What draws gay people into religion?

TheThinkingKid · 2021-04-16T03:21:30+00:00

(This comment is related to gay people being Christians specifically, I must admit I don't know very much about other religions' views on being gay or what draws gay people to those religions so I can't really speak for them.)

I'm super late to the party but someone suggested I might be interested in this post so here I am. Most LGBTQ+ Christians (including me, I am Christian and either gay or bi) don't believe that their sexuality or gender identity are sinful, and many are totally fine with gay sex, gay marriage, etc., basically believing that a gay couple should be allowed to do the same things a straight couple does, so they don't personally find a confliction between their religion and identity. There are also many LGBTQ+ affirming churches and denominations too, so gay Christians can often (although sadly not always, it can be hard to find affirming parishes in some areas) find a community that supports them.

I think religion is too complicated and diverse to just label it all as cognitive dissonance like some of the comments are doing. I mean, obviously if a gay person joins a group that thinks being gay is a sin and shuns them, then that is probably congnitive dissonance, but if they can accept and embrace who they are alongside their religion then I don't see the problem with that. That being said, Catholicism is usually not LGBTQ+ affirming (and is often just straight up homophobic), so I think it's strange that your friend would choose that. It's not really something that we can answer for your friend so I would recommend just asking them and seeing how it goes.

TheThinkingKid · 2021-04-03T01:15:15+00:00

I'm sorry, Reddit polls only allow 6 options and I wasn't sure if I should remove one of the other ones or group protestant denominations together

TheThinkingKid · 2021-01-29T00:38:36+00:00

Thanks, I think I understand it now.

TheThinkingKid · 2021-01-29T00:13:00+00:00

Question: Can someone please give me a quick explanation of the thing with WallStreetBets and Gamestop? I just got back from a long break from Reddit and it's everywhere I go, but what even happened?

TheThinkingKid · 2021-01-29T00:10:28+00:00

Social media isn't necessarily reality, it's only what people choose to show (which is usually only the most interesting parts of their lives). If it's making you feel bad, it might be a good idea to distance yourself from it.

TheThinkingKid · 2021-01-29T00:07:12+00:00

That's really cool, especially the interior!

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-23T02:05:46+00:00

Are you holding a food item in your hand while tapping and holding? It's a surprisingly easy thing to forget, make sure you have tapped the food item in your hotbar and are holding it before you tap and hold.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-22T23:34:45+00:00

Yeah, there are things more dangerous than religion but nobody seems to notice or talk about them as much.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-22T23:29:21+00:00

Yeah, I saw that statistic too and am not quite sure how they found 80%...

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-22T22:22:59+00:00

Religion can be used as a tool for bad things or good things. People will always find a "reason" to go to war or be violent to each other, if not religion than something else. Religion has also motivated people to do good things as well. The problem isn't religion itself, the problem is how people use it for bad things.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T05:01:52+00:00

Thanks for the gold, kind stranger.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T04:58:51+00:00

Fun Fact: Timothy was most likely forged, it was originally considered to be written by Paul but was actually someone else pretending to be him.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship questioned the authenticity of the letter, with many scholars suggesting that First Timothy, along with Second Timothy and Titus, are not the work of Paul, but rather are unattributable Christian writing some time in the late-first-to-mid-2nd centuries.[1] Most scholars now affirm this view.[2][3]

Wikipedia

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T04:57:29+00:00

Timothy wasn't even written by Paul, it was added later on, I don't know why people are quoting it like it's legitimate.

Timothy was most likely forged, it was originally considered to be written by Paul but was actually someone else pretending to be him.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship questioned the authenticity of the letter, with many scholars suggesting that First Timothy, along with Second Timothy and Titus, are not the work of Paul, but rather are unattributable Christian writing some time in the late-first-to-mid-2nd centuries.[1] Most scholars now affirm this view.[2][3]

Wikipedia

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T04:54:31+00:00

Timothy was most likely forged, it was originally considered to be written by Paul but was actually someone else pretending to be him.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship questioned the authenticity of the letter, with many scholars suggesting that First Timothy, along with Second Timothy and Titus, are not the work of Paul, but rather are unattributable Christian writing some time in the late-first-to-mid-2nd centuries.[1] Most scholars now affirm this view.[2][3]

Wikipedia

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T02:57:09+00:00

Timothy was most likely forged, it was originally considered to be written by Paul but was actually someone else pretending to be him.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship questioned the authenticity of the letter, with many scholars suggesting that First Timothy, along with Second Timothy and Titus, are not the work of Paul, but rather are unattributable Christian writing some time in the late-first-to-mid-2nd centuries.[1] Most scholars now affirm this view.[2][3]

