Welcome to CBF
Submitted by Heather on July 08 1999 at 20:35:10
In reply to Is it wrong? Submitted by Fish on July 08 1999 at 19:19:57
|
Hi, Fish, I think you're using "boylover" in a different sense of the word than the others here do. I'll just quote you from down below: "the New Testament . . . does not condemn the person to hell for being one." In other words, it's wise to differentiate between feelings and behavior; you can be a boylover without being condemned by God. I wouldn't worry terribly much, by the way, about your attractions toward boys at the moment. This may be something that you continue to struggle with as you get older, but on the other hand, a lot of boys are attracted to others boys when they're teenagers and find that the attraction goes away as they get older. In the meantime, I'm sure the others here can offer advice on controlling lustful thoughts. My own view is that, when Jesus condemned men for having lustful thoughts toward women, he was thinking of men who look at women for the sake of having lustful thoughts (the original Greek puts this across much more clearly than the English translations). I don't think that God condemns people who find themselves tempted; otherwise, he would have condemned Jesus, who is described as being tempted on several occasions. As long as you don't give in to the temptation to do anything you believe would be wrong – including deliberately dwelling on temptful thoughts – then I think that you'll be absolutely fine in God's eyes, just as Jesus was, even though he was tempted. In fact, remember that Jesus said that the prostitutes and the tax collectors would go into heaven before the "righteous" people. It's the people who struggle with temptation who quite often turn out to be the most godly people – that's the paradox of the Gospels. :) Another thing you might remember is how Jesus turned death to life – if you have anything in your life that you believe is connected with something bad, such as your feelings for boys, you might see whether there's any part of your feelings that could be put to good use. Some of the guys here, for example, do a lot of work helping boys in non-sexual ways. You might be interested in my site, which I've linked below. Heather |