Gay god
I’ve never posted about controversial issues on here. Instead I seek to provide a window into a God who dwells in all creation, in the extraordinary events of our life, and in the mundane. But finding God in all things means finding God in the depths of our vulnerability, our brokenness, even our rejection. Regardless of the church or community we belong to, we may feel wound, rejected, or unloved. This is especially true for the gay community. Today, I offer you a guest send by Stephen Fratello, who graciously agreed to address his struggles as a gay Catholic and where he finds God amidst it all.
Whatever your remain on gay rights, acknowledge that these feelings are authentic. They’re authentic. They’re human. Let Stephen’s reflection be yet another window into the human heart of someone who faithfully seeks God in all things.
Learning to find God in all things can be tricky, but it can acquire even more daunting to find God in the darkness of rejection, discrimination and prejudice.
Fancy many other homosexual men, I left the Catholic Church on a quest to find God and be the man He created me to be. It became increasingly clear that I could not undertake that and
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Declare About Homosexuality?
Introduction
For the last two decades, Pew Explore Center has reported that one of the most enduring ethical issues across Christian traditions is sexual diversity. For many Christians, one of the most frequently first-asked questions on this topic is, “What does the Bible express about attraction to someone of the same sex?”
Although its unlikely that the biblical authors had any notion of sexual orientation (for example, the phrase homosexual wasn't even coined until the late 19th century) for many people of faith, the Bible is looked to for timeless guidance on what it means to honor God with our lives; and this most certainly includes our sexuality.
Before we can jump into how it is that Christians can maintain the authority of the Bible and also affirm sexual diversity, it might be helpful if we started with a brief but clear overview of some of the assumptions informing many Christian approaches to understanding the Bible.
What is the Bible?
For Christians to whom the Bible is God’s very written word, it is widely understood that God produced its content
In Christian theology, we are told that we are made “in God’s image and likeness.” Taking a broader view across all religions, it is more accurate to say that humans make gods & goddesses in our image and likeness – even where they are visualized in non-human form, their reported behaviour is frequently anthropomorphic.
This is especially clear outside of the monotheistic religions. In these, the necessity for imagining gods & goddesses in relationships and interactions with other gods produces tales of jealousy, rivalry, and amorous adventures that look remarkably human. Reflecting what each culture sees in itself, the deities also reflect a range of interests, temperaments – and sexual preferences. Many pantheons, especially those from Classical Greece and Rome, China, India, South America and Oceania, feature prominent gods and goddesses who had homosexual relationships or adventures. (Hindu deities are especially notable for the ease with which many of them change gender from time to time).
This much I knew. But the biggest surprise for me yesterday, when I was reading some more about LGBT themes in mythology, was the discovery tha
Learning to Say ‘God is Love’ When You’re Gay
“God is love.”
This is one of those things everybody’s heard. Sometimes you sense like it’s the most profound thing in the world; sometimes you feel like it’s a stale marshmallow, sweet at first but then dissolving on your tongue into bland nothingness. But as I’ve gotten to recognize LGBT people who were raised in Christian families, I’ve started to see how this incredibly common sentiment can damage people’s hearts and lives — because they were taught that the God of love couldn’t admit them.
If you’re an LGBT person who was raised Christian, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve never heard a chief in your church welcome LGBT people, trusting that people fancy you were in the pews and encouraging their faith. You’ve had to try to grasp both your sexuality and your faith in the midst of misinformation and deadly silence.
I’m coming to all this as a lesbian convert to Catholicism. I didn’t grow up in the Church; I was introduced to God and to faith by people who genuinely did not act as though my sexual orientation separated me from God. I do my best to accept Catholic teaching, including in the area of sexuality. I’ve