Queers as backslidden, or more accurately, fake Christians?
Background: A few conservative Christians have filled out feedback forms against QueerMe's book Embraced By God that have tried to say that queers cannot be Christians because they’re such terrible sinners. Hmmm…it sounds like they’ve pre-judged the question! Oh well, I’ll be a pal and try to help them by stating their case better than any of them has yet set it forth in their comments to QueerMe.
The best-ever Conservative Christian attack:
Yeah, I’m good, but it so happens that even with
QueerMe’s editorial assistance, there are still major problems with the best-ever
Conservative Christian attack. Foremost is the assumption that Scripture
categorically rejects all queer sexual activity as immoral. Such assumptions are
less than obvious, especially if one honestly tries to understand the relevant
Bible verses from all points of view (note: I'm arguing here from within
Conservative Christianity, for I am leaving unchallenged the highly debatable
notion that any book could actually be "The Word of God"--or even to
examine the extremely different notions of what such a designation has meant to
key theologians throughout Church history). Similarly, the best-ever attack
passes judgment on the Spirit, claiming that the conservative Christian is a
better judge of sin than God the Holy Spirit.
As for the Scripture debate, go back and actually read my book. If you’ve still got honest questions, write me and I’ll go over them with you. Regarding the Spirit’s leading in queer Christians’ lives, how dare anyone say that we are not being led by the Spirit! How could someone determine such a thing, especially since very few conservative Christians have ever made any effort to actually get to know persons claiming to be queer Christians?
What if—go ahead and put on your
thinking caps—the very reason queer Christians aren’t being convicted of sin
is because the Spirit actually approves of queers being involved in healthy
queer relationships?! If your response is “NO WAY!”, then I must ask how you
determined such to be the case—and why won’t you read my book?
Seriously, I know from my upbringing that the conservative Christian mind is
afraid, even terrified, of reading books that confront their indoctrination. In
such a mindset, the only thing that matters is maintaining the belief system
against outside attackers, and such attackers are viewed as being the puppets of
Satan—liars taught by the Father of Lies. This is how the conservative
mind shields itself from honest discussion, for how can one have an open mind
when one’s debate opponent is ultimately deemed to be Satan himself?
With such a worldview of being in a cosmic battle against the forces of Satan (i.e., queers and their cloven hoofed pals), it’s no surprise that most conservative Christians won’t even consider the topic of queer ethics. Nevertheless, I must challenge such ignorance and demand to know how they can claim to authoritatively know that there are no ethical possibilities for healthy queer relationships, for unless you pre-judge the scripture verses in question, the support for such queer-bashing doesn’t exist. The true moral absurdity is that the very people who spend their Sundays condemning queers for being sexually promiscuous, spend their weekdays trying to keep the government from ever allowing queers to marry one another. If you want to read more on the question of ethics, read section four of my book.