Gays for god

In Romans , Apostle Paul says that homosexuality is contrary to God's natural order and results from rejecting God. Additionally, 1 Corinthians lists homosexuality as one of the sins that will prevent someone from entering the Kingdom of God. Gay for God’s Sake is an accepting, loving, hope-filled, fun place where we can share our journey with Christ and encourage and learn from others on their journey.

Sexuality is a core part of what it means to be a relational person, and to condemn LGBT people’s sexuality outright damages their ability to be in relationship with all people — and with God. Although the Gospels do not record Jesus specifically saying the word “homosexuality,” He addresses sexual sins and upholds the Genesis model of marriage.

In Matthew , Jesus refers to the “male and female” design for marriage, concluding by saying, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What does God think about homosexuals? Scripture is clear: He loves them and desires their salvation, just as He does with all other sinners. In fact, it is God's love for sinners that provided the only means for their salvation: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have.

I decided to be gay in , shortly after I started graduate school. My new best friend was named Robert; I understood that he had a little crush on me. One night, in a wild underground club in Austin, I resolved to kiss Robert on the dance floor. I had prayed about it; I had asked God to make me gay. So there, under the strobe lights, with Depeche Mode booming in the background, Robert and I kissed. I felt nothing.

Friendship and sincere affection, sure. Robert and I remained close. It was out of my hands. God had created me straight, and no man—not even Robert—could unmake what God had made. When I teach gay rights in my Contemporary Moral Issues class, my students constantly argue about Christianity and sexual orientation. I understood homophobia as misguided politics and amateurish, biased textual interpretation. Until recently, it had never occurred to me what it would mean, in a personal sense, to think that God might be opposed to your sexual orientation.

Then I began to meet some new people: men and women who are fighting against the idea that one has to choose between being gay and being an active—even a conservative—evangelical Christian. They call themselves LGBT lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender evangelicals. They are among the kindest, gentlest people I know. They are also among the most unwanted and unrecognized.

But they are determined—and their numbers are growing. He started advocating for the rights of gay Christians in , while a member of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Southern California. In , he founded a group called Evangelicals Concerned, which, as far as I can tell, is probably the oldest queer evangelical organization in the world.

Certainly, to help gay Christian evangelicals who feel they have to choose between their religion and their sexuality. But also, and perhaps more importantly, to reach out to the Christian evangelical movement as a whole in this country. Like other queer Christians, Blair and his fellow LGBT evangelicals believe that Jesus saves, and that marriage between same-sex couples should be legal.

leviticus 18:22

But as evangelicals, they take their faith a step further, dedicating their lives to converting LGBT nonbelievers, and reaching out to mainstream evangelicals who have been forced into the closet. Their message is twofold.

First, contrary to the claims of mainstream evangelicals, biblical scripture does not prohibit homosexuality. Second, a community of practicing LGBT evangelicals is out there, waiting to receive gay fellow believers. Blair profoundly believes in his cause. The appeal of his approach is that he reads the Bible as an evangelical—strictly, even literally—but arrives at a different conclusion: that it is not a sin for a man to have sex with another man.

Paul was warning against violent and degrading acts, not loving ones between consenting partners. But that interpretation puts Blair at odds with the mainstream evangelical movement—the most powerful anti-gay force in America. In a recent survey of over two thousand evangelical ministers and leaders in countries, the Pew Center found that 84 percent of them think homosexuality should be discouraged.