Seven Things I Wish My Pastor Knew About My Homosexuality

Public Discourse ^ | December 10th, 2014 | Jean Lloyd

[rhema]

May I make two requests? Love me, but remember that you cannot be more merciful than God. It isn’t mercy to affirm same-sex acts as good. Don’t compromise truth; help me to live in harmony with it.

Over thirty years have passed since same-sex attraction rushed up from deep within my twelve-year-old frame. This attraction was unbidden and unwanted, yet simultaneously forceful and compelling.

As a Christian, the conflict between my sexuality and my faith would become the deepest and most intense of my life. Now in my forties, I’ve gone from being closeted to openly lesbian to celibate to heterosexually married. The fact that I need to qualify my marital union as a heterosexual one reveals how much the cultural landscape has changed in that time—just as much as my own personal landscape has, though in very different ways.

During my upbringing, I heard a few fiery sermons on homosexuality. These days, I hear declarations of love instead. They make me shout for joy. Amen! It always should have been so! At the same time, however, many pastors have begun accompanying this love with an eschewal of Biblical sexual morality as oppressive, unreasonable, or unkind. Hence, loving homosexual persons also comes to entail affirming and encouraging them in same-sex sexual relationships and behaviors.

Although I appreciate the desire to act in love, this isn’t the genuine love that people like me need. Love me better than that! Thomas Aquinas scholar Josef Pieper put it this way:

love is not synonymous with undifferentiated approval of everything the beloved person thinks and does in real life. . . . [nor is it] the wish for the beloved to feel good always and in every situation and for him to be spared experiencing pain or grief in all circumstances.

[rhema]

A pastor's story: "My struggle with same-sex attraction"

[rhema]

Seven things we wish ELCA, PCUSA, UCC, and Episcopal pastors knew biblically about homosexuality

[WashingtonSource]

bump

[circlecity]

"This attraction was unbidden and unwanted, yet simultaneously forceful and compelling."

This immediately reminded me of Paul's discourse on the power of the flesh in Romans Chapter 7.

[NY.SS-Bar9]

Ms. "Seven Things":

I really don't care which style genitals you like to rub.

Really, I don't.

You go on with your life and I will go on with mine. Don't be an attention whore, don't act like your preference in genitalia defines your being and we will get along just fine. Act like an ass and demand special treatment and we have a problem. The problem is yours because you make the choice to act out like a 12 year-old that hasn't gotten over puberty.

Grow up.

[iowamark]

Thank you for posting this.

[rollo tomasi]

The context of the headline is understandable if you read the article.

[Westbrook]

Anybody who has kids knows you can love somebody without approving everything they do.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Actually, a lot of people do care.....this is a big issue politically, and inside the church, in case you haven’t noticed.

[Yosemitest]

What hath the LORD answered ?
What hath the LORD spoken ?
What hath God said that they which commit such things are worthy of ?
Whom shall the homosexuals' blood be upon ?
What did God say that the land will do to those who commit their abominations ?
What did God say would happen to their VERY SOULS, who commit such abominations ?

Read Exodus 18:13-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, and think on it for a few days.

Homosexuals aren't "born that way".
They had to "Earn their REPROBATE MIND" by refusing God ~ not once, ~ not twice, ~ but THREE times!

You need to not only read, BUT STUDY this link
I especially agree with its last paragraph.

" The Church NEVER can and NEVER will give satisfaction—
and the homosexualist knows it,
for he knows the words against him are INERADICABLE
—to the declared and impenitent homosexual,
the person who, through an act of the vermiculate will,
has identified his person with a sin,
whether HE DEMANDS ACCEPTANCE OF HIS SIN
through "love,"
or VINDICATION
THROUGH IDENTIFICATION OF HIS PERCEIVED ENEMIES AS BIGOTS.
Whether HE PRESENTS HIMSELF as an object of love or indignation,
what HE DEMANDS in either case IS ACCEPTANCE
not of the person,
but OF THE SIN-bound and SIN-DEFINED person.
HE DEMANDS the declaration of SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY that
THERE IS NOTHING OBJECTIVELY DISORDERED about this BINDING OF MAN TO SIN,
and ASSURANCE that THIS MONSTROUS AMALGAM can indeed ENTER the kingdom of heaven.
This can NEVER HAPPEN among Christians UNTIL THEY ABANDON Christianity,
WHICH IS AT WAR WITH EVERY SIN,
and whose indelible constitution
places ALL PERVERSIONS of the perfect man
AT THE MUZZLE of its canons. "

There will be NO HOMOSEXUALS ( NOT ONE ) in the afterlife.
They WILL BE ASHES UNDER the soles of your feet ! ! !

[Morpheus2009]

Read the article, it’s pretty clear from what the OP wrote and mentions in experience that the behavior isn’t right.

[LeoMcNeil]

This is an important issue in the church today, even in more conservative denominations. It seems the church either falls into apostasy, denying that homosexual acts are sin or it falls into hellfire and brimstone by practically declaring homosexual acts unforgivable.

There is a middle ground, just like there is with all sin. We must forgive those who repent, we must encourage them to flee the sin of homosexual conduct. There is forgiveness in Jesus Christ alone. The church must never tolerate the acceptance of this sin as normal or even desirable. The flip side is that it must not shut out a group of people who are in desperate need of Christ.

[Future Snake Eater]

I’m guessing you didn’t read the article.

[G Larry]

Have you ever confronted your abuser?

[rfreedom4u]

How about the pastor responds with “7 things I wish homosexuals knew about the gospel”

[Usagi_yo]

hmm, incoherent poetry?

I think they used to use electro-shock therapy

[Yosemitest]

"O my people,
THEY WHICH LEAD THEE
CAUSE THEE TO ERR,
AND DESTROY THE WAY of thy paths."

[Yosemitest]

Not poetry.
Just FACTS !

[awelliott]

Interesting - thanks for posting. Point #5 is one that I wish was emphasized more often, but in today’s world of self-gratification, it is the ultimate sin to suggest that a person refrain from same-sex desires...

[fwdude]

Good article overall, but the author incorrectly disparages fire-and-brimstone preaching about proud, unrepentant sin. This used to be the default in much gospel preaching. Jonathan Edwards stands out as a well-known example. We should shy away from rejecting this method for the culture’s sake.