I told the baptist church pastor that I'm gay! (page 8)

Rocky_Girl

A quick addition: I have a friend who is a Christian Reverend who attends a UCC congo, and her church, as well as maybe four other Christian churches in my area truly support homosexual couples. There are others that claim to be supportive, but the "tolerant" word comes up a lot. I feel that word covers up discrimination, as they still believe it is sinful; they hate the sin and love the person. That is so hypocritical...

TimothyT

Thanks everyone for your comments. I appreciate them.

Paintedtoenail: Perhaps its because the issue isnt so fresh in their minds. This is a very recent thing for me and im still trying to cope and deal with all the changes it brings. If you are not gay i wouldnt expect anyone to understand these feelings. I think many people percieve that all homosexuality is about is sex sex sex. During all my posts here I have not mentioned sex once. For me, this has nothing to do with sex but EVERYTHING to do with state of mind and happiness which is bery important. Coping and dealing with that is not an easy thing especialy when you have just become something which some people still cant accept and which has a stigma attached to it. Im simply using this forum and making posts to get some advice and help from those who know how i feel or have some reasonable ideas (which they often have).

Im sure one day i wont need to talk about my homosexuality anymore, but at the moment its a fresh topic in my mind which i havnt fully accepted yet and while these people are ex JWs and some who are gay, they are PERFECT for understanding my feelings.

Timmy

irondork

PaintedToeNail: Hi Tim, I'm very curious as to why you keep making your homosexuality a huge issue. Are you not more than your penis? No disrespect intended, I'm just wondering. Quendi and some other gay posters don't seem to come across as this issue being so consuming for them.

1 - Quendi and some of us other gay posters were consumed at one time. We may be further along in our individual processes but rest assured, the subject matter consumed our thinking at one point.

2 - Have you ever worked yourself into a knot, feeling like you were going to puke in fear of having to tell your parents that you were straight, knowing that it could result in your being kicked out of the house, disfellowshipped - basically the end of your little universe? No?

3 - Timmy did not make homosexuality such a big issue. Your people did that. Timmy, like every homo that has gone before, is trying to plow through years of what amounts to psychological abuse from an anti-gay society (which is changing, granted), parents/family, religion, etc... and he's doing a very good job.

Timmy, I wish I'd had the wherewithall to handle my "process" with the level-headed approach you seem to be capable of. I'm a little jealous. In the meantime, keep hammering out this issue for as long as you need, using everyone here as a sounding board.

You're doing just fine! :)

PSacramento

@PSacramento: Jesus said himself he was not here to overturn the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:18). Jesus required the law (Acts 3: 22, 23) to even have a claim to his divinity. He just wanted to get rid of the non-Mosaic rules the teachers back then had added on top of the already lengthy law code (Matthew 23:2, 3, 16-22) . He failed and it spun off a whole new form (less strict, more mystic form) of Judaism.

Jesus overturned ( if you want to use that term, I prefer "made clear muyself) the dietray laws and the Sabbath ones that were being "twisted" by the Sanhedrin.

Jesus failed in nothing, but you are free to believe otherwise of course.

In either case there are plenty of other religions that will accept your nature and they are the other 50% of the world (the non-Abrahamic religions). You are holding on to the bible for some reason and that's understandable and you're free to do so but maybe you should investigate first why. Who's approval do you want? Do you think your JW family would accept you more if you remain "Christian"?

I am not holding on to the bible, far from that, I am simply stating that ANY denomination that makes the bible its core will have issues with homosexuality.

HOW they handle those issues is up to them of course.

If you're merely looking for spirituality to fill the void of what you left behind, maybe you need to see what 'else' is out there. Abraham didn't like one of his family (Lot is a close contestor seeing the story of Sodom & Gomorrah and the disappearance of his (only) wife) being gay so it eventually got codified in the religions that spawned from him.

Lot was Gay?

PSacramento

Timothy,

Love is an interesting thing, is it not?

It chooses Us, we don't choose it.

God is love and God chooses US.

God loves you, Christ loves you, have no doubt about that and don't concern yourself too much about how MAN has defined God's views on things.

When you have love in your heart and you life is based on love, then you will have God in your life and His Word will strengthen you to follow your heart and the love in it.

Christianity is NOT about being accepted by other Christians, but about accepting Christ and His Love and God's Love.

Don't judge God and Christ by those that claim to be Christian.

Don't judge God and Christ at ALL, just accept their offer of love, forgiveness and grace.

As a Christian I accept you and love YOU for YOU and all that comes with YOU.

I will not judge ( for only God judges) and I will not do anything that is the opposite of Love.

IF I, as a lowly sinful person can do this, imagine what Christ can do :)

TimothyT

Thanks PSacramento... thats quite profound. I must remember this too! Others opinions and judgements mean nothing to me but what Jesus thinks does!

garyneal

TimothyT

I'll just simply add to this that there is a video I found on Netflix called For The Bible Tells Me So. If you haven't already checked it out, take a look at it. It may be helpful.

yourmomma

It is unreasonable to state that Timothy is making an issue of his being gay, when the reality is, the JW's made it an issue that is grounds for expulsion, and the church he is making it an issue.

Quendi

I have carefully read the views shared on this thread. I can understand PaintedToeNail's question and I appreciated TimothyT's thoughtful reply. And irondork is absolutely right to say that there was a time when I was "consumed" by the question of my sexual identity. I have not discussed that in depth here because I had a wonderful mentor who has been the kind of sounding board I needed as I sorted out my own issues.

For those who are not gay, it is almost impossible to understand the spiritual abuse the WTS puts LGBT people through. You endure years of self-denial, self-hatred, and the unacknowledged belief that you will never be good enough for fellowship with God or man. The organization's emphasis on "traditional" family, an emphasis which itself is badly flawed, doesn't help matters. You see the fruitage in the suicide rate among Witness youths; the bad marriages that were entered because the WTS taught that marriage was a "cure" for homosexuality; and the lives of "quiet desperation" others lead because they are forced into a celibacy that itself is unnatural.

I am glad that TimothyT, irondork, myself, and others can come here for understanding, counsel and support. Escaping the strangling coils of the WTS is only a first step in a long journey. There are decisions to be made about what direction to take one's life. The relationships one enjoyed in the WTS are now broken and must be replaced. Where does one go if he or she wants to be part of a loving, accepting spiritual community? And if the decision is to renounce religion or spiritual interests altogether, how is the resultant vacuum filled? These are questions all of us here are asking, and they affect both gay and straight people alike. Gay people, in my opinion, have a steeper path to tread because even though many societies are growing more tolerant of homosexuality, they contain people steeped in bigotry and prejudice. Straight people don't face that kind of hostility.

I have found that openly discussing issues like homosexuality is the best approach to dispelling ignorance, hatred and fear. Please understand that I am not accusing anyone here of harboring those attitudes. It's just that when someone asks the kind of question PaintedToeNail has, the best approach is to answer it directly and honestly as TimothyT did. All of us can benefit from the resultant discussion and I like to think that all who have participated in this thread have come away with a better understanding of the different points of view that have been shared. My friends, let's continue talking to each other. We have seen the effects that choking off discussion and enforcing a narrow orthodoxy has had with the WTS being an egregious example of this. Having repudiated it, we must be vigilant to preserve the freedom we now enjoy.

Quendi

TimothyT

Quendi... I LOVE YOU!!! :)

I told the baptist church pastor that I'm gay!

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