For almost sixty years, I believed being gay was something God wanted me to overcome.
I know what that theology produced in my life.
Fear.
Shame.
Hiding.
Isolation.
A growing disconnection between the person the world could see and the person I actually was.
Over eight installments, I’ve gone back to the passages that shaped that belief: Leviticus, Sodom and Gomorrah, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, the Greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai, eunuchs, reproduction, and Jesus’ words about male and female.
But I want to conclude somewhere different.
Jesus said:
“You will know them by their fruits.”
And Galatians describes the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Good feelings don’t automatically make something right. Suffering doesn’t automatically make something wrong.
But if Jesus told us to pay attention to fruit, then I believe fruit deserves our attention.
For me, affirming theology did not mean deciding that nothing in my life was sinful.
There are things I’ve done for which I absolutely needed repentance, forgiveness and grace.
It meant finally asking whether being gay and faithfully loving another man belonged on that list.
Today I’m married to Tom.
Our marriage doesn’t produce perfect people.
But it calls me toward faithfulness, commitment, sacrifice, forgiveness, patience and love.
And loving my husband has not pulled me away from Jesus.
It has allowed me to stand before God more honestly than I ever could while hiding.
You may have watched all eight installments and still disagree with me.
That’s okay.
I didn’t create this series expecting a few short videos to overturn someone’s lifelong understanding of Scripture.
I wanted to demonstrate something simpler:
Affirming Christians aren’t necessarily ignoring the Bible.
We’re reading it.
We’re wrestling with it.
We’re examining language and history.
We’re looking at Jesus.
We’re asking about covenant and faithfulness.
And yes, we’re looking at the fruit.
Because LGBTQ people aren’t theological abstractions.
They’re people you know.
People you love.
People sitting beside you in church.
And they are listening when Christians tell them what God thinks of them.
So whatever theology we teach — traditional or affirming — I believe we should care deeply about what it produces.
For me, coming into the light didn’t mean abandoning Jesus.
It meant finally bringing my whole self to Jesus.
Gay.
Christian.
Husband.
Father.
Someone in recovery.
Someone who has sinned.
Someone who has been forgiven.
Someone still learning.
One person.
No more compartments.
This concludes my Affirming Theology series.
It doesn’t conclude the conversation.
What fruit does your theology produce?
Darkness may be part of the journey, but it doesn’t have to be the destination.
Light Heals.
lighthealswithcarl.com
#LightHeals #AffirmingTheology #GayChristian #LGBTQFaith #Faith #Jesus #Christianity #FruitOfTheSpirit #Healing