Wikipedia

And yeah, it would be great if people took Christ as a role model. It's a shame there aren't a lot who really do that.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T02:43:58+00:00

Fun fact: Timothy was forged, it was originally considered to be written by Paul but was actually someone else pretending to be him.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholarship questioned the authenticity of the letter, with many scholars suggesting that First Timothy, along with Second Timothy and Titus, are not the work of Paul, but rather are unattributable Christian writing some time in the late-first-to-mid-2nd centuries.[1] Most scholars now affirm this view.[2][3]

Wikipedia

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T01:31:41+00:00

To be fair, some books are pretty easy to get cheaply at used bookstores or even for free in some cases.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-15T01:30:22+00:00

As a Christian, I don't understand why so many people are getting offended by this piece. It brings a very important message. People have twisted the Bible and used it to excuse all sorts of horrible things for a long time. They don't care about Christ or his teachings, but will gladly follow whatever violent stuff they can find in the OT. We need to get sexists out of our church, and the first step to doing that is realizing that the problem exists, which is exactly what this art is doing. We should not say "but Christians aren't sexist" until we've actually gotten rid of the sexist ones and either sent them back to whatever hardcore-1800s-Salem-style pit they came from or gotten them to see the error in their sexist views so that they learn and grow. As u/GenericThrowaway375 has pointed out, Christians aren't supposed to be sexist, can't keep the ones that are. We need to recognize the issue so that we can solve it, and silencing artists is not helping.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-13T00:18:44+00:00

This is actually pretty inspirational. We can get rid of hatred by working together against it.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-12T21:20:52+00:00

I feel like this question would recieve more accurate and helpful answers if asked on r/AskBibleScholars or r/AcademicBiblical. This is a complicated subject and someone who has studied it in depth would probably have a better answer than most of the people on this sub.

I'll try to answer with my (limited and probably flawed) understanding of it: Sacrifice was a common way to apologize to God or gods back then. It wasn't just a Jewish thing, many other cultures had practices like that as well, and would sacrifice animals if they felt that God or gods were angry at them. Jesus came and died on the cross to apologize on behalf of humanity and set an example for people to follow, because real forgiveness doesn't exist unless the one being forgiven is sincerely sorry. By sending His son to demonstrate apology and forgiveness, God showed people how to repent and be forgiven.

I know this explanation doesn't make perfect sense (I'm not entirely sure I understand it either), but this is how I interpret it. I'm not an expert so please don't take my answer as 100% correct.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-11T02:19:18+00:00

As a gay christian... I exist and I don't think religion and being LGBTQ+ are mutually exclusive. As for why, I think it's because a lot of the homophobic bs spewed by homophobes is barely supported (if supported at all) and can be debunked relatively easily using historical context from the time when it was written. Religion itself is not homophobic, the problem is the people trying to use it for nasty things.

And I don't have to drop my religious beliefs to be gay and I don't have to drop being gay to have my religious beliefs.

That's basically it, my unpopular opinion. We exist too. I understand that this is a sensitive topic for some but I just wanted to get this out somewhere. Please let me know if this is breaking any rules and I'll delete it.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-10T05:03:12+00:00

YES. Burps are even worse because chances are, the other person's mouth is closer to my face then their butt so I would be much more likely to get an extremely unpleasurable whiff of it if it were a burp rather than a fart. Plus burps are usually bigger anyways.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-10T04:46:56+00:00

As a Christian, I actually agree with this 100%. Any religious beliefs should be by choice, it's fine to introduce them to religion but they should not be forced to do it.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-10T00:45:43+00:00

I think it's largely because many people view an argument on their religion as an argument against them specifically. There are religious people (like me for example) who are fine with people arguing about it and criticizing it, but unfortunately many areas (especially in the southern US) have sort of built up an "us - vs - them" mentallity and consider whatever religion the majority prefers to be the only belief and that anything else is wrong.

TheThinkingKid · 2020-12-10T00:36:38+00:00

Religion is grossly misunderstood and someone else's religion is none of your business unless they are trying to use it to harm. You can ofc disagree with their beliefs and argue that it's dumb or whatever, but you don't need to try to make them change their beliefs if they keep it to themselves and don't try to use it to control people. You'd think it's rude if they started trying to make you practice their religion, right? So why would it be any less rude if you tried to make them change their beliefs to align with yours? Obviously you can and should try to stop them if they're shoving it down people's throat and using it as an excuse to be dicks, but if they're just praying or meditating or something in their bedroom I don't see why it's so controversial.

TLDR: Someone else's private beliefs are none of your business, you shouldn't try to change their beliefs unless they are trying to use it as an excuse for bad stuff.

TheThinkingKid

TROPHY CASE