Why do gay Christians keep faith with the Church?

David Gibson at AOL's Politics Daily:

As America's leading Christian denominations are once again feuding and splitting over whether they should allow gays and lesbians to marry, or ordain them as clergy, is it a miracle there are any gay Christians? Given Christianity's history of exclusion and often outright homophobia, and the current bloodletting over their role, why do homosexuals bother staying, not to mention believing?

They do both in numbers that might surprise you: A new survey of 9,000 gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans from George Barna, a well-known evangelical pollster, showed that 70 percent of gay adults describe themselves as Christian and 60 percent say their faith is "very important" in their lives. Granted, those figures are lower than the population as a whole, which register 85 and 70 percent on those rankings, respectively. But Barna, himself a Bible-believing, born-again Christian, points out that the numbers demonstrate that "popular stereotypes about the spiritual life of gays and lesbians are simply wrong."

"People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts," Barna said. "A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a central facet of their life, consider themselves to be Christian, and claim to have some type of meaningful personal commitment to Jesus Christ active in their life today."

Politics Daily has more.

Posted by Jim Naughton on August 12, 2009 3:41 PM | |
Comments (3)

many cultures throughout history have seen gay persons as shamans - maybe there is a relationship between sexual minority and spirituality

Posted by Ann Fontaine [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 12, 2009 3:57 PM

We stay because Jesus first loved us and we love Jesus. I don't keep faith with the Church, I have faith in Christ.

Posted by Christopher Evans [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 12, 2009 5:14 PM

Christopher has it. When I came out 10 years ago and had to consciously decide where I would put my faith -- Church or Christ -- I chose the latter and was "born again."

At times, I am very aware that if my focus on ecclesiastical structure is for my own gain ("It's my faith right, dammit!"), I get very angry. However, if my focus is on those who have not yet joined us and those yet to come, I have a mission.

Posted by Kevin Johnson [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 13, 2009 5:28 PM

Add your comments

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Reminder: At Episcopal Café, we hope to establish an ethic of transparency by requiring all contributors and commentators to make submissions under their real names. For more details see our Feedback Policy.

Advertising Space