A question that plagued me
As a gay Christian, specifically a gay Catholic, I’ve been plagued with the same question for as long as I’ve even considered that I may be a lesbian. And ever since I came out, I’ve gotten this question more frequently than anything else:
Isn’t homosexuality a sin?
Aren’t you going to go to hell?
I spent years debating this. I never had an answer until recently, and I’m writing this post for the gay Christians that are scared, and for the straight Christians that give our church it’s bad reputation of blatant homophobia.
The most common argument I hear for homophobia is that in the book of Leviticus, “a man must not lie with a man as with a woman” and that in Genesis, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. But does Christ not call us to love one another? Are we not called to “love one another as [Jesus] has loved [us]” regardless of gender? If your argument is that it’s wrong to be gay, so God hates you, you’re unfortunately very mistaken. God loves me and you and all the other people regardless of gender or sexuality; if God doesn’t make mistakes, then we are to love however we are made to by God.
Recall that familiar story in the Bible, where the centurion goes to Jesus and asks that Jesus heal his servant. You probably think of it as a touching story of a kind-hearted Roman soldier, but in reality, it’s a story of God healing a gay man’s boyfriend. In the original Greek version of that particular gospel, the Centurion refers to his servant as the Greek word that means a servant who’s duty is to be his/her master’s companion and lover. The man was, in essence, his master’s lover, and Jesus didn’t turn the centurion away because of this. He instead said “your faith has saved you”. Jesus didn’t reprimand the centurion or tell him he’d go to hell for having gay sex, he blessed that lovely gay biblical couple.
I had a conversation a few years ago, with one of my dad’s best friends. He is also Gay and Catholic, and when we spoke, he told me how important it is to love other, in all forms of love, whether filial or agape or eros love, regardless of gender, and that is why he doesn’t consider his sexuality a sin, and neither do I.
At the end of the day, faith, and its expression in the form of religion, is about our personal relationship with God. Or gender doesn’t determine our faith, nor does our sexuality, race, or age.
In the words of Pope Francis, “if a person is gay, and follows the Lord, who am I to judge?”
gummygunk
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
