Christian singer Vicky Beeching: 'I knew I was gay when I was 13'

[Diablo]

Here's a very touching video:

"A huge star on the American evangelical Christian scene, Vicky Beeching found the stress of being gay in a very conservative community almost intolerable and became seriously ill. Having come out, she wants to spread the message that you don't have to choose between your faith and your sexuality. Here she tells how she reached breaking point."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...vangelical

[Michael]

She's very articulate. I'm glad that there are voices such as hers speaking out, and being heard, in today's Church.

[Bad Wolf]

What a bunch of cherry-pickers. The bible clearly condemns homosexuality.

[Anomalocaris]

She is indeed still a Christian because she still holds the supremely Christian position of "I will embrace any set of cherry picked lies sufficiently tailored to make me feel special". If part of bible so happen to not be amongst her basket of cherries, it would make her no different from vast majority of other "bible believing" Christians.[/size]

[Michael]

Whether people see it as cherry-picking or not is going to depend a lot on how you read the bible. I read the bible as an unfolding understanding of God; hence later biblical voices can criticise actions earlier that were celebrated. For example the killing of the house of Ahab at Jazreel is celebrated in the books of Kings, but is seen as a reason for disgrace and revenge by the prophet Hosea. It is perhaps more an English than American tradition to see the bible as 'the books God wants us to hear' (as Rowan Williams puts it). We can then engage with them and even disagree with actions of people who were convinced that they were doing God's will. Like Hosea, we may see what was previously celebrated as actually being deeply misguided (or perhaps sometimes only appropriate for their time).

[Anomalocaris]

Whether people see it as cherry-picking or not is going to depend a lot on how you read the bible. For example I read the bible as an unfolding understanding of God; hence later biblical voices can criticise actions earlier that were celebrated. For example the killing of the house of Ahab at Jazreel is celebrated in the books of Kings, but is seen as a reason for disgrace and revenge by the prophet Hosea. It is perhaps more an English than American tradition to see the bible as 'the books God wants us to hear' (as Rowan Williams puts it). We can then engage with them and even disagree with actions of people who were convinced that they were doing God's will. Like Hosea, we may see what was previously celebrated as actually being deeply misguided (or perhaps sometimes only appropriate for their time).

Replace "your reading of the bible" with "the cherries, real or imaginary, that you've picked", And "unfolding understanding of god" with "making it up as you go to suit yourself", or with "grabbing whatever imaginary crutches along the way that will prop up and expand your own particular self delusion", And you would have been more intellectually honest, and equivalently less Christian.

[Bad Wolf]

Whether people see it as cherry-picking or not is going to depend a lot on how you read the bible. I read the bible as an unfolding understanding of God; hence later biblical voices can criticise actions earlier that were celebrated. For example the killing of the house of Ahab at Jazreel is celebrated in the books of Kings, but is seen as a reason for disgrace and revenge by the prophet Hosea. It is perhaps more an English than American tradition to see the bible as 'the books God wants us to hear' (as Rowan Williams puts it). We can then engage with them and even disagree with actions of people who were convinced that they were doing God's will. Like Hosea, we may see what was previously celebrated as actually being deeply misguided (or perhaps sometimes only appropriate for their time).

'And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.'
Leviticus 20:13

[CapnAwesome]

Sometimes I think about the intellectual difficulty of being a liberal Christian and how it must tear at your brain. The so called modern 'Conservative Christians' are no better really. They have a very non-literal interpretation of the bible. You ever read about the rapture in the bible? No, me either, because it's not in there. Neither is any endorsement of capitalism whatsoever.

[Michael]

Removed.

[Tonus]

Having come out, she wants to spread the message that you don't have to choose between your faith and your sexuality.

I think that depends on her surroundings and circumstances. If her family and community are strict fundamentalists, she would likely face considerable pressure to choose between her faith and her sexuality.