What is Reddit's opinion of Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church?

Give that parent a physical copy of this book:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

It's not a panacea, but it really can help if the reader is at all open to growing.

Someday, we'll be able to report anti-queer views by parents of queer kids as child abuse, but we're not there yet, sadly.

Just get and read the first book.

Here's the link again:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Each of those is fully explored.

It's written by a straight man who used to believe as you do, and taught at a very conservative Bible college.

He was asked by the conservative Presbyterian Church to be one of the learned and conservative voices on a "task force" to respond to the "gay issue", and report back to the denomination.

He initially refused because he thought, as you do, that it was a waste of time and resources because the scripture was "obvious". But they talked him into it.

The task force spent a long time researching the scriptures, the traditional interpretations, the original languages and subsequent translations, the historical documentation and evidence on all sides, the biology and psychology, and actually listening to queer people and their stories.

And ALL the conservatives, including him, changed their minds.

Dr. Rogers now spends his life traveling the world and preaching that anti-lgbt Christians repent of their sin of homophobia.

That concept is disgusting, and anti-biblical.
Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

"Spare time"?

Do you think this is about casual sex? It's not.

This is about loving relationships between human beings.

Look... EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Just... read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Wrong.

Your words, your theology weaponizing deliberately misinterpreted scripture against us is, currently, being used to bully, exclude, and murder us.

At least six transgender people have been murdered for who they are already this year. It was at least 57 last year. With your words in their attackers minds.

Your "disagreement" is not neutral, it is not without consequence and cost.

Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

That concept is disgusting, and anti-biblical.
Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Something to think on, please:

EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

When our lives and livelihoods, our faith and inclusion in the Body of Christ, are being threatened and snuffed out, there is no "neutral". Neutrality only ever supports the oppressor.

Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Your "disagreement" is used to bully, exclude, and murder us. That is the fruit of your "spirit". But you don't have to eat it, we do.

That concept is disgusting, and anti-biblical.
Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Those things you "didn't sign up for"? Those things are how you love queer people.

You "didn't sign up" to love us. Noted. Bye.

Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

That concept is disgusting, and anti-biblical.
Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

That concept is disgusting, and anti-biblical.

Also, EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.

Here, read this:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

No, I cannot accept that God would make me gay, and then send me to hell for it.

That would not be a god worth following. I'd literally rather go to hell, because your idea of a God would be hateful, and Lucifer would be RIGHT in rebelling.

Please, read this before you engage in anything about this topic, anywhere, with anyone. PLEASE. Your words are being used to murder us.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

It's NOT what "the Word says", it's what you've been TOLD it means.

Those are NOT the same thing.

AND all those "meanings" that are used to bully, exclude, and murder us have been totally debunked before I was born.

Here, have a look:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

You need to read this. Because your theology is rooted in hate, still. And it's not even a hate you want, feel, or believe in.

It's just that other hateful people have been lying to you for centuries.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

It took me several years to learn that the Bible never does say anything about homosexuality, at all; and indeed had several supportive examples of same sex relationships and gender-non-conformity.

The journey into this higher level of understanding about God and humanity begins with the realization that God does not "change" ANYONE from gay to straight. Ever. It has never happened. Bisexual people have chosen to only have heterosexual relationships and called themselves "changed", sexually traumatized people have been healed and found healthy relationships and called themselves "healed" of being attracted to same sex people, and worst of all people have suppressed their true God-given queer nature and abused themselves in the name of false holiness.

It then takes the step in understanding that no true good God would create people with a loving heart that causes no innate harm to anyone, and then condemn them for the same. And that should such a god do exactly that, that being would not be good and instead of worship, good people should oppose such an evil and capricious god.

Finally, the journey passes through the gate into new understanding when one discovers that the history of homophobia and transphobia it's rooted in human sinfulness like greed, selfishness, xenophobia, and willful ignorance. It truly doesn't begin until the middle ages, and didn't become a fever of the mind until the 1940s! (The 40s being the very first time that the Bible itself was mistranslated to refer to homosexuality at all.)

Here are some resources to help you find your way past the poison of these evils and discover a new depth to the God-who-is-love.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Yup.

Start with the first book here, and the 2 documentaries.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Get your friend a few of these resources, and maybe read/watch a few yourself.

Queer theology has come a long way, as part of the larger liberation theology movement that has led to greater equality for women, people of color, and workers within the church and Christian-dominated cultures around the world.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Here you go.

I suggest starting with the first book by Dr Jack Rogers, stuff checking out the two documentaries near the end.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Yes, but I'll let several much better people explain why hopefully it's not a sin, never was, and how the narrative got twisted by humans into the bullshit homophobia we have today:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Welcome out!

I'm a gay Christian too!

Here's a list of resources that helped me accept myself and get past the homophobic bullshit to get closer to the God-who-is-Love

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

You can't cute what isn't an illness; can't fix what isn't broken.

God made you gay and loves you!

I spent far too many years of my life trying to get good to "fix" my orientation. And it nearly killed me.

Nobody has ever been "cured" of homosexuality. A few people with sexual trauma has found healing accidentally and called it "conversion". A lot more people claimed to be "cured" but actually just directly repressed their true God made selves and caused heart harm to themselves and others in the process.

Even most of the biggest names and proponents of the "ex-gay" movement have come out as still gay, and repented of their sin of homophobia.

Here's a list of resources that each helped me significant in breaking free of the homophobic lies that have tainted Christian theology and politics for far too long. And then, you can be free to become closer to the God-who-is-Love.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

No, and here's a bunch of reasons why:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Here's a bunch of resources that helped me reach past the homophobic theologies I inherited from my parents and others.

They could help both of you.

Blessings on your journey.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

You should seriously consider what part of your version of Christianity is making her feel like being bisexual incompatible with faith.

And then change it.

Here's a few resources to help you with the theology.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

~~arson~~ i mean, stand up in the relevant meeting and start reading an entire textbook on queer theology. Don't stop unless they remove the motion. Run it like it was a planned lecture.

I suggest any of these three. Especially the last one.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

These should get you started on a broader understanding of queer theology:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Jesus healed the centurion's "pais" (literally "boy", but colloquially a young but of-age male lover / servant) and didn't say anything about their relationship despite this being a commonly known arrangement similar to a "temporary" marriage.

That's the closest thing to Jesus commenting on homosexuality you'll find in the Bible.

Here's a list of books that helped me begin to understand the deeper meaning of God and how God is Love and that the God-who-is-love is revealed in us as queer people in unique ways.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

I don't have a list for these things, I just summarized 20 years of reading for you 😅

But, off you Google each event, you can probably find resources yourself.

I'll post my list of theological resources, some of which touch on some of these historical events, but it's generally not their primary focus:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Here are some resources that helped me shake off the false teachings that being gay and heading loving gay relationships is somehow sinful, and finally embrace the living God of real love who MADE love in many friends including gay love!

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

YES, I CAN HELP!

Here's a list of resources that helped me exorcize the hate from my inherited theology and arm me against it in others.:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God i hate that.

It's so manipulative and evil, and ONLY causes harm and drives actual queer pepper away from the church, with damn good reason.

At best you might be able to use or derail the training by taxing about ACTUAL acceptance and queer -positive theology.

Here's some books and other resources that might help arm you for that should you feel called to that work.

But sadly, you're probably going to end up needing to give another church, as few people in that space are truly ready for change.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality as a gift.

Rejecting your identity is the real sin, not being gay or being bi.

The "fruit" of rejecting your identity is depression and death - I've been there and seen the results in myself and others, and you don't want that.

But the fruit of self-acceptance is joy and healing and relationship and inner peace! THAT's love, that's what God wants for you!

Here's some resources for queer theology that helped me IMMENSELY to get through that illness of internalized homophobia:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm glad you're asking these questions. You're starting on a new journey closer to the God-who-is-Love!

I'm gonna post a bunch of links to books and other resources that helped me to stay alive and find harmony between who I am and who God is.

I strongly suggest you begin with the first book, however, because it most directly and completely addresses your first concerns and questions. And it was written by someone who once believed like ACNA does, that same sex relationship is anathema to God and Christian practice and theology. And he was a conservative professional theologian, teaching in seminary.

He was chosen to be one of the conservative and professional academic voices in a "task force" by his denomination (Presbyterian) to "look into the gay issue". He refused, at first, considering the matter ridiculous and not worthy of attention. But they talked him into it eventually. The task force prayed and studied and read biblical and historical and scientific literature, and actually talked to faithful queer people. And he give himself deeply moved and changed. And he realized that he had been not just incorrect, but that he had been contributing to the mental, spiritual, and physical harm of queer people because of his wrong beliefs. He now spends his life traveling the world preaching in support of our community in both civil and religious life.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse.

The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s.

In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops.

Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men.

The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Get him the first book in this list, and watch the documentary "for the Bible tells me so".

If those help in any way, hit up the 2 books by Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng - one of my seminary professors. His books are an EXCELLENT introduction to queer theology, and very accessible to lay people.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

LIke this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get your friend a couple of these resources. They helped me find my way through the absolute bullshit that has been piled on this issue since the 1200s, and specially in the 1940s.

I especially recommend the first book, and the two by Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng (one of my seminary professors), and the "For The Bible Tells Me So" documentary.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What kind of a loving God, who claims to literally BE love, would make a person gay (a thing that harms nobody), and then condemn them for being a loving person in a loving same sex relationship?

That wouldn't be a loving God, and an unloving God wouldn't be a worthy God.

In the worst case scenario that still has a loving real God, let's say that SOMEHOW and for SOME reason I am unable to fathom, homosexuality really is sinful. But, I am trying my best to be a loving gay man no different from heterosexual people who are trying to be loving hetero people in their hetero relationships. Would a loving God condemn me for following the Law of Love as best I could, even if some of my actions were technically incorrect? NO.

So act boldly in your love! Love does no harm, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

It can also help to get yourself "inoculated" against the toxic theologies of the homophobes, by learning about queer theology, a branch of liberation theology and feminist theology.

Here's a few resources that helped me get through the bullshit and expand my understanding of the God-who-is-love:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

O know what you're going through. I didn't come out to myself, really, until college. Didn't tell my family until I was 25.

My mother sort of cake around, but she still struggles to think on any way but conservative. My father is practically a sign-waving "God hates f*gs" lunatic, and I probably won't see him again until his funeral, which I will ruin. We'll see.

ANYHOW...

The first and most important thing is to keep yourself SAFE. College is mostly safe, unless you're dependent on your parents to stay there or to sign loans and financial aid paperwork. My father screwed me deeply by refusing to sign some paperwork and I lost my financial aid, AND because I had started at my college of choice WITH my parents, I was unable to apply for aid WITHOUT them. Even though I was by then old enough to do so.

So, if you think they might cut you off like that - get your degree FIRST before coming out to them. Have all the fun you want, elope even, but tell them nothing until you have your final degree in hand.

THEOLOGICALLY, it took me a lot of pain and searching and getting screwed over by people to find my way through to The-God-who-is-love, and to see and accept myself as a gay man, beloved of God, with my sexuality as a gift instead of a curse.

Here are just a few of the resources that helped me find my way out of that cloud:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

You are correct!

It is not a sin, nor is being in a sexual relationship with a person of the same sex or gender.

Here, these helped me find my way through the bullshit to find the God-who-is-love:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse.

The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s.

In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops. Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men.

The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

These are some of the most useful resources for me.

These are all written by seminary professors. Patrick Cheng was one of my professors.

Jack Rogers used to be a hardened conservative on the topic, but now spends his life supporting our full inclusion in the life of the church.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

That's how I grew up.

It's a huge portion of m religious trauma, and someday i might beat the living shit out of someone because of it. Maybe. Might be my father even. We'll see.

I got through it by wrestling with God. "Israel" literally means "he who fights with God", btw. Fighting God and demanding blessings, wisdom, and understanding is a HOLY thing, and many many prophets of scripture do it, from Jacob and Job, to Peter and the disciples, to Paul and the post-pentecost apostles.

THAT's when I started to get to know the God-who-is-love and abandon the false theologies of my father and so many others, abandoning the idea of an angry, hatful, capricious sky-father who was as abusive as my earthly father.

