Messages By: godin44

Recently I have become a Chrstian and now attend church regularly.  I have struggled to understand what God wants for me, and how this pertains to my orientation.  There was a book written by E.T. Sundby, "Calling the Rainbow Nation Home" which has really helped me understand my love of God even though I am gay.  So much of the bible has been misinterpreted over the years due to inaccurate trasnlation into other languages.  I think people need to understand that it is honestly not a choice. I did not choose to be gay.  Why would I want to be the black sheep of the family?   

what i don't see is how can people be so mean i know that people do think that the bible says it isn't right. but who are we as people to judge and not let someone be happy all you people that have a certain someone you love should never be against gays. think to all the  happiness that you have had with them. just because someone likes people of the same sex doesn't mean that they shouldn't have the right to this happiness.  and when i hear people saying that gays chose to be gay i think that is stupid because why would someone go through the pain that can be inflicted by some of the cruel people of this world. i understand when people think it is wrong but how can we be a free country when we can't chose to the full extent who we are going to marry and grow old together. i have to admit when i think of marriage i think of a man and a woman. but how fair can it be to tell some one that they love with all their hearts to give it up. if you do love someone would you be able to do it just because society said it was wrong? i know i wouldn't..  

I had a gay friend who died a few years ago.  Before his death, he often took care of his friends who were dying from AIDS, because their families would not have anything to do with them.  He also took care of a co-worker of ours (who, incidentally, was straight) when she had to have a kidney-transplant and her family lived out of town and was not available.  He was also going to take care of myself when I had bariatric surgery, but he died from an apparent heart attack before I had my surgery.  He would take time off from his job to care for people who needed someone with them.    

I cannot believe that my God.  My loving and caring God, did not care for him as much as He does for me.  A straight person.  I cannot and will not believe that.  

"godin44" posted: All translations of the Holy Bible state that homosexuality is a sin. The KJV, NIV and NAS translations are word for word translations. This means they were translated from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. You are looking for an "out" for your sin., which is human nature. No one is sinless, except Jesus. But we are told to confess our sins and give them to God. When your sin becomes a lifestyle, your are not living in the way God has asked us to: Galations chapter 5 says... 

No, you are quite wrong about word for word English translations of the Bible! If you have copies of the original texts (the very same ones those translators used), and you can read Hebrew and Greek, you will see that none of them are literal "word-for-word" translations. In fact, word-for-word translations are and would be very confusing. When the KJV translated "kodesh" as "sodomite," when the word "kodesh" literally meant "holy," it was not a word-for-word translation; it was a mis-interpretation. "Kodesh" as a verb means to "be or make holy." As a noun, it means a "holy" person, place, or thing. In every place the KJV coined word "sodomite" appears, the context has absolutely no connection with Sodom nor the residents of Sodom; in each instance the religion is always that of the people who lived in the Country of Canaan which was to the west of the Jordan River. Sodom was not in Canaan, it was one of the cities in the Jordan Plain, to the east of the River. We call the Jordan Plain country just Jordan in modern times. 

Oh, a person's sin can be come a lifestyle; but, homosexuality, aka homosexual orientation, is NOT a lifestyle. One can choose a lifestyle; but, one cannot choose one's sexual orienation.  

Attempting to confess one's sexual orientation as sin is equal to me attempting to confess that I have green eyes because neither my parents nor my siblings have/had green eyes. One is born with one's sexual orientation already determined by God just as one's eye color is determined before birth, too. 

Or more dramatically, attempting to confess, as sin, one's sexual orientation is like confessing one's sin of being left-handed instead of right-handed. Our word "sinister" comes from the Latin word for "left" and people who were left-handed used to be told that they were that way because either the devil made them left handed or they were in rebellion against God because they were using their left hands instead of their right hands.  

Jesus didn't gay people but he sure did HATE hypocrites! I see quite a few of them here on this message board. They are people who have become so full of pride and self-righteousness because they worship the bible AS GOD's WORD instead of JESUS as GOD'S WORD. They think by doing so they can get free license to predict God’s mind on EVERYTHING and use the bible to judge others.   

THIS IS CALLED FUNDAMENTALISM.  It is hypocritical. WHY? 

