God Loves All

A friend of mine posted this photo on Pinterest the other day. Sadly, some people out there have said that God hates gays, and that is why this man made this sign. I don't believe that God hates gays, I believe that he loves everyone. There are so many verses in the Bible that talk about how God loves all people. In fact, the whole Bible is God's love story written to us. Some people probably think that by me writing this blog I am saying I hate gays, and that is 100% false. I do not love someone less based on their sexual identity. I also am not trying to be hateful in this blog. The goal is to explain what the Bible says because many Christians have gotten that wrong. If we all had it right, this man would not be holding up this sign. 

Here is a perfect example of God's love for all. This passage was written for Israel. I think it sounds a lot like a love letter from God to his people.

"But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
    Cush^[a] and Seba in your stead.
⁴ Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
    and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
    nations in exchange for your life." - Isaiah 43:1-4

I love this. Through every hard time, God will be there. God sees us as precious. God loves us. There is not one sentence that is filled with hate. God loves all.

Reply to Anonymous Comment

Hello readers! I wanted to reply to a comment on here so others could read it. Thank you to all who are voicing their opinions and partaking in dialogue with me on these topics! You and your opinions are appreciated! -Joy

Anonymous wrote this to me: Your entire premise of 'love the sinner hate the sin' is hurtful, and states that an entire part of someone's identity is wrong in the eyes of God. That could be a little upsetting. It shows that you haven't taken the time to sit down with someone who is gay and actually talk about their sexuality without trying to tell them that it's wrong or a sin. If you had done that, you would know that one person loving another person isn't a sin, even if they both happen to be of the same gender. Just listening to the other side can be helpful in so many situations, and I just think that this is one of them for you. You don't have to quote Jesus in people's faces. Put aside if it makes you uncomfortable and just listen to an LGBT person talk about their feelings, regardless of religion. I think you'll find there's very little sin involved.

My response: I actually have done that before. I have a couple friends who are a part of the LGBT community. I love getting to talk with them and I love even more listening to them because it does help me get to know them more. I also don't shove Jesus in their faces. The conversation of religion does come up occasionally, but I would never say straight to their face that they are a sinner, or be disrespectful. I love my gay friends. I love them just as much as my straight friends. Some of them, including both gay and straight, are Christians and some are not. For the ones who are not, it is not up to me for them to give their life to Jesus, that is between them and God.

I think I should have been more clear about one thing in this blog- looking at homosexuality as a sin only matters if a person is a Christian. If a person does not have a relationship with Jesus, then they would not understand this because the world's definition of sin and God's definition of sin are different. But if a person is a Christan and is gay, then you are right, maybe I should sit down with them and share with them where in the Bible it says homosexuality is a sin when acted upon. For this to happen, both sides need to be open to listening and trying to understand each other. I feel like each person could easily think the other was attacking them instead of loving them. If done in a right way I do think it is a good idea.

Also, you said, "my premise of 'love the sinner hate the sin' is hurtful, and states that an entire part of someone's identity is wrong in the eyes of God." As a Christian, someone's true identity is not their sexual orientation. My identity is not in the fact that I am a heterosexual. Yes, it is a part of me, just like the fact that I am a daughter, student, and friend are core to who I am, but they are not my identity. My identiy as a Christian includes 5 things all from 1 Peter 2:9-10:
1) I have been choosen by God
2) I am pitied by God
3) I am God's possession
4) I am a Holy Nation
5) I am a royal priesthood.
I think for Christians the term identity needs to be taken more seriously. Our identity is nothing of what we can do but all about what God did for us. (If you want to learn more about Christian Identity here is the article where I got this from: Article.)

Thank you again for your comments. I hope we will continue in this dialogue and be open and understanding together.

My Crazy Textbook

My textbook always portrays Christians in funny, inaccurate ways. This time it says Christians believe homosexual men can become heterosexuals by playing manly sports.

First lets talk about conversion therapy. The book states, "a more consequential example of conversion rhetoric designed to change a gender performance is the effort to cure homosexuality" (213). Then the book makes it sound like all Christians support this idea, and conversion therapy, and that is not the case. Dr. Rosaria Butterfield even stated that she did not support it in her lecture because the issue is not a sexuality issue, but an identity issue.

Then the book goes on to list activities that Christian organizations recommend for converting homosexual men to heterosexuals including:
-participating in sports
-avoiding activities such as art museams and operas
-spending more time with heterosexual men to learn their ways of walking, talking and interacting
-attending church

I want to say that as a Christian, I do not believe these things can change a person's sexuality. These things will only change the outside of a person, but will not change the heart. People can change whatever actions they want. They can stop doing what our society says is a "gay" action and do "heterosexual things", but this won't change their heart. Apart from Jesus, our hearts will never change, and we can never produce fruit in our lives.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." -John 15:5

Only though Jesus Christ could anyone have the strength and power to give up one lifestyle for another. Not by playing a manly game of football with other manly man, or by avoiding art museums. Actually, I hope  my husband likes to look at art, because that is one of my favorite things! And I won't think of him as any less of a man for enjoying it!

