Download or read book The Experience of Recognizing the Gift of Being Gay written by John L. Raniszewski and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [Abstract] The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the essence of the question, "What is the experience of recognizing the Gift of Being Gay? The question originated from a personal interest and then out of an involvement in my surroundings working with people with AIDS, their partners and friends seeing the goodness and creating a need to recognize the life paradigms involved. An overview of literature was reviewed and discussed. The study is qualitative in nature and utilizes the heuristic research model. Major phases of the process were immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis. Ten co-researchers were participants in the study. The co-researchers shared descriptive data relating to their experience of their struggle" having a positive outcome and then recognizing being gay as being a gift. The open-ended interviews were tape recorded, transcribed and synthesized. Nine themes were derived: 1. Awareness, attraction, acceptance, 2. Spirituality, 3. Sensitivity, 4. Easy, uneasy, comfortable, uncomfortable, 5. Integrated, 6. Open-minded, 7. Vulnerable, 8. Judgment, 9. Homophobic. The themes were perceive as acts of accepting. Discovery led to that one goes through a lot to come to an acceptance of one's self to become comfortable with being gay or lesbian. Because of it being a on-going topic discussed with the self and in society an analogy is used. "It takes one to know one". Implications and applications are presented for future research in helping professions and bureaucratic institutions.
Download or read book Single Gay Christian written by Gregory Coles and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an age where neither society nor the church knows what to do with gay Christians, Greg Coles shares his story—a story about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. This honest, hopeful account shows life through one man's eyes and assures all people: "You are not a mistake."
Download or read book People to Be Loved written by Preston Sprinkle and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christians who are confused by the homosexuality debate raging in the US are looking for resources that are based solidly on a deep study of what Scripture says about the issue. In People to Be Loved, Preston Sprinkle challenges those on all sides of the debate to consider what the Bible says and how we should approach the topic of homosexuality in light of it. In a manner that appeals to a scholarly and lay-audience alike, Preston takes on difficult questions such as how should the church treat people struggling with same-sex attraction? Is same-sex attraction a product of biological or societal factors or both? How should the church think about larger cultural issues, such as gay marriage, gay pride, and whether intolerance over LGBT amounts to racism? How (or if) Christians should do business with LGBT persons and supportive companies? Simply saying that the Bible condemns homosexuality is not accurate, nor is it enough to end the debate. Those holding a traditional view still struggle to reconcile the Bible’s prohibition of same-sex attraction with the message of radical, unconditional grace. This book meets that need.
Download or read book Gay Girl Good God written by Jackie Hill Perry and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.
Download or read book Gay is a Gift written by Salvatore Sapienza and published by Tregatti Press. This book was released on 2009-12 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A discussion of "Gay is a gift" on the Oprah Winfrey Show inspired this inspirational pocket guide on gay spirituality, which provides useful tools for uncovering your inner giftedness and discovering the true Spirit within. This concise handbook shares the spiritual wisdom of gay shamans throughout history, from the Native American "Two Spirits" to contemporaries like Ram Dass, but does so in a very clear and simple manner, giving readers step-by-step instructions for applying this wisdom to their own spiritual paths. Former Catholic monk and Seventy Times Seven author Salvatore Sapienza also shares his own spiritual journey with readers, helping them to unwrap their own unique gay gifts and to shine this special light on the world. "Think of Gay is a Gift as a Chicken Soup for the Gay Soul," says Web Digest Weekly, and gay spiritual writer Toby Johnson says, "Salvatore Sapienza's Gay is a Gift is itself a gift; a sweet, inspiring portrayal of gay consciousness as blessing, along with a simple, light-hearted - even fun - spiritual practice for bringing more blessing into your life."
Download or read book Gay Perspective written by Edwin Clark Johnson and published by Lethe Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this companion volume to his critically acclaimed, Lambda Literary Award-winning book, Gay Spirituality, Toby Johnson further explicates his visionary stance that gay people's nature as outsiders gives them a uniquely powerful perspective on the nature of God and religion. By living outside gender norms, gay people are more open to seeing across boundaries of gender and gain access to a less dualistic outlook on the nature of life. Once again, Johnson approaches this potentially controversial subject matter with erudition, empathy and visionary speculation and gives meaning to gay consciousness beyond superficial issues of sexual behavior.
Download or read book Gay and Catholic written by Eve Tushnet and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2014-10-20 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a 2015 Catholic Press Award: Gender Issues Category (First Place). In this first book from an openly lesbian and celibate Catholic, widely published writer and blogger Eve Tushnet recounts her spiritual and intellectual journey from liberal atheism to faithful Catholicism and shows how gay Catholics can love and be loved while adhering to Church teaching. Eve Tushnet was among the unlikeliest of converts. The only child of two atheist academics, Tushnet was a typical Yale undergraduate until the day she went out to poke fun at a gathering of philosophical debaters, who happened also to be Catholic. Instead of enjoying mocking what she termed the “zoo animals,” she found herself engaged in intellectual conversation with them and, in a move that surprised even her, she soon converted to Catholicism. Already self-identifying as a lesbian, Tushnet searched for a third way in the seeming two-option system available to gay Catholics: reject Church teaching on homosexuality or reject the truth of your sexuality. Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith is the fruit of Tushnet’s searching: what she learned in studying Christian history and theology and her articulation of how gay Catholics can pour their love and need for connection into friendships, community, service, and artistic creation.