Below are a few of the resources that really helped me along this process, but this guiding concept above all kept me searching:

If God claims to be good, and authored "goodness", then God MUST conform to "goodness" in order to actually be "good".
If God is not good, then God is not worthy of Godhood or obedience, and must be opposed.
A good God might permit pain and suffering for some larger purpose or balance, but would not torture and condemn a person for choosing love over death and fear.
If God refuses to change my homosexuality, and there is a loving way to be homosexual, then that can be holy too.
Fighting my homosexuality resulted in nothing but pain, depression, and a growing desire for suicide.
Choosing to love myself, and my orientation, and a potential partner made things infinitely better. Not perfect, of course, that's not available in this life, but better. Even despite rejection from so many things, including family and parts of the church.
So, would I even want to be part of God if God is not really Good? No. I would gladly go to hell and support the opposition for all eternity than follow a false and evil God.
IF, and now that's a HUGE "if", I am incorrect and homosexuality is somehow unloving in ways I cannot see, AND God can explain that to me in a perfected state of unity with God, fine, but if God cannot forgive that when I'm trying to survive and be loving, then we return to God not being truly loving and therefor not truly God.

When you bring this foundation of love, and the law of love from both Jesus and Paul, ("all the law and the prophets depend on" loving God and neighbor; and "if I have love then I have fulfilled the law"), then we have a foundation for exploring the "clobber passages" that have been used to abuse, exclude, and murder queer people since the middle ages. AND we can begin to see queerness supported in scripture and church history.

Resources:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse.

The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s.

In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops.

Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men.

The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Try giving him some of these resources to help him find a more loving understanding of the Bible.

I especially recommend the first 2 books, and the 2 by Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse. The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s. In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops. Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men. The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Some of these have been helpful in discussing queer theology with my mother at least (my father is a sign-waving buffoon now, just a couple steps removed from the Westboro Baptist Church freaks). But it can be really REALLY hard to talk to Catholics about this stuff if they have drunk the koolaid about the infallibility of the magisterium or the pope or what have you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found these resources especially helpful in my journey.

I hope they can help make yours less painful and shorter than mine.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse. The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s. In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops. Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men. The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

It took me a long time to come to terms with my orientation and to get through all the bullshit and find the real, loving God who is Love.

Here are a few of the resources that helped me. I think you might especially find the first book helpful, and the two further down by one of my seminary professors, Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Eventually, we WILL purge the hate from the church.

In the meantime, here are some of the resources that helped me find my way through the bullshit and to the real, loving God who is Love:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Not to totally overwhelm you, but here's a bunch of books, documentaries, and even a webcomic that helped me find the truth of a real, loving God and get rid of the toxicity that I had intertied from my parents and other homophobic beliefs in the church.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's a bunch of resources that helped me find my own way through all the bullshit:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse.

The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s.

In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops.

Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men.

The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

If you're only willing to read one of those sources, read the first one.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Fuck these homophobes here hiding behind false and evil theology.

The truth is that a loving God GAVE you your sexuality as a gift, and as long as you use it lovingly, you are not sinning.

There are only 7 "clobber passages" in scripture that have be twisted for centuries against their meanings and older usages.

One of the earliest Christian books of prayers even has what is essentially a rite for gay marriage.

Check out these books and other resources. They helped me find my way back through the bullshit to the real loving God, and arm me for spiritual self defense against the hatred still infecting the church.

Also, check out r/gaychristians r/radicalchristianity and r/OpenChristian for a better side of the faith.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

Just to get you started.

If all the anti-gay people in this sub would just read the first book in this list, we'd all be Ina better place...

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Love is God's way.

If it's not love, it's not God!

I've been where you are, most LGBT+ Christians have. You are so very much not alone!

Welcome out!

Like so many of us, I too was raised with the homophobic lies so common in the church. They're a LOT like the lies that once supported racism, slavery, and sexism which the mainstream churches have all denounced and continue to wrestle with their complicity in those things and their current expressions in the church and society today.

Below are a few books and other resources that helped me IMMENSELY in finding my way through the bullshit and noise on all sides and find a deeper understanding of the loving God.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

You have been lied to, including by Bible translators and especially by Bible interpreters like preachers and leaders.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

It absolutely does not.

You have been lied to, including by Bible translators and especially by Bible interpreters like preachers and leaders.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was never Side B, but I was Side X.

After I'd spent years physically and mentally torturing myself from elementary school through college and praying for God to change me so that I wouldn't have these "evil thoughts" about the other boys in my school, and nothing ever changed.

I began to realize that there were only a few possibilities:

God did not exist.
God was cruel and unjust by making me gay while also condemning me for it.
The theology I had inherited was wrong.

I've had too many experiences of a loving God to accept 1 or 2, so I had to explore #3.

It took a while, especially weeding through all the bullshit with so many people either full of hate, or just erasing the validity of scripture or of God. But then I started to find my way in discovering the long and painful history of how homophobia grew in the Church and literally rewrote and reinterpreted scripture, rising to a fever pitch in the early 1900s under the rise of hyperauthoritarian politics like fascism and communism.

This brought me right through to Side A, and i've been only further and further convinced that this is the truth of the matter:

God lovingly creates LGBTQIA+ people, and we are created in God's image.

God creates queerness all through nature, and this queerness is a reflection of God's nature and love.

Queer people have unique prophetic missions in our world, from teaching the sacramental power of self-revelation, to God's own "coming out" over and over again, to God's genderqueer nature, to the value of breaking old limits and reaching higher truths.

That God's beautiful creation contains infinite variety in infinite combination.

And that real love is never wrong.

Here's a bunch of resources that helped me find my way:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

God is NOT. God loves us, and there is now law against us or our love or identities.

You have been lied to, including by Bible translators and especially by Bible interpreters like preachers and leaders.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Definitely NOT a sin.

But homophobia IS.

Here's a list of resources that helped me navigate out of the hate and into the greater love of God:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My heart breaks for kids like her - and doubly so for her friends if they're any flavor of queer!

But I'm also SO glad that she has you to hold her through it.

I WISH to all that is good and holy in the world that I knew how to help change those asshole parents. But all I've got are books and resources for people who are open to having their minds changed.

