Evangelical and Gay
With the latest round of fallen evangelical leaders who had hidden homosexual lives, gay evangelicals are making their presence known in larger numbers, and some traditionalist evangelicals like Tony Campolo, Jack Rogers, author of Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, and many in the Emergent movement, are accepting homosexuality as normative.
Here are some articles/sites on the subject:
ANTI
PRO
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Seeker,
How do you look at somebody like Ted Haggard, who claimed to have "fought" homosexuality since age 5, and see a choice that he made somewhere along the line to be gay. In his apologies, he sounded desperate not to be gay, and yet decades of therapy, work and attempts to straighten himself out had quite clearly failed. What gives? It's not possible that if God exists, and created the Earth, then perhaps he created gays?
It's not possible that if God exists, and created the Earth, then perhaps he created gays?
It's certainly possible, and the existence of such men as Haggard begs those questions. But I still doubt it, only because I know that deep emotional issues and sins exist in the lives of everyone, including Christians and Christian leaders – just look at the biblical example of King David, a "man after God's own heart."
After years of doing the right thing under persecution from Saul, he gets in power, and ends up being an adulterer and murderer. Does that mean, since such a "godly" man did these things, that such things are maybe intended by God as normative? No.
Not that I am necessarily equating hx and adulter/murder, only to say that just because someone 'godly' claims that they have struggled with something doesn't mean that it's God's intention that they actually pursue that thing.
And don't forget, there is the testimony of the many millions (just kidding, I know how ex-gay promoters love to exaggerate their numbers) who are now ex-gay. That evidence still needs to be considered, as does the empirical research reported in such works as the Spitzter Study.
The real question is why anyone in their right mind care what xians think of gay people?
True, who cares what Christians think about gays? What matters is that we maintain the integrity of the family structure, and the mental health of our kids by not legally condoning it. People should care about their children, about families, about society, and about mental health in general.
If he had been fighting it since he was 5, chances are he was abused. Sad.
Yes, seeker, you provided a good answer as to why we should pay attention to what christianists think about gay people, since you are in the majority in this country and can vote your prejudices and superstitions into law (as we have seen recently). Sometimes I think that, if there is a god, it has sent xianity (and all other abrahamic monotheisms) as a curse upon humanity!
Oh, well, there's always Canada.
Louis, I found this article which I think you would be interested in.
For Louis…
Halting Progress: Protests outside parliament by religious groups tonight will represent an obscenity against human rights.
Thanks.
I have to note here that it was the xian bigots who first convinced me that xianity is evil and wrong.