Download or read book The Book of More Delights written by Ross Gay and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.
Download or read book Sons of the Church written by Thomas B Stevenson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-22 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book that can help you reconcile being both gay and Catholic Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men spotlights testimonials from over thirty gay Catholic men to answer the question, “How can you be gay and Catholic?” Dr. Thomas B. Stevenson, who received degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Boston College, and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, explores this question, using various interviews to thoroughly analyze the many dimensions of being gay and Catholic while providing a powerful and convincing criticism of Church teaching on homosexuality. This thoughtful, surprisingly reverent book is the answer for those gay readers who long for a religious connection, as well as for Catholic readers and those in pastoral positions who want and need to hear the stories of gay people firsthand. Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men tells one story—the story of what it is like to be gay and Catholic—through the various stories of over thirty gay Catholic men. Each chapter is arranged thematically, beginning with experiences of being homosexual and Catholic during childhood and youth. Subsequent chapters delve into the ways these men each finally accepted themselves and integrated their sexuality, related to others who did or did not understand, dealt with homosexual promiscuity, found intimate relationships, became a part of a community, and ultimately came to terms with the Catholic Church and their faith. Throughout, these ’witnesses’ explain how their faith in God guides them through the various experiences and issues they face. The positive aspects of Catholic Christianity are respectfully explored at the same time as the present Church teaching on homosexuality is challenged. Sons of the Church uses interviews to explore: Catholics coming to terms with their homosexuality the experiences of young men recognizing their sexuality suffering and oppression by society and the Church acceptance of self integration of goodness and lovability of homosexuality moral issues of promiscuity among gay men gay relationships and the Catholic dimensions of commitment criticisms of gay culture the Catholic Church teachings on homosexuality the answer to the question, “How can you be gay and Catholic?” Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men is enlightening reading essential for educators, students, counselors, priests, nuns, psychologists, and theologians. Catholic people, gay people, and every educated reader will find that the interviews and ideas here stimulate thought and create a greater understanding of the issue of homosexuality and faith.
Download or read book God and the Gay Christian written by Matthew Vines and published by Convergent. This book was released on 2014 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reinterpretations of key Bible texts related to sexual orientation, written by a Harvard student, present an accessible case for a modern Christian conservative acceptance of sexual diversity.
Download or read book Welcoming But Not Affirming written by Stanley James Grenz and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A respected evangelical speaks out on the church's most controversial issue, proposing that it is possible for Christian communities to welcome homosexuals without affirming same-sex unions.
Download or read book Why We re Catholic written by Trent Horn and published by Catholic Answers Press. This book was released on 2017-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How can you believe all this stuff? This is the number-one question Catholics get asked and, sometimes, we ask ourselves. Why do we believe that God exists, that he became a man and came to save us, that what looks like a wafer of bread is actually his body? Why do we believe that he inspired a holy book and founded an infallible Church to teach us the one true way to live? Ever since he became Catholic, Trent Horn has spent a lot of time answering these questions, trying to explain to friends, family, and total strangers the reasons for his Catholic faith. Some didn't believe in God, or even in the existence of truth. Others said they were spiritual but didn't think you needed religion to be happy. Some were Christians who thought Catholic doctrines over-complicated the pure gospel. And some were fellow Catholics who had a hard time understanding everything they professed to believe on Sunday. Why We're Catholic assembles the clearest, friendliest, most helpful answers that Trent learned to give to all these people and more. Beginning with how we can know reality and ending with our hope of eternal life, it s the perfect way to help skeptics and seekers (or Catholics who want to firm up their faith) understand the evidence that bolsters our belief and brings us joy" --
Download or read book Scripture Ethics and the Possibility of Same Sex Relationships written by Karen R. Keen and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-11 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHEN IT COMES TO SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS, this book by Karen Keen contains the most thoughtful, balanced, biblically grounded discussion you’re likely to encounter anywhere. With pastoral sensitivity and respect for biblical authority, Keen breaks through current stalemates in the debate surrounding faith and sexual identity. The fresh, evenhanded reevaluation of Scripture, Christian tradition, theology, and science in Keen’s Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships will appeal to both traditionalist and progressive church leaders and parishioners, students of ethics and biblical studies, and gay and lesbian people who often feel painfully torn between faith and sexuality.
