Last month I wrote about “Changing the Narrative about being LGBTIQA+ persons. The narrative that says:
You are broken. The devil has gotten a hold of you. You are giving in to the flesh. God does not love you. God will not love you until you change. You can change. It’s a choice you have to make. You must remain celibate.
This month I want to share what I believe is God’s word about how we change this narrative through the power of testimony. Currently the LGBTIQA+ community relies heavily on the voices of allies to speak of God’s inclusive love on our behalf. The belief is that since the message of acceptance is coming from straight allies the message will carry more weight because there is no perceived “gay agenda.” I believe this is absolutely true. Allies have more opportunity to speak into the non-affirming spaces. Moreover, having ally support brings healing and a sense of love, acceptance and hope for those who have felt marginalised. Allies are amazing people and we can all be allies of those who have felt exiled from their homes, families, and faith communities. (more about that in a future blog).
Currently there is a new movement of what was known as gay conversion therapy. Today I will call this conversion tactics. Here is what God has shown me about this movement and why our stories are so important.
The conservative Christian church is using the power of testimony to tell the world that being LGBTIQA+ is wrong and that Christ can change a person from being same sex attracted or gender diverse into a heterosexual male or female person. This is smart on their part. After all no one can or should tell someone that their experience is not real or valid. Testimony is powerful. Most of the people who share their stories however state that while they still struggle with same sex attraction or gender dysphoria they believe that Christ has healed them. Again, not disputing anyone’s testimony, this is their journey.
The missing element here are the many testimonies of LGBTIQA+ Christians who faithfully believe and serve Christ. This rainbow nation. A nation among all nations is not speaking. We may not be able to speak into non-affirming church (though that too is starting to happen) but we can and should be speaking to our community. The testimony of LGBTIQA+ Christians is essential to show that while some people identify as male or female and are heterosexual there are others who do not…. and yet the same Lord works the same way among us all.
LGBTIQA+ Christians experience the love of God, we see miracles, we encounter support and a sense of community in our safe affirming churches and communities. The problem is we just don’t talk about that side of our lives. The narrative around being LGBTIQA+ AND Christian draws flack from both conservative Christians and from the LGBTIQA+ community. But here is the thing…if we don’t speak, others will speak for us and worse than that…we are not doing the great commission. We are meant to share what Jesus is doing in our lives. When we share, we are encouraging our community to experience for themselves this all-inclusive love of God. If we will speak, if we will partner with our allies, the power of our testimonies will bring salvation to others AND will change the narrative about who we are as people of faith.
God is using our collective testimonies from all sides of this silly debate….to get us all talking about Jesus. God is cool that way!
If you have a testimony to share about how God has blessed your life as an LGBTIQA+ person of faith and would like to tell this story either through written testimony or on video please contact me via the website “contact us” tab or subscribe below.
Love to all….you are a wonder and you really are loved by God.
Becky Bauer is the Pastor of Melbourne Inclusive Church in Melbourne Australia. For more information about the church go to: http://www.michurch.org.au
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