#but the ppl who are homophobic aren't reading a different book | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hunterinabrowncoat · 4 years

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1) hey, i was wondering how you personally make sense of the passages in the bible that are often used to justify homophobia. i'm trying to read them now + having a hard time both w/ conservative interpretations (that i don't agree w/) but also more progressive readings because some of them, to me, make just as little sense, not so much in their conclusion that queer ppl aren't to be condemned but more in that i don't see the text supporting this without sometimes extensive cherry picking. is

2) that something you ever struggle w/, and if so, how do you reconcile those passages w/ your faith and trust in god? have you found an interpretation that works for you? when i read those parts (and many others that include violence etc) or i think of the history of the church as an institution, all i can think is "how can i support this, how can this be my faith, i don't want to listen to this". have you found a way to own those things and make them yours, especially as a queer person, in

3) a way that still makes you feel confident and comfortable to say you're a christian? (genuine question!)

Hi anon,

It sounds like you’re well on your way in a deconstruction journey. For many people that starts with questioning Biblical interpretations of things that affect them very personally like passages about sexuality.

I understand your fears about cherry-picking. I was so terrified when I started my deconstruction journey because all the conservative people seemed to have these really deep theological arguments for why everything had to be the way it is, but people who were more left-leaning and had more liberal interpretations of the texts always seemed so much more relaxed about it. It seemed as though the conservatives were really serious about Biblical interpretation, and left-leaning people didn’t take the Bible seriously. And yet as a queer, trans person I couldn’t ignore the reality that I just could not believe God would condemn me for being me.

But this is all based on the idea that taking the Bible seriously means taking it literally. If you’re anything like me the faith tradition you’re coming from probably tells you that taking the Bible literally is how you take it seriously. But that’s blatantly untrue.

And so is the whole idea of Biblical Literalism. For starters there are lots of contradictions in the Bible itself. One book will tell you there were x amount of people there, another book will tell you there was y amount of people there. Genesis 1 gives one account of the timeline of creation, and Genesis 2 gives another.

There’s also no getting around what are often referred to as the ‘Texts of Terror’ – passages like the ones you’ve described that portray God as seemingly violent and tyrannical. Whole nations are wiped out on his command. Salves are taken, people are raped, people are slaughtered, and countless other horrors – seemingly all in God’s name.

Either we believe that God is love, and also everything in the Bible is literally true, in which case the embodiment of love itself involves punishing people with violence and wiping out entire nations and torturing your own children forever.

Or we believe that God isn’t very loving and is a violent tyrant.

…Or we can accept that the Bible is not a historical textbook. It’s full of poetry and imagery and literary devices that were common at the time and in the culture those texts were written. It’s a bunch of texts written by countless different people, all trying to make sense of life and its messiness and who and what God is and what that means for them. And understanding that doesn’t mean that you don’t take it seriously. It just means you aren’t expecting things from it that it was never meant to deliver.

Maybe the people who wrote those homophobic passages were just… homophobic. Or maybe those passages have been grossly mistranslated or misinterpreted over time. I’m not a scholar. I’m just a queer person who knows that God loves all of me, and God delights in my queerness.

If you’re interested in reading further about the subject, I’d highly recommend the book ‘Inspired’ by Rachel Held Evans. There are lots of other books about Biblical interpretation and deconstruction of Evangelicalism or conservative Christianity, but that’s one of the few that I’ve actually got around to reading, and I found it really helpful.

I would also recommend the book ‘Religious Refugees’ by ***. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a pretty solid guide for someone going through the deconstruction journey and coming to terms with a loss of faith in some way or another. You might also find the #Exvangelical hashtag on twitter quite useful if you use twitter much. There’s a whole community of people out there just like you and I who have done or are doing a lot of questioning and leaving behind conservative and fundamentalist faith traditions.

In all honesty, I’m not sure ifI can say I’m a Christian anymore. I guess that depends how you define it. My 14-year-old feverent Evangelical self would be absolutely horrified to see what I believe and how I’m behaving now and probably would say I’m not a Christian at all.

I wrote a blog post about it a while ago. You might find it helpful, idk.

https://dreamsandimaginations.wordpress.com/2020/10/25/on-the-other-side-of-deconstruction/?fbclid=IwAR3nKUaOm6r8bkXphtCAelwcFhdEclx0mYUVI0vik7C-LGjh3hjeRsYQs6Q

#ask #anon #reply #christianity #queer issues #lgbt stuff #religion #faith tag

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