I'll post those anyway for you, of course, and you could even send a couple of them to these parents, but I doubt they'd even take the time. Best to watch and read them for yourself and your daughter as "spiritual self defense" against assholes.

NB: These are mostly from a Christian perspective.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOPE!

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse.

The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s.

In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops.

Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men.

The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell
https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng
https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone and Everyone - Documentary
https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For The Bible Tells Me So
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!
http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

I'll just post my list of queer theology books and related resources.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Nope, not a sin at all.

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse. The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s. In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops. Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men. The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse. The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s. In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops. Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men. The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Good lord that sounds both scary and wonderfully hopeful.

You might not only have an opportunity to make her less hateful toward you and the community, but also help her to heal from her own inherited self-hate.

If she's willing to start that journey, and you're able to help her walk it.

Maybe not RIGHT this moment, but I'm gonna post my list o' gay christian resources that helped me through my own self-acceptance journey as a gay man and a christian raised in a highly homophobic family and church (my father's now one of those "god hates f*gs" sign waving lunatics, basically). They could help you and your aunt, or at least lead you in directions that could.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's my list:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

You can't change - God made you gay, just like so many of us.

And while god theoretically could change a person's orientation, it's really clear that God doesn't do that.

I beat myself up for YEARS, tortured myself medially and physically, prayed for hours every day, and all I got was depression, self hate, and still being gay. And a hell of a lot of lost years and very adult dysfunction I'll probably never fully heal from.

What helped me get out of my personal hell was realizing that the hateful theology i had inherited from my parents and others was full of shit.

Homosexuality isn't a sin, it's part of being human. A difference, created by God, and even a blessing with a unique prophetic witness in the world.

I'm going to link to a bunch of books and other resources, that helped me find myself and my relationship with God again.

But there's something you won't find in even the most in depth resource:

The responsibility of God to actually be Good.

Would you actually want to follow a God who would create gay people, and then condemn them for being gay, and loving people differently than heterosexual people? Would that be a good God? Not for me.

So if God is good, and love is the root of all the law (according to Jesus), and a loving God wouldn't condemn a person like that, then either 1) God doesn't exist, 2) homosexuality is not a sin, or 3) homosexually is somehow technically wrong, but my choosing to love myself and choose life and loving men while believing that it is not a sin to do so will be forgiven.

Love, real love, is never wrong, even when it's confusing.

Blessings, beloved child of the most high God.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

A holy vision indeed, and one similar to my own experiences of God and when God helped me understand this same thing.

These words aren't for the haters. That have hardened their hearts and will reject even the most dramatic and indisputable miracles if they think they support a queer person. They are thus unable to receive prophesy because they are in need of it!

These words are first FOR YOU. And they are a blessing to us as well, so thank you for your ministry to us by sharing them!

I also never trust a possible prophetic experience on its own. It should be tested, always, "by their fruits".

First and foremost is the law of love: is the message in harmony with "love God..., love neighbor; all the law and the prophets depend on these two"? This checks out! It's clearly helping you to undo the self hate that others taught you, it's helping to heal your relationship with God, with yourself, with your fellow queer people.

Next: is it harmonious with reason; harmonious with the things you strongly believe, or provide me and more loving ways to understand those beliefs?

That's a longer journey if you're just beginning it, but these resources helped me A LOT when i was struggling to accept my God - gifted gay orientation:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

No, never!

God gave you your sexuality, it is a GIFT, not a curse.

The seven "clobber passages" were never interpreted as anti-gay until the 1200s, and even then not taken to the degree they are now until the 1930s.

In the 1200s, they were twisted from their previous understandings and translations in order to undermine the political power of the church's monasteries (which were basically gay communes) and transfer it to the growing warlord-kings and merchant-barons. Church nepotism had become an legitimate problem, and this was also the time when enforced celibacy became a thing for all monks, nuns, priests, and bishops.

Before then, in some of the earliest Christian prayer books, there were even rites for "brothermaking" which were between the rites for adoption and marriage, and nowhere near the rites for monastic vows, and that followed the formula for marriage and precluded marriage to a woman for both men.

The 1930s and 40s was a combination of the worldwide rise of fascism along with a conservative cultural reaction to the relative freedom and sexual, gender, and racial liberation of the 1920s. Even through the horrors of the American colonial period's puritanism, homosexuality was tolerated, rarely ever more serious than a joke about someone being "a confirmed bachelor" or "pillow friends" or "Boston marriages".

I struggled with these things a lot as I wrestled with the toxic theologies I inherited from my family and church. It's been a long journey since then, and while I still have a lot of healing to do, these resources helped me a lot:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can't my friend.

LIterally hundreds, possibly thousands of studies of attempts to change your orientation have proven only that trying is devastating to the mind, resulting in depression and a massively increased risk of suicide. Even the founders of the largest "ex-gay ministries" have now come out as still gay and repenting of the decades of harm they caused.

Trying to destroy a god-given part of yourself is itself a sin against yourself and the God who gave you your sexuality.

What you can do, though, is to let go of the homophobic false theologies you and most of us have inherited from a long dark history of oppression.

I have a few books and other resources that really helped me escape and even heal from the toxic beliefs of my parents and others, while finding a whole new level to God's enduring love for me and all humanity.

>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of these, the most important are the first two, imho. They really show how the seven "clobber passages" have been mistranslated, misinterpreted, and outright twisted for the sake of greed, fear, and powerlust. The second goes one step further and begins to open up the unique ministry of queer people to cis-het people - the sacramental act of vulnerable revelation that is "coming out".

The third is a seriously academic book that is not written for the layperson, but if you've got a strong theological background and maybe some Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, it's worth picking up at least as a reference. Boswell compiled one of the most comprehensive works of church history and theology and practices from the time of christ through to the modern era on the experiences of queer people in the life of the church ever made, and it's incredible. Even includes an early medieval rite for christian gay marriage from one of the first Christian prayer books called "brothermaking".

The two books by Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng (one of my seminary professors) are truly powerful books on queer theology, and these are accessible to the lay person.

Two documentaries about queer people and religious experience.

and finally, a little levity with a webcomic about a man coming to terms with himself and his uncertain place in the world.

