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-- in fact, you're the strongest Queer Christian you can be when
you keep to God's Word too!
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About us
Info about who we
are, & what we believe |
Welcome to
GayBibleChristians.org!
[what is
a "Bible Christian?"]
Loving, teaching, & strengthening God's
Queer
Christian people since
2003 |
Gay Christians: living & loving the Bible!
If anyone
thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his
tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is
worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our
God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their
distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
(James 1:26-27)
Ways you can help this ministry:
Help others understand the true freedom and power in
accepting God's Word -- and only God's Word -- as
their spiritual guide
Speak up for all of us as beloved children of God the next
time someone demeans Queer people
Abandon the human inventions of "right wing" and "left wing"
-- and put yourself instead under God's wing! |
Most Frequently Asked Questions of our site
"What is a 'Bible
Christian'?"
A brief definition useful here is:
A "Bible Christian" is someone who accepts and
believes the Bible, as Jesus and the apostles
taught it, and not human tradition or
decision, should have ultimate authority in our
lives.
That means that if our pastor, family, friends, or
denomination tells us to do or believe something that the Bible doesn't say or even speaks
against, then we go with what the Bible - and not
what our pastor, family, friends, or church - teaches.
Why would we want to trust the Bible before human
tradition or rules? Because
the Bible gives us a
foundation of truth that human opinion and
theorizing can never give. It was human beings and
human tradition, for example, that until fairly
recently said the Bible
"proves" people of African ancestry are "cursed"
and should be subject to and considered "less than" people of European
ancestry in God's eyes. The Bible never said that, and anyone who
put its authority before human authority would not
accept that false interpretation - and they could
have used the Bible to prove the whole idea
was false.
Now,
there are people who claim to put
Bible-authority before human authority
- such are
many who abuse and condemn Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender, and other people, in fact.
But a
closer look also quickly reveals errors in how they are
using, understanding, or interpreting Scripture. For
example, the misuse of Romans 1 as if it were a
condemnation of gay people completely misses that
Paul was writing not about gay people, but
about pagan straight people who had
intentionally rejected God so deeply that they did
all sorts of things for "kicks" that even their own
bodies wouldn't naturally do - including sexual acts
with people of their same sex. Does the sexual act
define the sexual orientation? Of course not!
Otherwise, there would only be a handful of gay people in
the world today, since most gay people at one or
more times in their lives participate in
opposite-sex sexual acts, trying to conform to a
homophobic society's "rules". So claiming Romans 1
condemns gay people is a clear misinterpretation and
misapplication of Scripture - no matter how
"biblical" one claims to be in one's use of
Scripture living and understanding.
Therefore,
we add that using good Bible-study and
interpretation practice is also required to
be a true "Bible Christian".
Otherwise, despite what
it's being called, it still isn't the Bible - but
once again human tradition or decision - that is
really running our "spiritual game"! Are any of us
"perfect" in our understanding and interpretation of
Scripture? No, of course not. But we know that even
though good ball players also drop the ball,
they do so far less often, and then recover with far
more speed and accuracy, than bad ball
players ever do. Therefore, we
practice-practice-practice - and require the same of
those who guide and teach us - so that our lives and
spiritual understanding are led by good Bible
use, and not bad!
"What makes you different
from other Gay Christian websites?
Three things, mainly:
Money:
We pay for all expenses related to this site
ourselves, and refuse to accept even donations.
Freely we've received, so freely we give (Matthew
10:8), all for the glory and profit of God
and not ourselves, for the Word of God was never
intended to be a money-making scheme or career path!
Apostolic:
We hold to the teachings of the apostles, because
they were the ones who were taught first-hand by
Jesus Himself. We reject
later additions to Christian belief as generated by human sin and,
sometimes, even demonic intervention, all added one
or more centuries after the apostles, when pagan
ideas began to mesh with Christian truths. That means we
also reject clerical careerism, the so-called
"prosperity gospel", combining anything of this
world with the gospel (including "patriotism") as if
God (not human beings) had put them together, and
more. Our writings detail why.