Download or read book Washed and Waiting written by Wesley Hill and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-11-29 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yet many who sit next to us in the pew at church fit that description, says author Wesley Hill. As a celibate gay Christian, Hill gives us a glimpse of what it looks like to wrestle firsthand with God's ''No'' to same-sex relationships. What does it mean for gay Christians to live faithful to God while struggling with the challenge of their homosexuality? What is God's will for believers who experience same-sex desires? Those who choose celibacy are often left to deal with loneliness and the hunger for relationships. How can gay Christians experience God's favor and blessing in the midst of a struggle that for many brings a crippling sense of shame and guilt? Weaving together reflections from his own life and the lives of other Christians, such as Henri Nouwen and Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hill offers a fresh perspective on these questions. He advocates neither unqualified ''healing'' for those who struggle, nor their accommodation to temptation, but rather faithfulness in the midst of brokenness. ''I hope this book may encourage other homosexual Christians to take the risky step of opening up their lives to others in the body of Christ,'' Hill writes. ''In so doing, they may find, as I have, by grace, that being known is spiritually healthier than remaining behind closed doors, that the light is better than the darkness.
Download or read book Freedom Glorious Freedom written by John J. McNeill and published by Lethe Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Freedom, Glorious Freedom, acclaimed author John J. McNeill shows how lesbian and gay Christians can achieve full spiritual maturity and self-acceptance. McNeill discusses freedom of conscience and discernment of spirits, ancient teachings of the Christian church that have a special urgency for lesbian and gay people who need to free themselves from all the homophobic authorities and deal with God on a direct and personal basis. The liberating process of coming out of the closet is seen as a spirit-filled effort to achieve the glory of God by becoming fully alive. McNeill offers a twelve-step spirituality as a spiritual process of liberation from all addictions in order to experience the love of God in its fullness. The epilogue expresses in detail a philosophical vision, looking both to the past and to the future, of how gay liberation fits into the Spirit-directed evolution of human history and its role in the ongoing struggle for human liberation. For more than thirty-five years, John J. McNeill, an ordained priest and psychotherapist, has been devoting his life to spreading the good news of God¿s love for lesbian and gay Christians.
Download or read book Spiritual Friendship written by Wesley Hill and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity Today Book Award Winner Friendship is a relationship like no other. Unlike the relationships we are born into, we choose our friends. It is also tenuous--we can end a friendship at any time. But should friendship be so free and unconstrained? Although our culture tends to pay more attention to romantic love, marriage, family, and other forms of community, friendship is a genuine love in its own right. This eloquent book reminds us that Scripture and tradition have a high view of friendship. Single Christians, particularly those who are gay and celibate, may find it is a form of love to which they are especially called. Writing with deep empathy and with fidelity to historic Christian teaching, Wesley Hill retrieves a rich understanding of friendship as a spiritual vocation and explains how the church can foster friendship as a basic component of Christian discipleship. He helps us reimagine friendship as a robust form of love that is worthy of honor and attention in communities of faith. This book sets forth a positive calling for celibate gay Christians and suggests practical ways for all Christians to cultivate stronger friendships.
Download or read book The Mentor written by Jay Quinn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examine a moving, personal narrative about growing up gay in the south! Students, teachers, and anyone interested in gay studies and experiences will find that The Mentor: A Memoir of Friendship and Gay Identity (a 2001 Lambda Literary Foundation Gay Male Biography/Autobiography Award finalist) delivers a captivating and honest look into the challenges of growing up gay through the context of firsthand experiences, revelations, and realizations. This unique book is an intelligent and personal narrative that considers the social, religious, and emotional aspects of what it is like to grow up as a gay male in the south and examines the enormous social changes regarding homosexuality that have taken place in America during the last half of the century. Written to reveal the importance of the author's mentor in helping him form his self-identity and educating him about being gay, this book challenges the stereotypical idea that, unlike heterosexuals, gay men are not able to form nurturing, fulfilling bonds between themselves. The Mentor delivers an inspiring story about accepting and understanding your sexuality with the help and guidance of other men who have traveled the road to a successful gay identity. This unique book offers the courage, strength, and support of a mentor to help guide you through the trials that many young gay men experience, such as: recognizing the possibilities of exploitation by older gay men due to a lack of emotional and social experience creating a loyal relationship with a man that does not include sex but which satisfies emotional needs that many gay men need and long for discovering the importance of a mentor to gay youths, since there are few homosexual role models to learn from Sincere and well-written, The Mentor provides insight into everything from the author's experience with intolerance of homosexuality by certain religions to struggles with fidelity and infidelity, illustrating the difficult yet universal challenges of life relationships. The Mentor contains suggestions that will help you recognize that your feelings of desire and love and your quest for human connection as a gay man are not the distorted reflections of a heterosexual image, but a healthy gay identity. With this unique book, you will discover how to make the shift from confusion to full acceptance of your gay identity, you will understand that you are not alone, and perhaps you will be encouraged to pass on the legacy of a mentor to other young gay men.
