God loves the gays
ALEXANDRIA, Tenn. (BP) — “Why doesn’t God love gays?” a teenager asked during our youth ministry day the other night.
It was sort of out of the blue since the discussion was on the return of Jesus, but clearly it was on the heart of at least one, if not many, of the teens there that night. I appreciate this teen’s boldness to ask!
It’s a ask this generation has had to wrestle with that previous generations did not. In fact, the speed with which the topic of homosexuality has advance to dominate the social and political conversation is staggering, aided by what pastor Voddie Baucham described as “a coordinated, well-funded, well-connected propaganda strategy” in a 2012 article at The Gospel Coalition.
The movement has become like a snowflake that turns into an avalanche, demolishing any opposition in the widespread arena, and it’s still growing.
Without a doubt, many young people are perplexed. They’re hearing in pop culture and maybe even in their schools that homosexuality is a perfectly legitimate lifestyle that not only should be tolerated but celebrated and explored. Then, however, they learn from faith communit
Learning to Say ‘God is Love’ When You’re Gay
“God is love.”
This is one of those things everybody’s heard. Sometimes you feel favor it’s the most profound thing in the world; sometimes you feel enjoy it’s a stale marshmallow, sweet at first but then dissolving on your tongue into bland nothingness. But as I’ve gotten to know 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 thank them.
If you’re an LGBT person who was raised Christian, there’s a adorable good chance that you’ve never heard a leader in your church welcome LGBT people, trusting that people prefer you were in the pews and encouraging their faith. You’ve had to try to know both your sexuality and your faith in the midst of misinformation and deadly silence.
I’m coming to all this as a sapphic convert to Catholicism. I didn’t blossom 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 accomplish my best to accept Catholic learning, including in the area of sexuality. I’ve
What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?
What Does The Bible Express 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
The following blog is written by Greg Coles. Greg is part of The Center's collaborative team and is the author of the book Single, Gay, Christian.
“Is God anti-gay?”
Many people expect the answer to this question to be a simple binary, either yes or no. If you’re a conservative (in the totalizing sense of the word), the answer is absolutely yes: God must be anti-gay, because homosexual sexual behavior is forbidden in the Bible. And if you’re a progressive (in the equally totalizing sense), the answer is absolutely no: God can’t possibly be anti-gay, because God loves all people. But the assumption shared by everyone across the board seems to be that we know what the ask means—that a simple answer, yes or no, ought to suffice as a response.
For me, though, the question of whether God is “anti-gay” has never been a simple one. I’ve heard it asked so many distinct times, in so many other ways, by so many diverse people (myself included). And each time, it seems to represent something slightly different. When someone asks, “Is God anti-gay?”, they might mean, “What does God have to say about lgbtq+ sexual ethics?” They might express, “What is God’s stance on the politics of