My prayers for you are sincere, and my DMs are open should you need any more personal help. Just remind me of this conversation so I know who you are!

Why yes, yes i can:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Coming out is an extremely personal decision, and without knowing you, her, and your church community i couldn't hope to guide you with specifics. However, coming out is also a sacramental act, where you remove a barrier between yourself and others. This makes you vulnerable to their reaction. If they are loving, you can receive that love on a new level, but if they are hateful, you will also receive that hate on a new level.

Theologically and intellectually, I do firmly believe that coming out and being out are superior in the long run, as the removal of any lie is an opportunity to heal the world just a little bit.

Emotionally, psychologically, and practically... it can often be dangerous, and you need to be prepared to withstand the negative consequences of that vulnerability. Or, to be honest with yourself that you aren't prepared to do so, and work toward being safe and secure enough to come out later.

One resource i recommend for coming out is Rev. Dr. Chris Glasser's book "coming out as sacrament".

Another is Dr. Jack Rogers' book debunking the "cobber passages" so often used to attack us and condemn our love and "calling good evil, and evil good".

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

You have been lied to, including by Bible translators and especially by Bible interpreters like preachers and leaders.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

These are the lies so many of us had to break free of in order to be our real, holy, selves.

Here's a bunch of resources that helped me find my way through the bullshit and reconnect with myself and God:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

First, arm yourself with a strong theological understanding of queer theology. I'll look you to some resources that have helped me a lot.

Then... you love him by correcting him on his sin of bigotry that is actively harming people including you.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Prepare yourself with strong queer theology (yes, that's a very real thing!)

These books and other resources helped me a lot:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

There are NO verses about homosexuality.

There are 7 verses that have been twisted for personal and political gain for centuries and especially in the 1940s and the cold war era.

But they have ALL been lies.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Because IT IS NOT A SIN.

LOVE IS NEVER A SIN.

You have been lied to, including by Bible translators and especially by Bible interpreters like preachers and leaders.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Here's a collection of resources that really helped me to reconcile my lived experience as a gay man and as a Christian, and to shed the toxic lies I inherited from my homophobic parents and parishes.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Sure!

There's 3, but i think I need to post them separately.

This one's just a resource list.

The first two books are an intro to queer theology, undermining the clobber passages and forming a positive queer theology around why we exist.

The third is John Boswell's highly academic and superhuman work of gathering queer church history and theology into one volume. It is not for the faint of heart, but it's EVERYTHING in it.

The next two are books by one of my seminary professors, Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng that help to locate queer people in systematic theology, church history, and church practices; and explores the essentially queer nature of God, respectfully.

Following those are 2 documentaries about being a queer Christian or person of faith, and include some science about LGB identity (these don't specifically address Trans identity very much, unfortunately).

Finally, this webcomic really resonated with my experience of coming to terms with myself, and i think it might help others to see themselves, or to feel something for someone else. I don't always include it.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Celibacy is a very personal choice, but I would hate for anyone to feel that they are somehow forced to be so merely because of who they love.

The idea that the Bible condemns us homosexuals (and other queer identities) has been thoroughly debunked.

I invite you to explore some of these scholarly and lay-focused resources that helped me realize that I can be fully Christian AND fully gay without contradiction, and even WITH celebration:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I see you have failed to respectfully engage with any of the clear and extensive rebuttals of that tired and false assertion.

Here, let's try again, and then you can stop trying to hide your bigotry behind your religion:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

God made you and gave you your sexuality as a GIFT of LOVE.

God loves you AND the gifts God gave you.

And God does not condemn you for the gifts God gave you.

How could a loving God condemn a person for being who God made them to be? That would not be love, and that "god" would not be worthy of worship, but of opposition.

Take a deep, spirit-filled breath or 20, and then find or buy these books and other resources that helped me A LOT when I was trying to figure these things out and shed my inherited toxic theologies:

AND PRAY. Talk to God, and listen for the still, small, voice of LOVE to answer. Not out in the sky, but right in the core of your being where God has always been and always will be and can't not be.

AND THEN, find yourself a queer Christian community to join. Or start one.

(BTW, the 2 books here by Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng? He was one of my seminary professors. A bunch of students would spend evenings at his and his husband's house on campus and watch Glee together. It was GREAT.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Absolutely not.

It is NEVER welcoming to be bigoted. It's entirely antithetical.

Being welcoming is rooted in love, and love does no harm, and excluding non-celibate queer people is harmful.

Not listening to us when we explain that your anti-gay theories are wrong and WHY is not loving.

And for anyone still holding on to those twisted anti-queer ideas:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Here you go!

These helped me a LOT when i was struggling with reconciling my lived experience as a gay man with my faith in a loving God, and excising the inherited toxic theologies that enforced fear and self hatred.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

The militant part of me wants you to show up with a stack of books and DVDs and hijack the entire training session with pro-lgbtetc Christian theologies.

But the part of me that remembers needing to be in the closet for safety understand that this isn't always possible or safe.

Things to consider in the meantime:

Find a local LGBT group, christian or not, that you can join.
Come on here and socialize.
Find a group on Discord or Facebook
Join an MCC zoom virtual church regardless of your location.
Self-study: check out these books and other resources that helped me bulletproof my faith as a queer christian:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Straight Ahead Comic - Life’s Not Always Like That!

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, when interpreting Hebrew scriptures, and indeed they Christian scriptures written by and to Jewish people, it's important to know the Jewish theology believes that you can and indeed must have many meanings for the same words. The saying is "How can the infinite word of God ever be written in the finite words of [humans]? Only if every word has forty meanings.] And the joke that follows this is "When two rabbis disagree on the meaning of a portion of scripture and cannot prove that the other is wrong, they rejoice and say 'We have found two meetings for this portion! Now, where are the other 38?!'"

So, there's no conflict to say that Lev 18:22 is about pederasty, AND about shame-raping captured soldiers, AND about not cheating on your wife/wives with men (literally the Hebrew and Greek say "and with a man do not sleep bed-of-a/your-woman/wife").

