Re: “LGBTQ community faces a complicated relationship with faith”

Oh boy... My brain is telling me to stop typing and to delete this and walk away, but I can't.

First of all - let's set some things straight. God does NOT hate 'fags'. Nope. God does not 'send' them to hell. Nope. God loves us all, that is a truth you can hang your sequin polka-dot hat on.
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I think this issue is fairly simple to break down if nobody tries to change anyone else. There is a truth for those of us who study and read the bible and its fairly clear that same sex relationships are not in favor with our God's will. I won't go into why. That is a different discussion. This one is based in why acceptance isn't high in the church. When I go to church or bible study, I go in, sit next to and surround myself with people who all have one thing in common with me - we are all sinners. We all come as sinners and we all have the same book to guide us through this problem. The thing is that we (christians) are all going through our lives with a similar goal. Tighten our relationship with God and transform our hearts and minds to be free from sin. We let our love be the beacon of testament so that others will inquire, feel safe and be drawn to us so they can know more. They can make the same changes we have so they can feel the same love, joy and peace that many of us feel in a world of evil and dangerous times. I'll sit next to a murderer in church and if he tells me he is so broken and sad and doesn't want to kill anymore and wants to learn a different way to live, I will help him and I will love him. Adulterer, pornographer, prostitute, I don't care, name the sin, and many of us there battle them daily. Unfortunately this 'sin' we are talking about is the same thing. I have seen people, homosexual men, changed. It's not easy, and society can laugh all they want, but it can be done, and is happening. I can't think of any homosexual friends or people I've known that would ever recommend the path they have been on. So many blame society for not accepting but many, when honest, expose a deeper more lonely pain. Here is the rub - if that same murdering christian friend came to church, sat with me and began to try to convince me that he was actually happy being a murderer. He's been thinking and talking to his other murderer friends and they like our church and everything, and they know God loves them, but they feel like since god loves them they should be alright to continue killing. They want to have killer parades, and they want all the kids to know that killing is ok. They want a special Killer Day. This is what's happening in the church with homosexuality, and I'm so very sorry but this is where we disagree. As for society - I don't know what number you follow, but no matter what the percentage is, there are more of us straight people than you. Always will be. So you need to gain some 'acceptance' that maybe you simply aren't going to ever be accepted as all the glossy brochures might tell you. We are human, and imperfect. The battle isn't anymore important that we accept you than people that enjoy the of quiet sounds of nature accept a death metal concert in their front yard. Does this game end when the world is just a big gay bowl of jellybeans? I'm sorry, but you might need to begin to reset your own expectations. You've come a long way, and many of if not most all of us accept you socially and many ways we never did. You have may great strides. When do you look around and say... "ok, that's better. Now I think I'll just carry on with life like the rest of you."

I know there are those homosexual ministers and churches that have made great paths to interpret Gods word to accept them into the positions and beliefs they are practicing. In this country, we have a freedom with our religions and I understand why some of them feel this is the best thing for them to do. You can follow any God you want it's your freedom. But I won't claim to know what price a person pays for that later, but I'm pretty sure it isn't good. But you feel like it's your only choice since you know asking us to change the bible so your sin isnt a sin, will never happen. but I tell you what - why don't we put a pin in that one, you come on in to church anyway, grab some coffee and let's help you to understand the bible. You open your heart and be open to some personal changes. Let's change together and talk about it in a few years?