Believe Differently

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have had to change my mind on a whole number of matters. Perhaps, I am ashamed to say, one of the most difficult areas in which I have had to rethink is in respect to my attitudes toward gay persons. I would like to say that my homophobia was simply down to matters theological but I suspect it went deeper.

Developing a new theological perspective was not easy. I needed to do a lot of thinking and reading - and of course, praying. I purchased more than a few books from Amazon such that my logon page presented me with some “interesting” recommendations; a video entitled “Camp Fire” was one of my favourites.

After my first round of reading though, I still found it difficult to shift my position. I knew I wanted to believe something different about God and I knew I wanted my theology to be more homophile, but I could not shake the perspective that the Bible simply denounced homosexual relationships - or so I thought then. My reading had been interesting, and had shifted my understanding, but ultimately I still knew I was a long way short from where I thought I ought to be.

The break though came in prayer; the thought came to me that I had no idea how God evaluated relationship; my perspective was so very different to his. What I might label as dysfunctional because of what a gay couple might do with their bits, might be more functional, from God’s perspective, than say a heterosexual relationship where neither party showed the other any respect. I realize that this might not be a dramatic or earth shattering truth for you, but for me it changed everything. It was not that suddenly all my theological prejudices fell away over night, but that that initial thought represented a seed from which I was able to develop a whole new theological perspective. I realized I had to start my thinking all over again.

This is my first post under the category “Gay Thoughts”. It is my intention to develop here my current theological understanding. No line of thinking or thought happens in isolation though. Any new perspective concerning matters of gender that I have come to, are part of a much wider perspective I have had to adopt concerning a whole host of other matters. Blogs on this site will range over a wide field of ideas which I am hoping will crystallize in print as they have in my own mind. If you come to this blog late, please be sure to read around the other categories as much of my thinking under this category will be influenced by ideas I will have developed and filed elsewhere.