There is also a "negative" (in the sense of math, not morality or emotion) method of extracting deeper meanings for Jewish theology, drawing meaning from the choice to say things and NOT others. In this case, a question is "why does it say "bed-of-a-woman"?" (The words there are the bed being a noun in possessive form with a word for woman that is often used to mean a wife being the most likely target on that possessive case.) Why DOESN'T it just say "do not sleep with a man" period? The choice to qualify it restricts the potential interpretations to the context of the woman's bed, metaphorically or literally. Thus, we can be sure that this passage does not proscribe homosexual sex outright, but could only proscribe it in specific contexts that lie within the meanings of "a woman's bed".

Second - the Law of Love is the most important commandment, from which all other laws and true prophesy hang. Jesus tells us that the commandment to love God and the one to love our neighbor are "so close as to be indistinguishable" (the literal meaning of the word usually translated "alike unto it" in Christian Bibles), and the Epistles tell us that if we are loving we are automatically obeying all the laws and if we are not loving we are breaking all of the laws, because no laws of God are ever written that were not based on love.

So, we MUST use love to understand the laws, not the laws to understand love.

It is WRONG and sinful to read a law, interpret it against someone who is saying your interpretation is hurting people who are not hurting others, and tell them "but it's loving to hurt them because I'm only correcting them!"

So, when i tell you that the homophobic interpretations of this and the other 7 "clobber passages" are harming me and other queer people, and that who we are and how we love and how we love causes no harm to anyone intrinsically, there is no need for us to agree about what those passages DO say, you are OBLIGATED to reject the harmful things we're trying you they do NOT say.

Furthermore, Lev 19:16b is interpreted by Jewish scholars to mean "do not stand idly by as your neighbor bleeds". They interpret this to mean that you are OBLIGATED to save others under threat of illegal harm, even to the point of killing those who intend the harm, if needed, and hiring others to help you if you are unable to succeed alone.

So on the one hand, we are obligated to reject the idea of LGBTetc identity and practice as illegal AND on the other hand to protect LGBTetc people from harm by people acting in that illegal belief.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here is a collection of resources that really helped me accept myself, reconnect with my faith that had been damaged by these homophobic theologies, and get myself clean of apathy and self hatred:

I------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

You have been lied to, including by Bible translators and especially by Bible interpreters like preachers and leaders.

These lies have been told since the 1200s, when the 7 "clobber passages" were first twisted out of their original meanings into tools of hate and manipulation and political leverage.

They were mostly ignored for centuries still, by a general populace who had better things to do than fuck with their neighbors about who they fuck.

But then the modern era brought modern problems. The Nazis and the Communists both created a new narrative of hate and oppression and conformity that religious conservatives drank like water in the desert. The early 1900s, especially the '20s had seen a new rise in freedom for women, black people, and LGBT people (though they didn't use those terms yet). But through and especially after the War, the 1940s saw a crackdown on nonconformity across every aspect of western culture and especially American identity culture. The Cold War saw queer people targeted in a way the world had never seen. Casual oppression and being passively illegal was converted into active hunting down and eliminating homosexuals and gender-non-conformists as threats to society and potential traitors and sexual predators and dangerous mentality sick people. And the charge was led by conservative Christian preachers, welding their twisted medieval Bible like a blood soaked knife.

Before all of this, there had been movements and foundations already trying to untangle the bad theology and bad science and change things for the better. Most well known at that time was in Germany. But then the Nazis burned their buildings to the ground and murdered their scientists and research participants. And then, after the War, when the concentration camps were liberated and the Jews and Romani and black people were allowed to go home, they left the "pink triangle" gays and trans people behind or moved them to other prisons.

Today, we are still murdered freely. The "gay panic" defense is still allowed to justify murder someone. And that's if anyone has cared enough to track down the killer to begin with. Black trans women are the most murdered intersectional demographic in the US.

And those murderers have your words in their hearts.

They fear us because they fear anything that connects them with the disgust their twisted faith manufactured in them.

THAT; the fear, the hate, the murders; that is the fruit -the only fruit- of these homophobic translations and interpretations of only seven passages. They, and EVERYONE who repeats and amplifies them, are false prophets, as evidenced by those fruits.

And it is ALL BASED ON LIES.

Please, read these and stop causing deadly spiritual and physical and social harm to us, to me.

And, at least stop coming around and forcing us to spend our time and energy to educate YOU. The internet exists, and it's really YOUR responsibility to challenge YOURSELF on the uncomfortable things and difficult questions, not the victims of the dark side of your problems.

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

"The Bible doesn't actually say that, i can prove it, so the people who told you that's what it said are homophobic and so are you."

And then I send then this:

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Radical Love: Introduction to Queer Theology - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ - Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Anyone and Everyone - Documentary

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

For The Bible Tells Me So

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YHQNCI

I think you REALLY need to read the DECADES of theology and CENTURIES of queer christian and jewish history before you make any more such pronouncements.

Because you're hurting people. And the church. And the queer people who are part of the church.

Here's a good set of places to start:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality, Revised and Expanded Edition: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church - Dr. Jack Rogers

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coming Out as Sacrament Paperback - Chris Glaser

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century - Dr. John Boswell

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are a beloved child of a God who is Love, a God who made you gay, and could never be considered "good" for making a person gay only to condemn them for it.

Here, these resources helped me A LOT when I was beginning to wrestle with my own identity and inherited homophobic theologies:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Here, read these. They'll help you strengthen yourself against this hate-seed growing in your heart:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Just... Please read these books.

And love first, instead of condemning something that doesn't harm anyone.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Because we're not stuck in the 1200s or the 1940s.

And we've actually grown in our understanding of God and love.

Here, these might help:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

These helped me a lot:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Ace should, theoretically, be super easy for a devout Christian of any theology to grasp: you are called to celibacy on a biological level.

Homo-romantic platonic relationship might be a bit harder for thick headed conservatives to grasp, even though it SHOULD fit within their tiny bubble of "but they were just really good friends and roommates!" narrative that they try to force homosexual relationships into.

Unfortunately, I think that in order to defend your identity here, you would have to undermine their fear and hate of homosexuality first, before they're psychologically ready to comprehend the "nuance" (I know, right?) of asexuality and platonic romance.

