Loving the sinner, hating the sin
Submitted by Forgiven on November 21 2000 14:23:19
In reply to Lack of desire to respond to real issues? submitted by Jimf3 on November 20 2000 23:08:50
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We've had the gay sex OK, gay sex not OK plenty of times - and I'm bored of it, though if others want to work through it again, please do (On your own thread). What I'd like to think about is the issue of how those of us who are not bi enough to look at the possibility of marriage live operate in a church that is seeking to affirm the gay man although rejecting the possibility of their entered a sexual relationship with another man. The story of my own church is striking in this; a boy who had grown up in the church, at the age of 24 or so took the bull by the horns and published an article in the church magazine declaring himself gay. It worked - amazingly well. We'd all known him for many years - he was one of US - and he was GAY! SO... so what. He found a massive degree of acceptance and has continued in the church reasonably successfully. One of the consequences of this was that someone who had started to come to church when he had come to my city for university was also able to 'come out' - and likewise has been generally accepted and welcomed - indeed holds a relatively senior lay post in church. More recently the church organised a Saturday morning session attempting to discuss the issue. One of the pastors led off with a general introduction - one of the gay men then shared his view, on the whole in favour of gay sex - lots of people shared their general lack of comprehension and unwillingness to judge anybody and the senior pastor gave a clear anti gay sex message at the end. But it is hard to see how it could have been more positive to the gay people people within the congregation without going over that barrier. So as a result, on the whole, I would say we are a generally accepting community - although one that would probably cope less well with a BL, though I am out to a some people. Part of the challenge is to talk about it - for the sake of the kids growing up, for any gay person wandering in, but also because we are bombarded with pro-gay messages from lots of directions in the media. If you continually hear an opposing view and never discuss your own, in due time you are worn down to the point where you abandon the truth which you had come to for yourself. Does that make any sense - has anyone else any experience of the issue being dealt with WELL!! |
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