Sad our church turned its back on dd

[TeenLifeMum]

Dd has been to church all her life. At one point we moved to a different church that suited us more but we made lovely friends etc and dd was attending youth group until she was 15. Suddenly she was less keen but focusing on GCSEs so we didn’t push it. With clubs etc for the other dc, regular attendance dropped a bit but we were fairly relaxed.

I believe in god but have always had issues with “the church”, but put that aside to be with people of faith.

I recently learned why dd stopped going to youth - they did a full session on how they should pray for gay people in the hope of healing them. How they are so angry about people loving each other is beyond me.

dd is gay. Her girlfriend is loving, kind, polite, and caring. I want all my dc to have loving healthy relationships so have no issue and naively thought others wouldn’t care. Turns out they do. Two of her closest friends stepped away due to her being gay (parents we’d met through church) and now she understandably doesn’t want to go to church, and neither do I.

I’m angry. I hope they’re really proud of themselves from their high horses. On the off chance they’re on here - no, you’re not good Christians.

Thanks for humouring my rant.

JayJayEl
How on earth does two women in a married, consensual, monogamous, loving, sexual relationship harm ANYONE, least of all "those around me"?!

It rankles with the particular sort of "Christian" who thinks that other people's souls are their concern, and their perpetual desire to make everyone do as they are told by a "Christian" is profoundly harmful to that sort of person. They are convinced that they have to spend their time being their brother's keeper, you see, and quite miss Christ's instruction about taking the plank out of their own eye before complaining about the speck in anyone else's. It interferes with their sleep at night, and then they are tired and lose their tampers with other motorists and have traffic accidents.

See what you've done? You made a nosy-parker collide with a tram!

What's really frustrating is that call something a religion and you get a free pass from the Equalities Act, etc. and you get business rate and charitable tax breaks, etc. It's high time that these benefits were withdrawn from religious organisations that refuse to accept basic equalities.

If your beliefs cannot accept quality of opportunity for all regardless of sex, colour, or sexual preference then your church does not deserve tax breaks from society. And that includes equality of opportunity within the organisation - if any position within the structure of your church is restricted by sex, colour, or sexual preference, then no tax breaks. If all your employed positions are majority male whilst your voluntary positions are majority female, then no tax breaks.

I don't think many religious organisations in the UK would pass this test, but that shows how rotten the lot of them are.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6

amen.

@batt3nb3rg But if both parties are willing and consenting, there is no bringing anyone harm.

The official Church of Scotland may say that, but some congregations are not so welcoming,

That said, the particular one I am thinking of has now been merged and the sanctuary sold.

We do others harm when we encourage them to sin against God.

In which case encouraging other people to wish you misfortune is sinful and people should refrain from being the sort of prick who invites detestation by, say, judging other people.

To take this away from gays, in what way does female masturbation harm anyone other than (very improbable but remotely possible I suppose) the woman doing it? Yet I have heard it described as a sin by sanctimonious men. A sin against whom?

Maybe God should think about why s/he might have created a significant minority of people who are only attracted to their own sex, and then make that against his/her arbitrary rules?

I mean, who is being hurt by some people being attracted to their own sex?

Man created God in his own image. Explains everything about the God some on this thread believe in.

Who was said all sex is sinful? Lust is sinful, fornication is sinful, adultery is sinful. Respectful, reverent sexual love between a husband and wife, whether it’s expressly for procreation or for mutual giving and pleasure, is a gift from God. Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sinful, just as selfish, lustful sexual behaviour from one spouse to another is sinful. People are all broken and sinful.

Why do I only ever see this aimed at Christians? Everyone else's religious rights are respected but for some reason Christianity is always up for grabs?

For an asexual non-binary entity (albeit one that prefers masculine pronouns), the God of the Bible seems weirdly obsessed with other people's sexual relations.

Howard, more likely the people who wrote about Him. All men, no doubt devout but, like journalists, influenced by their own environment, cultural and societal norms.

And St Paul had all the terrible zeal of the turncoat convert: he started out persecuting Christians before he saw the light. Or was blinded. One or the other.

Entering into a CONSENSUAL relationship isn't "encouraging" anyone to do anything.

Oh, so YOUR love is "respectful [and] reverent", but MY love is sinful. I've tried to be respectful, but your opinions are downright piggish and sanctimonious. I'm not fucking "broken" nor "sinful" because I fuck my wife.

Of course it is.

Well, it's encouraging one's partner to do something, one hopes!

How?

Ditto...

I haven't read the whole thread, but I'm so sorry OP. I think homophobic churches often don't seek to advertise their homophobia, because they know it will put people off.

In Oxford, the Oxford Uni LGBTQ+ Society has created a very helpful document ranking Oxford churches by their degree of friendliness to LGBTQ people:

www.oulgbtq.org/oxford-safe-churches.html?fbclid=IwAR3TBn0rsU7gd5_iVfWic-IoIZDJdvTp0TODXGzKw8FLFIn1ZOEjtDGDYsE

You can see on the document which churches are welcoming of gay Christians and which aren't. I think there should be more surveys like this in other cities!