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Sharing Your Faith as an LGBTQ Christian
By: Wilma Ditterline
When asked to write on the topic of sharing your faith
as a gay Christian I had to take a step back and think
about it. I mean, how have I shared my faith since I came
out less than a year ago? I have to admit I haven’t
had many opportunities to do so lately and unfortunately,
the opportunities I had, I backed away from. I was scared.
Why? Because I wasn’t firm yet in who I was. I was
still figuring out how to live an openly gay lifestyle
and didn’t know how to combine the two aspects of
myself. So, before anything else happened, I first had
to figure out how to put these parts of my identity back
together and see how they interacted. I had to take the
time to pursue and study the experiences of others and
piece together my own so I could understand that I wasn’t
alone; that I was okay exactly where I was. I found out
I could love God and be gay at the same time.
Shoo…okay, now that I had that part figured out
it was time to put it into play. Actually, maybe it’s
now time to put it into play. I’m walking through
this journey with you and continuously learning how to
be bold and stand for what I believe in.
You know, being a part of the gay Christian community
is not always easy. Not only do we have to explain why
we are gay, but we have to explain how we can be Christian
and gay. So, within all of these questions and confusions
we get from everyone around us, how do we learn to share
our faith adequately? I think it has to start first by
what I recently figured out: by knowing and being confident
in our own identities and foundations. From there, we
can take the opportunities to share and not only do we
have to be firm enough in our foundations to share with
unbelievers, but we also have to “know our stuff”
in order to share and explain with the believers around
us who do question our faith and motives.
So, what do we do? How can we possibly share our faith
and be who we are without being beaten down? I have learned
that humility will go a long way. I’ve had to learn
to not be defensive in the line of fire and not sound
like a know-it-all. Our attitudes may be everything whether
or not we know the answers. With non-believers we may
actually have it easier because they see that we’re
not like many Christians they have known. So many people
seem to not believe in God because they see the legalism
and hypocrisy in many of the Christians around them. I
realized early on that my less traditional beliefs gave
me the advantage with unbelievers because they could see
that I lived life with integrity and joy; many knew I
was a Christian and appreciated that I didn’t throw
it on them. Letting my actions speak for my faith has
seemed to pay off. There have been several moments where
coworkers have come to me to tell me they know I’m
a Christian, but I’m different, and then they would
ask why. What an opening?!
From this opening it’s pretty easy to tell them
about how I view God as a God of love and acceptance.
He’s changed my life and given me strength to get
through. This part for me has always been the easy part;
it’s just sharing my heart and testimony. The harder
part comes when you’re challenged, especially when
it comes to the Bible. So, make sure you continue seeking
the truth. I never have all the answers, but I try my
best. It would take too long to write about all of the
foundational things we need to know in order to share
our faith so I’ll leave you with this: since you’re
probably reading this identifying as part of the LGBTQ
community, make sure you check out Kori’s article
What does the Bible actually say about homosexuality?
I have a small feeling that this might just be something
we’re going to be challenged on for quite some time
especially with believers. So, stay strong in who you
are and your foundation and keep searching, but overall,
know your heart and who you are.
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DO NOT REPRODUCE © NEW DIRECTION
MINISTRIES / BRIAN PENGELLY
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