Out Ministries is a Christian ministry to the Gay / Lesbian / Bi-sexual
/ Transsexual
and Transgendered
community by and for the Gay / Lesbian / Bi-sexual / Transsexual
and Transgendered
community.
Out Ministries is NOT affiliated with with any church or organization.
Out
Ministries
neither supports nor endorses any causes.
Out Ministries ministers through Outreach, Understanding and Teaching to
the
Gay / Lesbian
/ Bi-Sexual / Transgendered and Transsexual community which has become
disenfranchised
with the Church at large. Outreach is also an Evangelistic ministry,
working
to introduce
all who come here to the saving knowledge of Jesus .
Although Out Ministries has been set up to minister to the Gay / Lesbian
Bi-Sexual
/ Transgendered & Transsexual community, Out Ministries will also minister
to the straight
community as well. Any who need ministry are welcomed in.
Out Ministries web pages will contain links to other ministries'
web pages as well as
links to Bible
Studies, Church and Ministry guides, locations of Gay / Lesbian
/ Bi-sexual
Transgendered
and Transsexual churches and ministries WORLDWIDE!! Out Ministries
will accept
submissions containing links to "family" friendly pages and sites.
Out Ministries web pages will NOT contain any links to hate sites
or usenet
newsgroups
. (This includes the Anti-Fred Phelps and Anti-Mel White usenet newsgroups
! )
Nor will Out
Ministries have on it's web site any links to pornographic web sites nor
will Out
Ministries
accept or display any text which advocates intolerance (Even Straight bashing
will not be
allowed), civil disobedience, violence (even against our worst enemies,
like Kennedy,
Phelps, & White) or slander or libel against any member of society
based upon
their race, age, creed, religion, gender or sexual persuasion.
Out Ministries
will also
NOT at any time ask for money. If you get email which claims to be
from this
ministry or
from someone claiming to represent this ministry and they ask you for money,
feel free
to delete this letter, as it's not from this ministry.
Out Ministries was started on October 24th, 1989 by a Deacon in Fort Lauderdale
Florida who
felt called to go and bring the Gay / Lesbian / Bi-sexual / Transgendered
and
Transsexual
community back to the Lord. Additionally, to those who didn't know
the
Lord or to
those who had their doubts and questions, he felt called to counsel and
encourage
them accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.
Homosexuality
is NOT a sin. All scripture passages aside, when it's all said and
done, sin
is something you CHOOSE to do. I know of no one, myself included,
who chose
to be homosexual.
I know of no one who chose to be Bi-Sexual, or Lesbian or straight,
for
that matter.
It is what we are, and a part of who we are.
It's not surprising that the Church would condemn homosexuality, since,
as a whole
the church
has a history of condemning sexuality in and of itself.
For example, The Church
says that
it's a sin to have sex before marriage. That's not biblical.
Some churches say
you can't
kiss passionately, or masturbate. That's also not biblical.
Some churches say
that you can't
live with someone of the opposite gender before you marry them. This
too isn't
biblical.
The Church's condemnation of homosexuality is only one link in a line of
condemnations
regarding sexuality that the church has taught as "truth". The real
truth
of the matter
is that it's a sin to teach that you're sexuality is evil or sinful.
It's a sin to teach
that one sexuality
is right and that any other kind of sexuality is wrong. It's
a sin for the
church or
anyone else, for that matter, to shame you because you desire sex, or
because you
find it pleasurable. God created sex, God designed your sexuality.
When someone,
even a priest, a minister or a pastor, condemns you for your sexuality,
they're automatically
condemning God, because God created your sexuality.
What about scripture ? Doesn't scripture agree with church doctrine
?
Absolutely
not ! Scripture has been pulled out of context to make it appear
to agree
with church
doctrine. For example, the religious right loves to quote Leviticus
18:22
"...You
shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. .."
First of all, when you present scripture to anyone, you present more than
just
one sentence.
When you read the bible, you read the whole paragraph, or the
whole chapter,
if need be, to find out what's going on and who's being spoken to.
For example,
if we look at the same passage of scripture, and start reading it at
the beginning,
it says "The Lord spoke to Moses saying " Speak to the children of
Israel,
and say to them: I am the Lord your God. According to the doings
in
the land
of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the
doings
in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor
shall you
walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments and
keep
my ordinances
to walk in them: I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep
my statues
and my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I
am the
Lord. ..." Following this, he gives the Israelites
the sexual code where
Leviticus
18:22 comes from. This puts a whole different spin on
Leviticus 18:22.
Egypt was a pagan culture, as was Canaan. God was telling the Israelites,
"People, you
left a pagan culture and you're going to go to a pagan culture, but you
are NOT to
act like a pagan culture. You are not to copy their religious practices,
nor are you
to follow their laws. Do as I tell you , and you will survive."
Leviticus 18:22 is talking about a pagan religious rite. In fact,
notice that
in that particular
passage, God calls this practice "an abomination". In Hebrew that
word
is "towebah"
(Tow-ay-bah) it means "idolatry" This "homosexuality" was in
fact
a religious
rite. This had nothing to do with affection, or love. This
was about
religious
obligation, "duty to the GODS", that kind of thing.
More importantly, if Leviticus is so important a book to them, why don't
they follow
the rest of the commands given there. For example, in Leviticus
19:19 it
says that
you shall not let you livestock breed with another kind, or that you shall
not
sow your field
with mixed seed, or that you shall not wear a garment of mixed linen and
wool.
Leviticus 19:27 says that you shall not shave around the sides of your
beard
nor shall
you disfigure the edges of your beard. How about
the laws concerning
clean and
unclean animals ? (Leviticus 11:24-47) How about
the forbidden foods
in Leviticus
11:1-23). These are thing that "the religious right"
never mentions,
and yet, they're
part of our daily lives. For example, just about everyone wears
clothes that
are poly-cotton blend. Most people who have beards, shave them a
bit so
they look
neat and presentable. Both in direct violation of Leviticus.
Also, how many
of them
do you suppose like football? That too, is in violation of
scripture. The ball
is pigskin,
which according to Leviticus, is unclean to eat or to touch .
My point here is
that you can't
just piecemeal scripture that way. You can't just obey one
part here
and one part there and cut out the parts you don't like. That doesn't
work , but yet,
that's just
they attempt to do when they pull passages out of the Old Testament like
that.
Another
one they love to quote is 1 Corinthians 6:9, which in some translations
of the bible actually uses the word "homosexuals".
That word in Greek, it turns out, is
"arsenokoites" which means, literally,
"man-bed", "man-couch", "man - chambering"
NOT "homosexual". Paul's history
was that he was very direct in what he said,
he didn't mince words. He was also a very
intelligent man, he spoke Aramaic and
Greek, he was able to write Greek as well.
So with that in mind, if he wanted to
write "homosexual" why wouldn't he have
used the word "homophilia" which means
homosexual ?
Bear in mind, also, that Corinth wasn't exactly a "squeaky clean " town
either.
Corinth had a reputation for being a town of
drunks, hookers (only, they called them
"Courtesans") and basically, corrupt people.
Their type of worship before Christ
was introduced to them was the worship of Aphrodite.
(believe me, they got pretty
lewd in their "worship practices of her") .
It kind of makes you think, that when Paul
was referring to "man-beds" he may have
been referring to the "courtesans"
(they had both male and female at that time).
Finally, if homosexuality really was a sin, it would bear the fruits of
sin. Jesus
tells us in Matthew 7:17-19 that a good tree
bears good fruit and a bad tree bears
bad fruit. In that case, what are the fruits
of homosexuality ? There really aren't, are there?
You can't say that A.I.D.S / H.I.V is a fruit
of homosexuality , because if it were, then
straight people wouldn't get it, neither would
children be born with it or die of it.
So,
when people tell you that homosexuality is a sin, don't believe it !
The Ark - A Great Gay Christian Ministry!
All about Christian ...A New Gay Christian Recording Artist !
Bible Colleges (GLBT friendly ! )
Feel Free to mail me if you feel you have something to add to this list.
