Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

I was in Hell: Huw Raphael on What It Was Like to Be Affirmed in Homosexuality
Touchstone ^ | Huw Raphael

Posted on 04/23/2016 6:37:34 AM PDT by NRx

...I stand by those words of Fr. Seraphim. This Hell is being driven by one’s hormones and knowing that to deny them is “unhealthy.” Hell is being driven by one’s desires and fantasies and knowing that to deny them is to deny the only joy there is, the joy that defines your whole being.

Hell is a fine San Francisco morning standing trapped in your bedroom while an orgy takes place in the hallway outside. Hell is a foggy San Francisco afternoon standing in a room full of men involved in various actions with each other—and somewhere a voice tells you it’s all wrong, but you don’t know what to do. Hell is a balmy San Francisco evening on a back porch listening to ten homosexual men in the middle of the most liberal Episcopal diocese in the country insist that all churches are homophobic and evil.

Hell is being told in a Sunday sermon that Jesus died in first-century Judea, that Jesus isn’t alive, that Jesus isn’t coming back, and that he would want you to “follow your bliss” to find the will of God in your life—all of this when you know now that your “bliss” makes you more depressed every time you indulge in it. Hell is knowing that the same biblical scholarship that allows for your own sexual antics also allows for clergy who deny the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection.

(Excerpt) Read more at touchstonemag.com ...


TOPICS: Moral Issues; Orthodox Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; redemption
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last
I found this to be very powerful and encourage reading the whole thing. In many ways it reminds me of the confessions of great saints who before their conversion lived dissipated (often libertine) lifestyles. See also the similar thread on Michael Voris' conversion.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3423841/posts

1 posted on 04/23/2016 6:37:34 AM PDT by NRx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: NRx

Hell is belonging to a church that just pats you on the head and says, “That’s okay, dear.”


From the article.


2 posted on 04/23/2016 6:43:45 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple

Worked with a number of gay guys in NYC.

What a mess. Depressed, drinking, orgies, drugs, suicidal tendencies.

What a shame.

But there wasn’t a fat one out of the bunch. go figure.


3 posted on 04/23/2016 6:46:32 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: NRx

“We value every person and support a widely diverse community” means “We have no standards,” means “We offer nothing you do not already have,” that there is no difference between church and Denny’s.


And that explains diversity better than anything else I have found.


4 posted on 04/23/2016 6:46:36 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRx

The last time I was in the San Francisco area in 1993, I perceived a dark oppressive demonic cloud over that city. And the city embraced that cloud.


5 posted on 04/23/2016 6:54:58 AM PDT by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fred Hayek

The first time I went to SF I saw a man walking on Pier 39 with his arm around a woman’s waist and his other hand holding a man’s hand.


6 posted on 04/23/2016 7:01:57 AM PDT by Slyfox (When someone tells it like it is, is it the truth?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: NRx

There is a reason why the Episcopal Church is shrinking and dying.


7 posted on 04/23/2016 7:02:15 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dp0622

That’s interesting, given that being fat is just about the only personal quality that everyone agrees is contemptible. In fact, it’s such a sign of “wrongness” that people (especially women) in effect become “fat” when we disagree with them or disapprove of them.


8 posted on 04/23/2016 7:06:37 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("The world is full of wonder, but you see it only if you look." ~NicknamedBob)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

I’ve been on both sides of the coin as i’m sure many have. 30 years in very good shape and then the last 17 have gained way too much!

but you’re right. It’s the last thing you can insult with no repercussions. Well, that and white men, and sometimes white women.

alcoholism, narcotics abuse, being on welfare, snap, section 8, getting 4000 back for earned income tax credit if you were an illegal!!!

what a mess.


9 posted on 04/23/2016 7:20:54 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Fred Hayek
The last time I was in the San Francisco area in 1993, I perceived a dark oppressive demonic cloud over that city. And the city embraced that cloud.

I was in San Francisco last week. Not much has changed. I noticed there were weird looking people everywhere. I didn't like it much.

10 posted on 04/23/2016 7:28:12 AM PDT by Mark17 (I traded my shackles for a glorious song. I'm free, praise the Lord, free at last.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple

The left hates, and will do anything to crush societal “standards”.


11 posted on 04/23/2016 7:35:15 AM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

“There is a reason why the Episcopal Church is shrinking and dying.”

Episcopalians such as myself have obviously lived with this issue for a number of years. For myself, I converted to Roman Catholicism but began to re-attend the Episcopal Church due to family, grandchildren and other circumstances. It is a faithful church that has successfully avoided the taking of sides which this issue often compels. I have found that Episcopalians can maintain faithful to traditional Christianity but their ability to do so is not dependent on the denomination but the individual church they choose to attend. Hopefully this faithful remnant will eventually result in a revitalization of the denomination at some point.


12 posted on 04/23/2016 7:37:53 AM PDT by yetidog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dp0622

It defies nature and instinct and a person needs reassurance that it is not wrong.

Sex is for procreation and it is impossible for Gays to have children.

Actually it is a cruel joke and an unhealthy lifestyle to boot.


13 posted on 04/23/2016 7:50:54 AM PDT by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Very good article. I am trying to understand what makes gays tick and this is enlightening. However, what also touched me is the fact that many of us (especially including me) are expecting or hoping Christ and churches to save us “in our sins” rather than “from our sins”. All of us have favorite sins and/or faults from which we must continually strive to escape with help from above.


14 posted on 04/23/2016 8:49:05 AM PDT by caseinpoint (Don't get thickly involved in thin things.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Bookmark


15 posted on 04/23/2016 9:04:52 AM PDT by aquila48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Hell is living so that the sum total of your life is self gratification with no higher purpose or sense of being.


16 posted on 04/23/2016 9:18:48 AM PDT by teppe (... for my God ... for my Family ... for my Country ....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRx

I thought this was going to be another Ted Cruz-bashing thread.


17 posted on 04/23/2016 10:10:32 AM PDT by GSWarrior
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple
>>“That’s okay, dear...

...and Just keep your eyes on Jesus... it only hurts the first time."

What they've deceptively done is perverted forgiveness of sin into PERMISSION to sin.

That's the work of the false church in the spirit of anti-Christ -- not the work of the body of Christ which is the corporate body of all who are repentant and forgiven in His grace.

18 posted on 04/23/2016 10:27:06 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: NRx

Being “Gay”, is all about the perverted sex. PERIOD! Not “love”. Not just another lifestyle. Not “the way God made you”. Not “born this way” (Lady Gaga). Disgusting.


19 posted on 04/23/2016 10:28:41 AM PDT by faucetman (Iowa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: faucetman

>>Being “Gay”, is all about...


...what is worshiped and served.

Note that, in Romans chapter 1, the proliferation of homosexual perversion is a punitive response to something else:

 

When an interviewer recently called Lady Gaga the "Billy Graham of pop," she claimed,

"I'm teaching people to worship themselves."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/may/lady-gaga-wheres-outrage.html

Rom 1:25-27
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 
NIV

 

 

20 posted on 04/23/2016 10:35:52 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson