September 19, 2013

The following excerpts are from Randy Thomas’ blog “Ask-It Basket: What Will You Do When I Don’t Live Up To Your Expectations?”: “Recently, I was disowned by a few conservative Christians because of my views about the finished work of Christ (in general), and how that applies to people who call themselves gay Christians. I affirmed that if a gay Christian professes that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior (and all of what that means) I believe they are truly saved. I don’t know the true condition of their heart just like they don’t know mine. If they say they are saved, and because I am only mortal, I simply assume they are telling the truth.”

“I have a different view of sexuality, and identity, than many who call themselves gay Christians. Because of that, I do not personally apply sexual identity labels as modifiers of my being a Christian. I do not pursue sexual activity with either gender. Along with that, I am not going to tell someone else how they should live their lives. I am willing to answer questions, but I will do my very best to keep my beliefs, hope, and experience in a first person context. This is a result of difficult lessons learned from the past.”

“Back to the conservative Christians who distanced themselves from me; because I failed their test (concerning gay Christians, and believing once saved always saved) I was accused of all manner of ill. In a broader sense, because I didn’t live up to their version of whatever point of view they were coming from, they wrote me off as back-slidden or apostate.”

‘In a similar way, I was mocked by a few gay people (religious and non) for these same beliefs, but from a different angle. They chided my personally applied beliefs above as ‘hating’ myself and gay people (which neither is true.) Their response to living a celibate life? Well, apparently to a few of them, that’s crazy and worthy of derisive joking. I received many messages saying I needed to ‘prove’ myself by embracing this, that, or the other. There have been quite a few lists made up for me to accomplish before they would accept me. As a result, because I couldn’t live up to their version of whatever point of interest these good folks were coming from; I was again, rejected; written off as ignorant and destructive.” …