Came across a blog, that gives expression to some well thought through stuff about being Gay and a Christian. You might want to look it up sometime.
www.alifeinshadesofgrey.blogspot.com
His letter to a former school friend is both touching and helpful.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Coming out ahead
Here is an extract from an excellent address given by Dr. Ralph Blair
at the Eastern and Western connECtions 2003 The States. It is an annual conference hosted by Evangelicals concerned. It is an attitude not often expressed and is worth thinking about and commenting on......What do you think?
Malcolm Muggeridge...... was the consummate insider who was ever the outsider. In his memoir, Chronicles of Wasted Time, he tells of a recurring scene in his mind, "both sleeping and waking." He describes "standing in the wings of a theatre waiting for my cue to go on stage. As I stand there I can hear the play proceeding, and suddenly it dawns on me that the lines I have learnt are not in this play at all, but belong to a quite different one. Panic seizes me; I wonder frenziedly what I should do. Then I get my cue. Stumbling, falling over the unfamiliar scenery, I make my way on to the stage, and there look for guidance to the prompter, whose head I can just see rising out of the floor-boards. Alas, he only signals helplessly to me, and I realize that of course his script is different from mine. I begin to speak my lines, but they are incomprehensible to the other actors and abhorrent to the audience, who begin to hiss and shout: ‘Get off the stage!’ ‘Let the play go on!’ ‘You’re interrupting!’ I am paralyzed and can think of nothing to do but to go on standing there and speaking my lines that don’t fit. The only lines I know."
Ever feel like that? Miscast – gay in play that’s straight, Christian in a play that’s pagan. A fruit out of season. A fish out of water. With St. Mugg we might counter: "Only dead fish swim with the stream."
Still, might there not be a "coming out" onto the stage of the everyday world to a better outcome? Can we come out ahead instead? Yes, most definitely. And no, certainly not.
A popular endorsement of "coming out" claims that "Coming out reduces isolation and alienation and allows for increased support from other GLBT people and allows you to live a full life." Well, not necessarily. And in the deepest sense, of course: Absolutely not.
For serious Christians who happen to be differently oriented sexually, coming out can increase isolation and alienation. Coming out can disallow for support. And besides, as any serious Christian should know, merely "coming out" as lesbigayt is not what "allows you to live a full life." What allows you to live a full life is your coming out into Christ.
Evangelical Christians whose sexual orientation is not what the Evangelical establishment approves and whose Christian orientation is not what the lesbigayt establishment approves are in for a shock if they buy into such promises uncritically. People of dual identity must be, in Jesus’s words, "wise as snakes and harmless as doves" to cope in homophobic Evangelicaland and the Christophobic Emerald City. "Coming out" as gay to evangelical family and friends and "coming out" as evangelical to gay friends is fraught with isolating and alienating misunderstanding and hostility. To "come out" as "the other" in either venue is very likely to evoke: "Get out!"
I’d like us to get out of the tired lesbigayt rhetoric on "coming out" and get into coming out ahead. Coming out ahead is our daily Christian calling – no matter what may be our sexual identity.
at the Eastern and Western connECtions 2003 The States. It is an annual conference hosted by Evangelicals concerned. It is an attitude not often expressed and is worth thinking about and commenting on......What do you think?
Malcolm Muggeridge...... was the consummate insider who was ever the outsider. In his memoir, Chronicles of Wasted Time, he tells of a recurring scene in his mind, "both sleeping and waking." He describes "standing in the wings of a theatre waiting for my cue to go on stage. As I stand there I can hear the play proceeding, and suddenly it dawns on me that the lines I have learnt are not in this play at all, but belong to a quite different one. Panic seizes me; I wonder frenziedly what I should do. Then I get my cue. Stumbling, falling over the unfamiliar scenery, I make my way on to the stage, and there look for guidance to the prompter, whose head I can just see rising out of the floor-boards. Alas, he only signals helplessly to me, and I realize that of course his script is different from mine. I begin to speak my lines, but they are incomprehensible to the other actors and abhorrent to the audience, who begin to hiss and shout: ‘Get off the stage!’ ‘Let the play go on!’ ‘You’re interrupting!’ I am paralyzed and can think of nothing to do but to go on standing there and speaking my lines that don’t fit. The only lines I know."
Ever feel like that? Miscast – gay in play that’s straight, Christian in a play that’s pagan. A fruit out of season. A fish out of water. With St. Mugg we might counter: "Only dead fish swim with the stream."
