Gays and Christians and Bullies, Oh My

I want to explore this question of “Can you be gay and Christian?” Or “How can you be gay and Christian?” It will probably take several posts to work my way through what I think. I imagine it will take a ridiculously large number of posts. My ideas on the matter might be called complex by some and convoluted by others. You see, I come from a religious background that takes the strictest, most traditional stance on biblical interpretations regarding homosexuality. At the same time, “some of my best friends are gay,” and honestly, I don’t see how they could possibly be bound for Hell any faster than anyone else I know.

I don’t pretend to have the answers. In fact, I will say up front that I don’t know how to explain the idea that “you can be Christian and gay.” I am looking for the answers now, however, because the cultural war being fought over this issue is taking children as its victims, and if I know nothing else, I know that is wrong. It’s time for everyone to join forces to stop the bullying.

Among my gay friends, some are not religious people at all, some are spiritually-minded but not Christian, and some are Christian. In that way, my gay friends are exactly the same as all of my other friends. They represent a cross-section of beliefs, ideas, attitudes, and interests.

Maybe more would be Christian if churches were more welcoming. Maybe more people of any sexual orientation would be Christian if churches were more welcoming. I don’t know. That’s another topic, and I am attempting to stay somewhere within the realm of my initial purpose here.

My question is “How can you be gay and Christian?”

My answer is you can be gay and Christian because if you are Christian you believe that God is love, that God is unconditional love. A God of love is unlikely to stack the deck against you by creating you as something to be condemned.

Somehow I doubt that answer will suffice for people wondering if Leviticus really says all homosexuality is an abomination, or if indeed it says you defile the Lord by eating shellfish, as people do like to point out in discussions of things the Bible is against.

So…as a starting point at least for thinking about this, here are some videos from a group that does believe you can be Christian and gay and that does have its own explanations for how.

I don’t have the answers. I probably don’t even have arguments that anyone other than those who already agree with me would accept. People almost never do.

What I have is what feels right to me according to my own conscience and my own spiritual path. This is what I believe is at the heart of how you can be gay and Christian. You may or may not have been born gay, but regardless, you weren’t born an abomination. No matter who you are, God doesn’t hate you. He probably doesn’t even hate shrimp.