Whole-Bible:
We hold to, defend, and preach the whole of
God, as revealed in all of the Bible. Liberal
Christianity often overemphasizes the New Testament
at the expense of the Old, while conservative
Christianity often overemphasizes the Old Testament
at the expense of the New. Neither approach
reveals the true God of gentle love, unending
understanding, awesome justice, and supreme holiness
shown in the whole of the Bible.
"Are you right-wing? Are
you left-wing?"
Actually, we are both - and neither, at the same
time!
For example:
We do agree with things like "God inspired the
Bible" and the Virgin Birth - things liberals tend
to reject. However, we also agree with things like
"God is interested in social justice" - things
conservatives tend to reject.
We do accept the infallibility of the Bible and what
it has to teach all people - but we insist that
infallibility comes in the meaning of Scripture as
GOD gave it to us, in its original languages
and contexts. We believe that confusion, prejudice,
bias, and outright false teaching appears as human
beings have variously re-interpreted the Scripture
in "translation".
We believe that God does call us to holy living -
but we believe that "holiness" practiced on the
outside, but not the inside, leads to hypocrisy,
judgmentalism, and sugar-coated evil. And we believe
that a sincere loving heart is the first proof of
true holy, Holy Spirit, living.
"How can you be 'Bible
Christians' and gay? Doesn't the Bible condemn gay
people?"
No, the Bible, as GOD gave it to us in its
original languages and contexts, does NOT condemn gay people!
And it's
through our love for and study of the Bible
that we find reassurance that God loves and saves
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people
just as much as He does straight people!
Unfortunately, centuries of mistranslation and
biased human reinterpretation of the Scriptures have
misled many straight and LGBT people into believing
God condemns us. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit has in
recent years begun to remove this sinful veil from more and
more eyes, allowing more of His people to see the
truth of God's love and salvation available to all
people who trust in Jesus Christ!
"Your writings are
copyrighted -- can we use them in our ministry and
studies?"
Our writings are copyrighted to prevent them
being used for anyone's profit but God's.
Sadly, as we all know, there are many in the world
-- both straight and Queer -- who use God's
Gospel to make money (whether a lot or a little),
power a clerical "career", run a business, and so
on. This was also true in ancient times, as we can
see reading about people in the Bible who took what
God freely offers to all, and, while pretending to
do God's work, instead used it to benefit themselves
in one way or another. Today there are also
individuals, companies, and ministries who grab what
they can from the web, and then sell or promote
those things either alone or as part of a "package"
of their "own" books, CDs, zip files, work, and more.
None of this uses the work for the good that God or
the author intended.
When we first began putting teachings on the web, we
were warned to copyright everything so we'd retain
legal and financial control over them. -- and so we
have. However, nothing in our copyright is
meant to prevent the sincere use of our writings by
any sincere individual or small study group not
described in the last paragraph!
Therefore:
If you are an individual doing your own study (or an
unpaid Bible-teacher doing LOCAL, small-group study
for a few students at a time),
you are free to download, forward, and use our
writings, as long as you use them as we wrote
them, and for the purposes we've posted them.
That means if you print or forward them on to
someone else, you print/forward them as we wrote
them, and in full -- no re-writing or chopping it
up; no removing our copyright, website name, or weblink from it; no selling it (for ANY amount,
even a tiny one, for
ANY purpose); and no adding it (in whole or part) to
another website, book, CD, collection, archive, and
so on.
If you are an individual, or any part of a church,
ministry, company, and so on, and wanting to use any
of our writings for or with others,
you may use our writings IF you meet ALL the
following conditions:
-
They are PRINTED out -- NOT forwarded over the
internet or passed out on a CD, for example,
-
They
are
used in full, as we wrote them, and for the
purposes we've posted them,
-
They are used for less than a dozen students,
and,
-
You
charge absolutely nothing for them -- not even a
small fee for reproducing them.
Any other use not specified above, or agreed
to in writing, in advance, with
us is stealing -- plain and simple!
If you want to use our writings in some way we don't
already agree to above
(for example, you have fifty students, or
want to charge a small fee to copy these for your
students), or
if you have any other questions or concerns about
our copyright,
simply
email us and ask!
Thank you for visiting the Gay Bible Christians
website! |