If, like your parents, they are committed to loving you, then you might be able to help them find the path to changing their understanding of scripture and theology. Without that relationship, I'm getting increasingly bitter and despairing of many such people actually changing their minds, and rather having to wait for them to die and be replaced with better people. Jesus doesn't seem to be able to help them.

Some things that have helped me accept myself, and strengthened myself against their hate are here:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

Here, read these. It'll help.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Because that "clarity" you depend on IS. A. LIE.

It is a human construction literally written into your not-original-language Bible to serve selfish and political power agendas of long dead rich white men. It started in the middle ages, around the 1200s, to try to unseat the power of the monastic political leaders in the church and transfer it to warlord kings and merchant moguls.

It was mostly dormant for centuries in the general public though, with most people not really caring as long as you kept up appearances a bit.

Until, that is, the 1940s. Wartime violent conservatism merged with a reactionary movement against the social changes of the '20s and '30s. Abortion, women's liberation, race, and homosexuality became weapons of fear mongering and social control in the hands of political and monied power. It grew with the Nazis and their philosophical allies across the globe destroying evidence and science and theology that has been done trying to undo the damage from the middle ages, setting us back a century.

This is the corrupt narrative you have inherited, and so did many of us who grew up in the demonic grip of self hate and fear.

But the lie can be peeled away.

We can be free and holy and queer.

You should start here, because it's YOUR responsibility to educate yourself, and stop hurting and exciting us - not ours:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

Start here and know that the only condemnation is from fearful, stupid, humans, not God.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Start by making sure you are safe; physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

No homophobic person can help you understand your sexuality or gender identity, they've already decided evil and untrue things about all but one option.

I suggest starting with reading about queer theology and modern psychology around the queer experience. Here's a good place to start, one that helped me a lot, though it is within a protestant worldview not a Catholic one:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

I strongly suggest that you try to connect to the https://www.dignityusa.org/ Catholic LGBTQ organization for Catholic-specific spiritual support and resources.

Try this: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X

Being a gay Christian myself:

It took a long time, and a lot of pain, research, and reading to dig through my own internalized homophobia and that of the community around me.

But the key was, and of course, always is love.

The science was clear, being gay and in gay relationships and all they involve was both totally healthy and totally not a choice. This was also clear in my own life. Neither science nor prayer and piety could change me straight.

So the question became how could a loving creator create me gay, and then condemn me to either a tortured loveless life of forced celibacy that i have never felt any calling to, or to eternal damnation or oblivion? This seems cruel and capricious, pain for no reason. Totally incongruous with any definition of love. More like gaslighting and abuse. If that was what God was like, I'll have no part in it, and gladly join Lucifer in a righteous rebellion.

Which led to the question: what is actually the basis for believing that homosexuality is wrong, and does that reasoning or revelation actually hold water?

And it turns out that INCREDIBLE scholarship has been going on in this exact direction for generations. But suppressed and condemned without actual refutation besides "but it's WRONG!".

The anti-homosexual arguments fell like cardboard, and their defenders were hollow. All they could do was cite history, tradition, and their versions of translations they held as sacrosanct without basis. And on the face of volumes of strong evidence and logic.

The final truth, as best as any of our earthly tools of inquiry can get to it, is that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality or transgender identity, or any of the kind.

And that all of the 7 "cobber passages" people use to suggest otherwise were corrupted, usually on purpose, for political and personal gain starting in the 1200s and reaching a fever pitch in the 1930s.

Here's a Bible study book that goes into great detail, while still being accessible to the layperson: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X

The resources I have posted are ABOUT the Bible.

The first and arguably most important book, "Jesus, The Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church" is written by a conservative, evangelical Presbyterian Bible college professor and former Moderator of their whole denomination and who used to believe as you do, that homosexuality was "obviously" a sin and he had no time to waste on it.

But then he was asked to be part of a "task force" as one of the conservative and professional theologians on the team. He refused at first, saying that it was a waste of time and a foolish endeavor. But they kept asking and he relented.

The task force spent a long time in prayer and deep research into the Bible and theological arguments on all sides and church history and tradition. They also investigated the science that was available, again, on all sides, and actually spoke with faithful LGBT people, and LGBT people who had left the faith.

After all this, he came to the inescapable conclusion that he had been wrong. Very wrong. And that these old ideas were actively harmful, the "fruit" of them was death, not life.

And he has now dedicated his life to undoing the harm the the church has done to LGBT+ people. This book takes the form of an intense Bible study and historical discourse, written for the layperson, and honest about the positions of all sides.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X

So, here, I am trying to teach you about the Bible and what it really says, and that the things you have quoted above do not say what you think they say. What you have been told, what the translations have done in sinful corruption, is hateful. I'm trying to show you the love that should be there instead.

Please, come with me, instead of twisting the knife in my heart again with your clobber passages.

There's a name for that: "internalized homophobia".

It's when queer people like you or I are raised with negative ideas and especially theology around queerness and we kinda absorb it on both conscious and subconscious levels. It forms a kind of mental and spiritual wound inside ourselves. But, because those ideas were usually planted before we ever had any conscious sexual feelings, or during that early formative time itself, it's really hard to identify where it's all coming from.

But, it still hurts. And it's confusing.

But this is the most important thing: it's a lie.

A loving God doesn't make people queer and then throw them in hell for it. That would be a cruel and capricious deity worthy of only opposition.

Here's a few books and other resources that helped me to understand and accept and even love myself, and to crack open the cage of fear and shame that others trapped me in.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Start here (it's about homosexuality, but transphobia and transphobic theologies are usually rooted in homophobia):

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Then here, an introduction to queer theology:

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

And finally, here, with the queer and specifically trans Christ:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

That's not welcoming. That's a giant "fuck you", pretending to be welcoming.

Here, try reading this.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

It'll help you remove this hate-based theology from your soul.

ABSOLUTELY!

It may be challenging to find a truly inclusive parish in your area depending on the local culture. But they do exist.

Here's a book that helped me a lot in my own journey of reconciling my faith with my existence as a gay man:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

These two books take thing further, not merely removing the walls that hateful people have created, but actually showing a positive theology of queer people in the Bible and the history of the church:

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Prayers for you and for the hope of growing love in your parish where it has not grown before!