Still, might there not be a "coming out" onto the stage of the everyday world to a better outcome? Can we come out ahead instead? Yes, most definitely. And no, certainly not.
A popular endorsement of "coming out" claims that "Coming out reduces isolation and alienation and allows for increased support from other GLBT people and allows you to live a full life." Well, not necessarily. And in the deepest sense, of course: Absolutely not.
For serious Christians who happen to be differently oriented sexually, coming out can increase isolation and alienation. Coming out can disallow for support. And besides, as any serious Christian should know, merely "coming out" as lesbigayt is not what "allows you to live a full life." What allows you to live a full life is your coming out into Christ.
Evangelical Christians whose sexual orientation is not what the Evangelical establishment approves and whose Christian orientation is not what the lesbigayt establishment approves are in for a shock if they buy into such promises uncritically. People of dual identity must be, in Jesus’s words, "wise as snakes and harmless as doves" to cope in homophobic Evangelicaland and the Christophobic Emerald City. "Coming out" as gay to evangelical family and friends and "coming out" as evangelical to gay friends is fraught with isolating and alienating misunderstanding and hostility. To "come out" as "the other" in either venue is very likely to evoke: "Get out!"
I’d like us to get out of the tired lesbigayt rhetoric on "coming out" and get into coming out ahead. Coming out ahead is our daily Christian calling – no matter what may be our sexual identity.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Oh Yeah.... God loves us... it's important !
For many people who have struggeled to come to terms with their sexuality,there can be many issues around self esteem.
Some folks are conscious of having lived or still living with at least this one area of their sexuality lived firmly in the shadows, afraid to be known. For others coming out has not been easy, and doesn't always reflect the social success story which others have trumpeted.Still others are happy enough with no great problem about saying they are gay. Yet here too some come to realise that this alone is not the source of fulfillment in their lives.
Well get this, at the heart of the Christian Gospel is an incredible love that embraces every part of us. Whether we feel we must live in the shadows, or come out multi-colour, we are known and loved for who we truly are. I don't know if you read the bible.
It's worth doing, and the psalms are written by people who were dead honest about how they felt, or what they understood about God, and his relation to us. Like in Psalm 139, we are reminded that God knew us from before we were born, and he Knows us and loves us still, come what may.
I was listening to a great song on an album called AWAKENING. It's by a crowd call Passion who run conferences in the States. Well this song was written by John Mark McMillan, and sung by the David Crowder band. Here are the words,( at times they might seem a bit religious if your not used to them, but I think they still ring true), take a moment to let them sink in they are about God and his love for us, and ....I believe so true.
He is jealous for me.Loves like a hurricane. I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
And all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory.
And I realise just how beautiful you are And how great your affections are for me.
Oh How He loves us, Oh How he loves us
And we are His portion and and we are His prize. Drawn to redemption by the Grace in His eyes.
If His Grace is an ocean we're all sinking. And heaven meets earth like an unseen kiss.
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about the way that
He loves us, Oh how he loves us.
Some folks are conscious of having lived or still living with at least this one area of their sexuality lived firmly in the shadows, afraid to be known. For others coming out has not been easy, and doesn't always reflect the social success story which others have trumpeted.Still others are happy enough with no great problem about saying they are gay. Yet here too some come to realise that this alone is not the source of fulfillment in their lives.
Well get this, at the heart of the Christian Gospel is an incredible love that embraces every part of us. Whether we feel we must live in the shadows, or come out multi-colour, we are known and loved for who we truly are. I don't know if you read the bible.
It's worth doing, and the psalms are written by people who were dead honest about how they felt, or what they understood about God, and his relation to us. Like in Psalm 139, we are reminded that God knew us from before we were born, and he Knows us and loves us still, come what may.
I was listening to a great song on an album called AWAKENING. It's by a crowd call Passion who run conferences in the States. Well this song was written by John Mark McMillan, and sung by the David Crowder band. Here are the words,( at times they might seem a bit religious if your not used to them, but I think they still ring true), take a moment to let them sink in they are about God and his love for us, and ....I believe so true.
He is jealous for me.Loves like a hurricane. I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
And all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory.
And I realise just how beautiful you are And how great your affections are for me.
Oh How He loves us, Oh How he loves us
And we are His portion and and we are His prize. Drawn to redemption by the Grace in His eyes.
If His Grace is an ocean we're all sinking. And heaven meets earth like an unseen kiss.
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about the way that
He loves us, Oh how he loves us.
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