"I can do all things through Christ who give me strength." - Philippians 4:13

Transsexual Regrets Decision

Walt Heyer believes that no one can really change their gender. He tried to change from a man to a woman and realized it did not solve his heart issues. He had a rough childhood filled with neglect and abuse from his family. This made him wonder if he would be treated better if he was a girl. To me it seems like he was transitioning because of physiological and emotional abuse, not because he honestly felt like he was born in the wrong body.

As a teenager he took the female name Andrea West and began cross dressing. He says that he struggled against the feeling to be a women, but the feelings were something he could not turn off. He explained his sexuality, "I wasn't homosexual. I was having dates with girls, I never felt any desire to have relationships with men, so from the standpoint of my sexuality I was always heterosexual."

"That I think, too, is one of the...misleading factors. Most people consider transgenders to be homosexual and, from my experience...98 to 99 percent of the people who contact me are not homosexual...It's really a gender identity issue, not a sexual preference issue."

I think this is a great point he brings up. Just like Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, he talks about how his issue was not a sexual preference issue, but a identity issue. It is interesting to me that for both of them they had an identity issue when their identity was not in Christ. 

In the midst of his transition, he got married and had two children.

"But the difficulty that I faced was that I couldn't shut the thoughts or the feelings off," he said.

His identity issue was not fixed, even when he was living as a women. He still felt a void. He still felt something missing. He turned to alcohol and his life fell apart. He wife left him and he lost his job. But he kept making physical changes hoping it would fix things. He got breast implants, began taking hormones, had electrolysis to reduce the hair on his face, and he had his genitals removed. He gave himself the name Laura and lived like this for 8 years.

Then two things happened. He began studying psychology and experienced the love of Jesus. He said he learned that a person can't actually change genders and that he was delusional.
He explained that by saying, "You're not born transgender, something happens in your childhood that causes you to not want to be who you are...And today the only thing that is...socially acceptable is calling yourself a transgender."

He said that while he was Laura he believed in Jesus, but struggled to be accepted by the church. He did not have a personal relationship with him before, but he thought he existed. There is a big difference, and that difference is head verses heart knowledge. At some point he said he found a church that welcomed him and loved him. The pastor of that church told him, "Our job is to love you and it's God's job to transform you."


"The church, what it did for me was it allowed me to really get to the point where I asked the Lord for forgiveness. I began to pray for forgiveness. And I realized that the critical point is understanding that you can accept Jesus Christ, but there's a point where that doesn't become real...until you're walking with Christ," he said.

"Because the real truth that Christ is alive is the fact that you see a transformed life. And so what happened in my life is that when I finally... got down on my knees and was working through these things many years after I had accepted Christ – probably 10 to 15 years after I accepted Christ – I finally felt that I was broken enough as a man that I got on my knees and prayed."

Now Heyer says he no longer struggles with his gender identity, is married again, and found happiness in the gender God created him to be.


Original Article http://www.christianpost.com/news/transsexual-returns-to-original-gender-after-relationship-with-christ-66932/

Transgender Individuals

In class recently we have been talking a lot about transgender issues. We have watched two movies and a documentary about people who transitioned from either male to female or female to male. All of the stories we have discussed have ended in tragedy, usually the person is murdered. I found a woman whose story did not end in tragedy. Janet Mock is a transgendered woman, meaning she was born a man and transitioned to a women.
Here is a link to her website: 
http://janetmock.com/

Janet Mock is a writer, a transgender rights advocate, and the former staff editor of People magazine's website. She has degrees from the University of Hawaii and New York University’s graduate school of journalism. 

Q and A

Here are some of the questions asked by audience members at the lecture and some responses by Dr Rosaria. Some questions were asked multiple times in different ways, so I grouped the answers together. Keep in mind that I was taking notes, so everything is paraphrased. These are simply key points and takeaways from the lecture.

When did you convert from gay to straight?
-There are no conversions from gay to straight. The only conversion is a heart change that loves Jesus. The Christian answer to homosexuality is holiness. Love the sinner, hate our own sin. God didn't reveal his son to me to make me a wife and mother.

Can a practicing Christian be a practicing homosexual?
-Repentance is so important in the Christian life. Christians struggle with all temptations, but temptations are not sins. Jesus was tempted in every way. What you do with the temptations lead to sin. Yes they can be a Christian and struggle with homosexual thoughts and tendencies, but if they are choosing to stay in that lifestyle they don't fully understand the gospel. A person can not be repentive and have opposing views of the Bible, meaning they believe the Bible is not 100% true or has a holy origin. Sin only makes sense with a holy God. Our world views sin differently than Christians. God calls sin any part that is not submitted to Jesus. We have to obey even if we don't know why something is a sin. Adam and Eve were told to not eat the fruit, but they did not understand why. They ate it anyway and sinned.

The old testament also says we can't wear cotton and wool?
-She made a comment about how she is wearing yoga pants. We don't have to follow the old testament laws anymore, thus we don't follow the death penalty for homosexuality. Homosexuality is not the biggest sin. I do not defend or support discrimination. Homosexuality and homophobia are equal sins.