This might be useful to you, and to them:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

I'm sorry you got pushed out, and thank you for trying.

Don't know if this might help you, but It helped me:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

EVERYTHING that people claim is against homosexuality in the Bible has been debunked, and done so before I was born.
Here, read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

Discover that God loves you and that your sexuality is not a sin, but a gift.

Here's some resources that helped me:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Herra are some resources that really helped me get my theology in line with my lived reality as a gay Christian man:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

I'm a gay Christian who has been singing with a Jewish chorus for a number of years now and been celebrating some of the holy days with Jewish friends for a long time now, and staying to get into the theologies and deeper mysteries of "the ancient faith".

So I'm just on the other side of the mirror, so to speak.

If you're looking for queer Christian resources, these have been very helpful in my journey, and they might be useful for you too.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

I'm so sorry for your experience. While i don't know much about the JW religion, I do know about homophobic bullshit and how much it can HURT.

First, I want you to know that you are LOVED. That this pain is NOT what a good and loving God wants for you and your life.

Second, I want you to know that being gay and having loving gay relationships is NOT sinful. Our relationships can be just as sacred as heterosexual ones.

Finally, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are MILLIONS of queer Christians around the world and in your community right now. And I'm glad you're asking and looking for us!

I think I may be getting a reputation here already, but here's a few books (in English, i don't know if any of them have Portuguese translations, sorry) that i have found to be VERY helpful in my self-acceptance journey in faithfulness, AND helpful in my spiritual self-defense against the hate-filled theologies that have led people too hurt us so much for so long.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

http://straightahead.comicgenesis.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

"Ex-gay" theology has been a plague on society for far too long.

It's bullshit, and has always been bullshit. It exists only as a means of shaming and controlling people.

Anyone who understands even the most basic concepts of the Kinsey Scale and the more nuanced spectrums of sex, gender, orientation, expression and so on can see that the "success stories" are just tortured people who aren't "100% homosexual" forcing themselves to only accept a part of themselves and reject another.

It's sad. It's problematic. And it's harmful to themselves and their families and everyone around them.

And it's all so POINTLESS.

There is NOTHING in the Bible that condemns loving homosexual relationships or sexual activity. Not. One. Thing.

There ARE seven "clobber passages" that have been twisted and corrupted (usually for political or personal gain/power) to be turned into weapons against us. But those perverted interpretations have been eviscerated through science and historical and theological scholarship for DECADES.

The following are some truly incredible resources that have helped me in my personal journey, and others through me. They are all written with "laypeople" in mind, and are accessible and don't expect that you area theological expert or graduate student (though the last two were class textbooks for me in seminary... because their author was the professor!)

I suggest, possibly, getting ahold of some of them for both yourself AND your father.

They are more-or-less ordered by "argument phase", for lack of a better term. The first focuses on debunking the bad theology of the "clobber passages". The next is -ok, it's actually written for Bible scholars, and it's a bit outdated now, but because if your Bible School background, you might want to get it too. Boswell dives deep into SO VERY MUCH and it's truly breathtaking, but also a bit of a slog compared to the rest of the list. "Coming Out as Sacrament" also addresses the clobber passages (though less effectively than the first), but introduces the idea that coming out is a sacrament unique to the queer community (much like the priesthood or monastic vows are a sacrament unique to people with those callings) which also teaches and enriches the rest of the community of believers. Finally, the last two explore the history of queer people in the life of the church and in scripture, and discuss the fundamental queerness of God in Christ.

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

Especially the last 2 books, written by one of my seminary professors Rev Dr Patrick Cheng, don't spend much time on undoing the bad clobber theology and instead focus on positive queer theology.

Give her the following resources:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Social-Tolerance-Homosexuality-Fourteenth/dp/022634522X/

https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Everyone-Susan-Polis-Schutz/dp/B000WGLADI/

https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Tells-Me-So/dp/B071H7C5YC/

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

These helped me SO much, and they helped my mother come around too.

My asshole father, on the other hand, refused to engage with any of them, so... yeah. There is no perfect way to get someone to choose love over hate, especially when they are convinced that hate IS love.

But it's worth the try.

Before you leave here and the faith, of like to present a POSITIVE theology of queer Christianity. All these resources were written for "regular" lay people and you don't need to be an expert in Chrystal history or theology to read them.

I suggest you start here:

https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bible-Homosexuality-Revised-Expanded/dp/066423397X/

And excellent exploration of the corruption of the 7 passages used to "clobber" queer people and exclude us from the church and to torture us with threats of hell and deadly cruel "conversation" programs and outright murder. Written by a straight man who used to be a staunch conservative and professor in a Bible college. Then he was asked by his Presbyterian denomination to be one of the strong conservative and biblical expert voices on a "task force" to examine and report back about the "gay issue" so the denominational government to measure decisions. After truly digging into the biblical plagues and historical understandings and practices, the evolution of theology around them, also the science around homosexuality, and (gasp!) actually talking to queer people of faith about their experience of their beings, spirituality, faith, and treatment by the church. After all that, his position took a total conversion. He has now dedicated his life to trying to heal the church from it's sin of homophobia, and promoting the full inclusion of queer people in the life of the church.

Next, i suggest this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Out-Sacrament-Chris-Glaser/dp/0664257488/

Chris Glasser also explores the "clobber passages", but his big focus on this book is showing a positive collective ministry that queer people being to elevate the Church as a whole. He discusses and demonstrates how the process of coming out is a unique one that is sacramental in nature. And how it teaches cis-het Christians that the act of opening oneself to another, being vulnerable and removing walls, is the core of all Christian sacrament: the building of relationship.

Finally (for now), take a look at these two books by Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng (one of my former seminary professors):

https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Love-Introduction-Queer-Theology/dp/1596271329/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596272384/

"Radical Love..." and "From Sin to Amazing Grace..." complete the picture of how queer people have always been part of the life of the church, even before Jesus and through all the phases of our collective history. Patrick also helps us navigate through the homophobic and transphobic bullshit to locate ourselves in scripture and theology and even how Christ is queer.

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