Relearning the Christian faith.

April 6, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

For better or worse I am launching another project that has been lurking in my consciousness and blogosphere for more than a year.  Today, a Gay & Christian Catechism is born (www.gaycatechism.net).

In our times, many lesbian and gay people–or really, sexual minorities of all kinds— know the basic teachings of the Christian faith.  We know about God, the Bible, Jesus, salvation, etc.  We grew up with some religious instruction, in many different Christian denominations.

The Gay Catechism has been written with young adults and adults in mind — to help LGBTQ people who have already come to terms with being a sexual minority person, but now want to come to terms with the Christian faith which has harmed us deeply since we came out to ourselves or others.

For even though many of us had Christian instruction or catechesis as children and teenagers, at some point we walked away from the church and from God.  Some of us even fled from the churches in which we were instructed as children and in which we once had found love, comfort and belonging.

After coming to terms with our sexuality and gender identity, feelings of insecurity, unworthiness, fear or even outright terror simply eclipsed all other aspects of the Christian faith.  In the process of coming to awareness about our sexual orientation or gender identity, and the “coming out” process, it didn’t seem to matter that we had once learned and believed that:

• God is love
• all sins can be forgiven
• we are accepted by God because of God’s grace, not because of our good deeds.

The secondary message which was being taught to us both privately and publicly, was that we are unloved, worthless, and damned.  And this secondary message seemed to erase everything loving, everything good and hopeful and reassuring we had once learned.

Because of this tragedy, two other even worse effects have captivated many sexual minority persons:  many have abandoned all forms of spirituality, thinking that the only thing real is material—wealth, power, pleasure, food, drugs and good times.  And others have simply committed suicide because of the profound suffering they experienced in their spiritually dystonic state:  “God loves everybody, except me.”

From my Mission Statement:

The mission of the Gay Catechism project and this site is to provide a simple framework in which LGBTQ Christians can re-understand their faith with honesty and integrity, and to enable more of God’s children to come home to their faith.

The mission of the Gay Catechism is not to convince hateful, rejective and punitive Christians to change their mind about LGBTQ Christians, although this occasionally happens.  Sadly, most of them have their answers and their answer books, well-rehearsed and cemented into their consciousness so rigidly that they cannot hear a new truth or listen to a different voice.

Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8:22) and he was speaking about those who were so stuck in spiritual concrete that they could not accept his teaching and follow his lead.  Those who believe that their view of Christ’s teaching is so complete, so perfect, so flawless, are actually in danger of missing his teaching, for he speaks to us in the Bible as a spiritual teacher of enormous openness and flexibility.

So, here goes.  I will keep updating the new site, adding topics according to an outline I’m developing, with bits from Luther’s Small Catechism, from biblical, contemporary and even secular sources.  I would appreciate your feedback.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Gay Catechism, Doctrine, Bible & Interpretation, LGBT Christian, Faith | Print | No Comments »