I feel that there are some interesting parallels in this article between the journey of this young queer woman and us in the StayLDS crowd. (I'm not 100% sure what queer means in this context but the author uses the descriptor, so I will too)
I find this interesting in part because I feel that a person could be gay and Christian. There are different flavors of Christianity and some are more accepting of openly gay members. However, for the individual, I imagine that the experience of Christianity could be forever tainted by the particular church and Christian associations from your formative years.Growing up queer in a religious home was never easy. I didn't come out until my early 20s and had been living away from home for about four years. I had stopped going to church at that point, and the echoes of the warnings I'd heard all my life that gay people are damned for all eternity had faded.
I think that her studies exposed her to many many examples of people claiming to speak for God and then using that authority to do bad things. I also imagine that there are also plenty of examples of religious organizations behaving badly from a collective standpoint. I'm sure that could sour an individual on the whole proposition. I still think that a person could believe in Jesus while largely disavowing the whole movement that came to call itself Christianity. However, I can also understand why she might be suspect of the entire story. As in, Why does the Christian founding story/myth have any greater validity than that of any other religion.Ironically, my bachelor's degree in religious studies was what finally killed my belief in a creator God and organized religion.
Yes, indeed.Whereas when I was first struggling with my sexuality all I felt was anger, I now see the importance of church for my parents and what it brings to their lives. Until last year, it was literally my dad's whole life. I now find, especially at Christmas, that there's a certain comfort in the familiarity of the music and the stories that I've learned to enjoy in my own atheist way.
Lots of ideas and ways to add meaning or context to mans place in the universe. There is beauty and hope to be found there ... mixed in with some rubbish too.Navigating these conversations will be challenging, and as our son grows up and perhaps shows more interest in their beliefs, we will have to adapt. I don't want to tell him that I think my parents are wrong, but I will tell him that theirs is just one of the many ways that humans understand the universe.