Audience member said that suppressing homosexual desires is damanging.
-God made you and God takes care of you. I appeal to a higher authority.

Did you let your sexual identity define yourself?
-Yes, I guess I did.

Many people asked about the Bible.
-If you don't read the Bible, you can't talk about it or defend it. When we read it we need to compare scripture. We need to read it in the context of who wrote it. A holy, flawless, timeless, and sovereign God would not create a book that was flawed or would condemn a whole people group. People in the Bible are not accused with out a gift of grace. This does not mean that heterosexuality is the solution to homosexuality. We are at fault for making an aggressive binary. Take away for tonight- your soul matters. Read the bible and decide for yourself.

A female audience member stated that going against their gay nature is going against how God created them, and thus being with a man would be a sin.
-Romans 1 does not define human nature. Genesis 2 does. We are all made in God's image. We are all born in original sin, and that sin is different for each person. "If sin doesn't feel good, you are doing it wrong." (Yes, that is a direct quote from the evening.)

Dr Rosaria Butterfield Lecture (Part 1)

          On Monday night Police officers stood guard as students, faculty, and outsiders entered the MSC  Oval Theater. Dr. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was introduced, and then she walked onto the stage. Many different people were in the audience including: homosexuality supporters, Christianity supporters, and some supported both. For some people, the shirt they wore placed them on a side, when the point of the lecture was to have a conversation, not a debate. Dr. Butterfield told her story of conversion to Christianity and then offered up the floor for a question and answer session.
          Dr. Butterfield told her story beautifully, as if she was reading poetry. She was open and honest about her life. Not soon after she began her talk the front row of students stood up and took off an outer shirt to expose a white t-shirt with a saying written on it. Some included: you don't have to change, love wins, Rosaria does not speak for us, and more. They wrote these messages on their shirts before they even heard Rosaria speak. My question is, how would they have known what she was going to say? I think they made an assumption that her words were going to be hateful and rude to any person who identifies as a homosexual. This is completely understandable, since the media sometimes falsely and sometimes accurately portrays Christians in this light. Then as soon as she was done sharing her story they walked out peacefully and did not stay to ask questions or listen. I respect their opinions. I respect their right that they respectfully and silently protested, but I think they should have at least listened to her words. Rosaria was in their shoes before. She would have hated her new self only a few years ago. She said nothing disrespectful because she was that person.
    What saddened me most about the night was the way the Christian group who planned the event did nothing to show their love and support for the students. Upon exiting the lecture the LGBT club and other organizations had tables with info set up, were playing happy music, and were there if people needed to talk. I believe that the Christian group should have done the same thing. In Dr. Butterfield’s book she talks about one of the hardest parts of leaving her past lifestyle was leaving the community. The LGBT community is like nothing I've ever experienced, even in the many church communities I have been a part of. They care for people and accept people in a way that is hard to describe. I had heard this from Dr. Butterfield’s book, but it wasn't until I saw it for myself that I understood. They gave hugs and passed out notes of encouragement to everyone walking out of the lecture. Christians could learn a lot about love,  acceptance and community from them. As a Christian, I need to learn how to truly welcome everyone.
    There are many things I learned from this lecture. I walked away heavy hearted and honestly saddened. This topic is so heavy, but I think the heart of the topic is love. It made me really ask myself am I loving people like Jesus did? Is the church? Jesus loves everyone. He loves everyone who was in that lecture no matter what their beliefs are. I have to take a look at my life and ask myself if I am also loving everyone the way Jesus does.

Love the person, not the sin.

We live in a fallen world, so what can we do?

We can love. We can love people who have the same sins as us, we can love people who have different sins than us. We can love people who are Christians, we can love people who are not. That's what we can do.  We can also hate the sin, but love the sinner.

Homosexuality is a sin, but it is not the heart issue for the person. I am a sinner, and Christians still love me. We have to do the same for others. We have to love them no matter what. 

The world's definition of sin is completely different than the Bible's definition of sin.  The Bible describes sin as the breaking, or transgression, of God's law (1 John 3:4). It is also defined as disobedience or rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7), as well as independence from God. The original translation means "to miss the mark" of God's holy standard of righteousness.

" ⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." -1 John 3:4-6
 
As a Christian, I have to hold fast to my beliefs from the Bible even in this always changing world. Marriage is between a man and a women, but I am not the judge of people who choose to live outside of this. That is only for God to do. Our job as Christians is to show Jesus Christ to others by our love.

Halloween in the Binary

What an interesting video. The actors are playing a situation in which a boy wants to dress up as a princess for Halloween and his mom does not want him to. I wonder what I would do in this situation. Would I let my son dress like a princess? Would I be like one of the other moms and say it is just a phase and suggest he picks out a different costume? Our kids are placed in the binary, even in what Halloween costumes they get to choose from.


What is interesting is the girls are starting to break that binary. Girls are allowed to be super heros now, but only if they wear a skirt. Boys still do not have princess costumes made especially for them. I wonder if our world will ever begin to do that.