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| "I love you, man!" |
I want you to take a moment and close your eyes. On second thought, open them again, or else you can't read the rest of this.
Who is your best friend? Who is the person in life you love most? Is it a friend? Is it a parent or spouse or child or mentor? I want you to take a moment and picture yourself and that person in a place you remember fondly where you both shared great memories together. Where is this place and what are you doing?
Ok, have you found this place with this person? Are you in your memory?
Now in this moment, I want you to picture this person telling you that they themselves are gay and or lesbian. Try this exercise on and really think about what it sounds like with those words coming out of their mouth. Look at their eyes as they tell you this. What do they look like? Look at their body and how they're sitting. Look at how they are looking to you to reveal a part of themselves.
What is your honest response in that moment? What is your response inside, and what is your verbal response? What is your response today and your response tomorrow?
I'm not asking your response to gay people everywhere, or the gay agenda, or any of these things. What is your response to that individual who you have brought to mind?
If you're willing, please comment below and share. In a way, this will help me get to know you all much better than I do now.
Inside response: "I know I love and care for this person, but is this their way of coming onto me? And, gosh, I wish this wasn't happening. Being gay sucks so much of the time. At least they trusted me enough to tell me though. I hope nothing bad happens to them. I also hope this doesn't mean they'll change how they act around me."
ReplyDeleteVerbal response: "You know, I'll love you and be here for you no matter what. It doesn't matter to me if you're gay, straight, purple, green, or yellow."
I had to think for a few minutes to be completely honest about it. I think this was an interesting question to pose though. It certainly made me think about how I'd feel worry for the person and the dynamics of our friendship, but probably try not to convey that to them.
My response: repent
ReplyDeleteIf I were your brother, sister, friend Id dread the day I open up to you about my sexuality and most probably wouldnt
DeleteGroups who form "homosexual communities" should be communities focussed on repentance and living according to the will of God. They should be ashamed of their fallen nature, just as I am ashamed of mine, but in Christ, am being renewed day after day by Christ's grace. Such communities should not be forming forums, and communities to promote acceptance of the sodomite or homosexual lifestyle. If they want to do a service, they should form groups to focus on Christ and living a pure life.
ReplyDeleteOne may not be able to have a solution to changing one's attraction to the opposite gender in order to live a normal life (at least not in the very short term), but one may certainly focus on carrying one's cross and focussing on Christ.
It is also sad that people struggling against this sinful inclination define their self identity as "gay" or "homosexual". This ought not to be the case. A person who is inclined to commit adultery does not define his identity as belonging to the "community of adulterers" but as a person who is a sinner, as are the rest of us who have fallen into various sins and in need of repentance. Rather the homosexual ought to define themselves as a person who is inclined to have same-sex attraction and struggling to live a Christian life by focussing on Christ and avoiding sin, just like the rest of us.
A person should not belong to a "homosexual" community or the so-called, "LGBT" community because such labels reinforce that this is somehow a legitimate community with legitimate needs of acceptance of such a lifestyle that is justified, from a Christian perspective. A Christian tempted to belong to these communities is often misled into believing that it is O.K. to accept your sinfulness and not struggle against it. This is deception of the worst kind and that leads away from true focus on Christ and true repentance.
It is not the same as the Black community. Being Black is not a sin. Engaging in Homosexual acts is a sin.
THIS IS THE TRUTH.
A great, short book on the topic of same sex attraction and the Christian Faith from an Eastern Orthodox Christian perspective by Father Thomas Hopko is of great help on this topic and can be found here:
http://www.amazon.ca/Christian-Faith-Same-Sex-Attraction/dp/1888212756
Also, a great Saint in the Russian Orthodox Church is the Late Father Seraphim Rose who was a practicing homosexual before he converted to Orthodoxy and repented when he realized that this lifestyle was against God's will. He was ordained a celebate Heiromonk and carried homosexuality as a cross and through his life-long repentence and struggle against it, he fought the good fight and reposed in the Lord in peace as an example to many who struggle against sin.
May the Lord open all of our eyes to accept the Bible and God's plan for each of us to live according to His will in the purity of celibacy or in purity of marriages of one man and one woman.
J. Rizk
- ICXC
NIKA
A concerned Coptic Orthodox Christian