OK christians help me out here...

[stickyj]

Was looking at another thread about being agy and my son, (14) who was baptised at a Baptist church on Sunday commented. I was happy for him to be baptised but my dh wasn't either way but came along to support him 'cos he's his dad. Son refuses to discuss this and said that you are not born gay but influenced by the world. I am very liberal and have always said that if any of my four kids were gay, that I wouldn't be bothered. Am sweriously worried 'cos son is "la la la ing into his headphones" and scaring me about him being so indocrinated. Turned the tables on him and asked how he can condone gays if the Bible says about sodomy etc and he's calling me narrow minded and refusing to debate. Says his way is right and to talk to his mentor about it. Expain and comment about it....

Sorry not agy gay..

I would say:"Leave it for now." People who were baptised on Sunday will be under tremendous attack from the evil one and need all the prayer support they can get. All teenagers struggle with issues of being 'gay' whichever way they turn out eventually. He needs you to be there for him. Cook him his favourite dinner and overlook all teenage behaviour for at least a month

Congratulations to your DS on his baptism.

Jesus commanded us to love one another above all else, so that's what your DS needs to learn to do. He won't be able to leave his earthly life and follow new life in Christ all in one day - it is a process that can take years.

Instead of condemning others we need to pray for discipleship.

So, you think being gay is OK, but he at the moment thinks it is not? Homosexuality is one of the big areas where Christians disagree - personally, I think it's OK, but lots of other very sincere Christians think it's not. If the church where he has found faith are teaching that it is simply wrong, then he will almost certainly be feeling that it is part of the whole "package" of his faith at the moment. As a new Christian he is likely to be very influenced by the part of the church he has come to faith in, and you may well struggle to even manage a sensible discussion of the issue - the world seems very black & white at that age, plus he will take any questioning of this one aspect of faith as a threat/criticism of the whole thing.

As he grows in faith, he may (or may not) come to question parts of the "package" he's bought into, and that is the point at which he may be able to look at the individual parts and understand that it is not as clear-cut as he has maybe been taught. I think till then the best you'll be able to do is get him to agree to disagree, and make sure he sees that you and others can still make moral decisions from a different framework.

My brother "got religion" in a very scriptural fundamentalist church at around that age, and was convinced the rest of the family was going to hell because they didn't believe the exact same set of things he was being taught were necessary for salvation. He grew out of it, and after a few years he started to recognise that ther are other ways to be a Christian.

Hope that helps

And there are some of us who have managed to come to some kind of accord with our own consciences about same-sex attraction and what we believe about biblical teaching on it. And there's a whole spectrum of ways to do it, too.

If you could keep him away from the church it might 'wear off' but he's too old for that really. It was inevitable that he'd be indoctrinated. That's what it's for after all and why it's so important to get them into church while they are still young and vulnerable.

Having any sex outside of marriage (to the person you are married to) is not acceptable to God. People who are gay have the choice to abstain or not (the same as hetrosexual people!). I lived with someone despite being a christian and it robbed me of something of my spiritual life with God. Sexual sin of any kind is more damaging than other sins - errr can't quote chapter & verse off the top of my head but can go find it if you want to.

Sadly many churches make a big thing of gay relationships which detracts from the what God says about all sexual sin. Perhaps it could be worthwhile going to a christian bookshop and finding some books on the subject - with a more accurate standpoint then he is being taught and give them to him as a baptism present?

I personally could not go to a civil partnership but when I've spoken to gay friends about this issue that how I have lived my sexual life is no different in Gods' eyes then how they live theirs.