christianity and LGBT

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Funny--Quakers are quite LGBT friendly in Canada from my understanding. They were one of the religious groups to endorse same-sex marriage.

Well, Quakers are not a homogeneous whole. Most British Quakers identify as liberal and Britain Yearly Meeting has also supported same-sex marriage. In the US there are several different flavours of Quakerism including Pastoral Friends and Conservative Friends. The spectrum of social opinion among US Friends is much wider than in the UK.

There is also a difference between the publicly-stated positions of the national Quaker organisations and the behaviour of individual Quakers in its meetings. In my own former meeting it was quite clear that certain elders were TG hostile, despite their own protestations to the contrary. This is worse than the behaviour of extreme Christian evangelicals, most of whom will actually own up to their views, however bigoted they are. Alas some Quakers of my acquaintance seem impelled to appear tolerant in public but behave intolerantly in private.

It's particularly bad when it's an elder who is hostile because, at least in the UK, Quakers are hopelessly inept at dealing with conflicts in heir own meetings. There is an unwritten rule that nobody is supposed to criticise anyone else, with the result that bigoted elders are never held to account. I know of one Quaker who has been involved in persecuting at least four Quaker MtFs. She should have been kicked out years ago ... but some of us are working on it ...

I would also say that there is an inherent bias against aspies, not on doctrinal grounds, but because we can appear cold and unfeeling and lots of Quakers are quite good empathisers. I've had a lot of flak from Quakers about this and it contributed to my decision to abandon them for the Buddhists.

Buddhism asks its followers not to engage in sexual misconduct but leaves it to them to decide what constitutes such misconduct. Generally conduct would be held to be unethical if it causes suffering to others.

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I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha

... mainly because I need it ...

I am a devot methodist my church is divided when it comes to the LGBT communit I for one support them while the older memmebers of my church do not but the younger generation does.

This speaks today to modern-day "Christians":

Romans 2:17-24, Aramaic Bible in Plain English


-of which I am one. (Who has accepted my bisexuality and believes in faith that I am under grace, in Christ.)



The only conclusion or reconciliation that I can find between my faith and my orientation is found in the promise that the acceptance of the gift of Christ - who was & is the fulfillment (he satisfies it on our behalf) of The Written Law - puts us in the position of being covered by God's grace.


And as for the topic of the way someone is, from birth:



John 9:1-3, Aramaic Bible in Plain English



Substitute "gay" or "trans" or any other from-birth "difference" that you wish, and this becomes an eye-opener.

Call it "Jesus On Being Born Different And 'Sin,'" if you wish. *shrugs*

That sounds like a very interesting translation. I wonder why it's only available in dead-tree form?

(edit) Doh, just found the online edition.

One can get much the same sense from other translations such as the New English Bible.

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I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha

*nods* Mostly the same - but I read an article that convinced me that the books of the New Testament likely weren't originally written in Greek (as I'd always heard and been taught, growing up) at all, but rather in Aramaic. (And then translated to Greek.)

Checking out the difference in a translation of the verse of Romans 5:7, for instance - (a verse that had always baffled and consternated me) from the traditional Greek to English, vs. Aramaic to English - convinced me. (There are other historically compelling reasons, too. It wasn't just how much more sense that verse makes that convinced me.)

The real problem with the Christian Bible is less that some translations are not from the Aramaic but that so many other gospels were left out. See, for example, Ehrman, Bart, "Lost Christianities", Oxford University Press. ...

... but I sense that this is getting a little off-topic ...

... and as Buddhist I leave the Bible to people who think it's important ...

That is so funny!

Why are the "homosexuality is a sin"-people post here when this is clearly a forum for lgbt-people?

The homophobia brigade are here because they think it's their business to tell people how to live. I wouldn't encourage them to go away ... because it's such good sport taking the piss out of them ... :-O