Jesus wears nakedpastor's ally tee.
WHY I'M AN LGBTQ ALLY:
BIBLE: People say I should read the Bible and then they quote verses. But I studied the Bible since childhood, went to Bible College and got my Bachelors in Bible, went to seminary and got my Masters in Bible, then my Diploma in Ministry. I took years of original languages (Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic), preached from the Bible, and read commentaries and theologians for over 30 years.
THEOLOGY: What caused my theological anguish was who was in and who was out? Why would a gracious God condemn people just for being what they were: Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, and LGBTQ? I thought my choice was: accept everyone and reject the Bible or accept the Bible and reject everyone. The Bible didn’t help. Theologians didn’t help. Opinions didn’t help. There are qualified verses, versions, and voices from all sides. So I pored over the scriptures until I was ready to give up in total frustration.
PEACE: Then, in 2009, I finally saw. One day I was confused and the next I was at peace! I saw that we are one. There’s one reality and we each apprehend it through our own mindsets and articulate it through our own languages. One reality, many thoughts, many words! Our different words express our different thoughts of this one reality. All scriptures and theologies are human thoughts and words trying to apprehend and articulate this one reality.
If we believe our thoughts that endorse our intellectual divisions and cling to our words that enforce those thoughts, they will manifest in our world and relationships as divisive. Once we free ourselves from this conditioning, we are free to love beyond opinions and arguments, even so-called sacred ones.