Because NO CHRISTIAN ever obeys the entire bible. It is impossible. Even Paul said he cannot do it. Read Romans 7:15 to 25. Paul says he CANNOT STOP SINNING! HE JUST CANNOT DO IT!  Therefore it amazes me how religious homophobes pick and choose which sins they want to biblically condemn according to their prejudices, personal comforts and popular opinion. These fundamentalist Christian sects are taking old outdated laws in Leviticus and Paul’s letters to the Christians living over 2000 years ago OUT OF CONTEXT and demanding slavish obedience to them. It’s like Jesus never came and set us free of this kind of dogmatic bondage. Bible fundamentalism results in laziness, literalism, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, complacency and rejection of scientific facts and modern discoveries leading to dogmatic stupidity.  

I want people to know that not ALL Christians are like these fundamentalist hypocrites. There are those of us out there who are still fair-minded people who do not impose impossible biblical standards on others when we KNOW FOR A FACT we cannot follow it ourselves. As Christians the ONLY person we are supposed to follow is Jesus. Only Christ is absolute. Christ IS the THE word John 1:14.  To worship ANY OTHER THING as the word of God is idolatry.Fundamentalists insist we need to follow Paul's suggestions as if they were GOD'S LAWS. But do they follow Paul in ALL things? They gloss over the fact that Paul also condoned slavery in Titus 2:9-10 and Ephesians 6:5 and believed women should not teach or have authority over a man in 1Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Do these sects also follow this? Many of them don't.  

The truth is, we are not Paulians, we are Christians. Paul was just a human sinner like you and me, expressing his own feelings on spiritual matters. Paul and his writings are no different than any human priest or pastor today writing today. And just like today, even back then not all apostles agreed with Paul. Peter often disagreed with Paul’s approach and writings, calling them “Difficult to understand” and contain things which the “unlearned and unstable” preoccupy themselves with. See 2 Peter 3:16. IF Peter can disagree with Paul on certain matters and not take everything he said literally, so to can ANY CHRISTIAN. Even PAUL HIMSELF said in Romans 14:5 “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” In other words, USE YOUR BRAIN and THINK FOR YOURSELF.   

The ONLY figure ANY Christian needs to follow is Christ.  

• Did Jesus say we need to follow anyone's bible writingis to get eternal life? No. What did he say?  See Luke 10:25-37. 
• What is the ONE commandment Christ ever demanded we follow the one that is the GREATEST and fullfills the ENTIRE LAW and PROPHETS? See: Matthew 7:12.
• Which sin did Christ say is 100% UNFORGIVABLE. Is it having gay sex?-- See (Matt. 12: 31)
• How is it supposed to FEEL when you are a Christian? Burdensome and self-defeating or liberating and joyful? See Mathew 11:28-30.

If your Christian sect is NOT teaching this as THE CORE of its doctrine and they are placing OTHER burdens or rules on you as Jesus warned some would Matthew 23:4, then they are nothing but Pharisees in disguise. If you are gay and in a sect that is causing you to experience self-hatred, suicidal thoughts, rejection, isolation, etc. then you are not in a religious sect that is following Christ but their OWN fundamentalist agenda.  

When it comes right down to it folks interpret Scripture differently. Nothing ever changes. The Pharisees used Scripture to frame their opinion of what the Messiah would be like and they got Jesus. They killed Jesus. 

The Jewish Christians used Scripture to substantuate their belief that the Gospel was only for the Jews. And the Holy Spirit took care of that issue. First bringing the "Good News" to the Samaritans, then to the Eunuchs (see the story of Philip) and then to the Gentiles. God has a way of getting us to see things in a new light. 

I could go on and on throughout history. We paint God into a box and then the Holy Spirit proves how narrow minded we are. An excellent article on the subject can be found on the web site www.gaychurch.org in the section titled "Gay and Christian?" The article is titled "Prejudice in the Church": 

Little do many in the church know that God is doing a mighty work in the gay community today. A great revival has been sweeping through our community and there are over 3,550 churches now. Amazing! Regardles of opinions and misinterpretations of Scripture GOD is on the move and is bringing the gay community in - JUST AS THEY ARE.