How do you, as a gay SDA, relate to the traditional teachings of Adventism? How can you continue to be a member of a church that rejects your homosexuality?
Responses:
From a lesbian mother of adult children:
“This question has always been a no-brainer for me. I am an Adventist because of the beliefs. I do not believe they have everything 100% correct, but they are the closest to the Bible of any religion I have found. I think the Sabbath is an extremely important gift of God and that our observance of it in the way He intended is part of understanding Him as the Creator and King. I have considered going to other churches where I would be more accepted, but I can not believe the way others do on the Sabbath, State of the Dead, Trinity, etc.
“I am thankful that right now I have a church that I can worship in that accepts me and my wife totally and that I can participate each week, teach the SS lesson, preach or do whatever anyone else in the church can do. But if that were not the case, if I never went to church, I would still be an Adventist. No one can take that away from me.”
From a gay father:
“What it comes down to is there are some things that simply don’t matter to me. The whole 1844 thing seems irrelevant to my day-to-day life (and also seems to me to be an unproveable face-saving measure for the Millerite mistake). I can’t get worked up over whether there was REALLY a literal Adam and Eve or REALLY a Noah’s Ark, or REALLY a Jonah who gets swallowed by a fish. I believe that, with an all powerful God, these things certainly could have happened. But whether they did or not really has nothing to do with my current faith–or eventual salvation.”
From a gay Brazilian Adventist man:
“To me the Adventist church would have disappeared a long time ago if it didn’t have the sense of mission it has. It always had for its motto, “Go and preach this Gospel to all nations.” How in the world can anyone be Adventist and at the same time not understand this side of our church?
“I’ve at times felt mad at the church for the way it has treated us, but at no time have I doubted the way it conducted the business of preaching about Jesus, the Sabbath, and other essential truths.”
From a gay man who is a health professional:
“Even though I have been slammed by the church, I do see its mission: to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. I think that the church has done a good job in this mission, too. It is amazing.
“No one ever said the church was perfect, and it gets a lot of things wrong; but they do enjoy success in many other areas. I find it interesting that, with its growth and over 2,000 baptisms every day, North America hardly grows at all, comparatively.
“I am all for people or organizations bringing Jesus into other people’s lives. I like the idea of the 10/40 window. I do believe God’s Spirit is being poured down upon humanity and people are opening up to the idea of Christ more than ever before.”
Gay SDAs 