grossly hypocritical, yet it insists on being that way. My partner chooses to remain faithful to attending church regularly. I am far less enthused about it. What to do? Any suggestions?

By: Stuffed Animal

Stuffed Animal — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:57:11 +0000

Lesbians and Gay men are blessed people connected to the Kingdom of Heaven. This fact is alluded to in the 19th chapter of Matthew. Jesus Christ teaches that men and women should marry and not divorce, but then says, “not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth . . . and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.” He’s not talking about castrated men here; that wasn’t the ancient understanding of the word eunuch. He’s talking about men who abstain from sex with women, and even in Biblical times, such men were known to have homosexual orientation (read the scholarship of Faris Malik at his Born Eunuchs website, http://www.well.com/user/aquarius/).

You can find affirmation of eunuch status even in the Old Testament, the site of those infamous verses from Levitican Law about men laying with men. In the 56th chapter of Isaiah, it reads: “For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, who chose the things that please Me and hold fast My covenant, I will give, in My house and within My walls a monument and a name better than (fathering) sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” Again, the ancient understanding of the word “eunuch” should be kept in mind. In the Bible, which fundamentalist Christians worship like a God, Gay men are spoken of in a context that’s different from other men . . . and that’s just in the Bible!

I can’t even begin to tell you how many passages from Gnostic scripture deal with Gay people. You’ve never heard that before? Well, I don’t doubt that you haven’t. Gnostic scholars are heterosexual for the most part, which means they’re afflicted by heterosexist bias. They can’t see what’s right in front of their faces! In books like the Gospel of Phillip, the Secret Book of John and the Egyptian Gospel, Lesbians and Gay men are called “the incorruptible generation”, “free men and virgins,” “attendants of the Holy Wedding Chamber”, “the priestly order” and other such names of honor. In the Gospel of Phillip, the process of how men and women become Gay in the womb is described in ONE PARAGRAPH . . . I kid you not. The entire Book of Thomas seems to be a sermon directed at Gay men.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking . . . “dude’s one brick short of a load!” God forbid that you take my word for it. Investigate these teachings for yourself, the Gnostic writings are widely available now. However, I feel sorry for anyone who has to consult scripture to find validation of their gender identity (and yes, homosexual is a distinct gender)! If you know within yourself that you were born Gay, and you know that being Gay involves more than just sexuality, you are all but acknowledging that God created you according to His Divine will. No preacher, no doctrine, no church is necessary. It’s just useful to know that so-called “Christians” who condemn you on a Biblical basis don’t really know the Bible that well. For an overview of the Book of Thomas, check out the post titled “Blessed Assurance” at my blog, Christ, The Gay Martyr:

http://christthegaymartyr.blogspot.com/

By: Regan DuCasse

Regan DuCasse — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:10:35 +0000

All else is common among non gays and gays, but the ONE thing that isn’t, (being gay) trumps all else of interest and merit a gay person may offer society.
That makes no sense. And the outer straight majority then accusing gay people of obssessing about sex, makes even LESS sense.

Obviously, straight people believe the only path to happiness is sleeping with them, being them, and marrying them.
Which is less about God, but heterosexuality.
And that, to me…is the weakest excuse of all for all the havoc heterosexuals are willing to wreak on gay folks.
Leaving God, and God’s own judgement and participation out of the equation altogether.
Other gifts given to the gay person are not accepted either.
No matter how many postive and successful ways gay folks present themselves, I make this observation:
straight folks keep throwing away gay folks like a spoiled child who doesn’t like a gift presented over and over, no matter how good it is, keeps demanding a better one.

By: terrance

terrance — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:15:08 +0000

Well, I ‘ll get to check it out soon. I called the publisher, explained that I wantd to review it on my blog, and they were happy to send me a copy. It should be here soon, and when it arrives I’ll move i to the top of the “to read” pile.

By: Tony Nicholas

Tony Nicholas — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 21:30:46 +0000

Yeah, well, while I believe in something bigger than you and I.. me and the church, and indeed, religious community, remain unreconciled and will do so until the day I die. Furthermore, should I get a second opportunity at life, I wouldn’t want to be amongst this rabble, unless I can personally chain them and drag them to hell meself.

Their constant scapegoating of Gays and Lesbians and long left a sour taste. It has long destroyed any vestige of respect for their beliefs, let alone their right to preactice beliefs and practice their faith [cough, cough...]

I mean, if the only thing that can unite a Rabbi, a Priest and a Mufti/Imam in Jerusalem, is an anti-homosexuality crusade, why can I not just spit on the ground they walk? The whole world is falling apart, and all they can do is bemoan the homsexual?

nod of head