So I'm Out...

So I'm Out...

So I’m out of the “questioning” closet now after my 40th birthday.  I shared it all on FB and Insta and it went well. I’ve had an incredible amount of deep interactions with friends, family and more since sharing it. I shared the project on Friday and decided that I would go to church on Saturday and share as I saw fit. I shared my thoughts and questions honestly, openly and respectfully and…it went really well.

In a conservative Adventist church in New England I stated that I don’t believe that it’s our place to judge homosexuals, that it’s not ok or right for us to try and “pray it out of them”, or tell them that thier sexual preference is displeasing to God. I stated that I believed that we should re-examine and ultimately do away with the Adventist view on homosexuality, that it was in my opinion a “cultural” belief from a more primitive, hypocritical and patriarchal biblical culture that we are hanging onto that is literally killing people and separating them from a relationship with God. I shared that they are genuine, loving, feeling, spiritual people just like us with just as much right to God as we have. It’s a disgrace that we would hurt and run off these individuals with our policies, belief and culture. To tell someone you can come and worship, but you can’t be a pastor, leader or elder or teacher…that’s just wrong. But… guess what, no one scolded me, no one was deeply offended and some people even thanked me for speaking out on things that they had been too hesitant to share themselves.

After this experience I think it might be the case that it is actually better to stay and respectfully speak your mind in a spiritual community rather than run when you are offended by beliefs or actions of others…