from Christian GLBT Rights Blog:
If you are a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender Christian, how do you feel when someone calls you a fag, a dyke, a sissy, a pansy, or any other hateful, derogatory name? How do you feel when others, such as family members, and even professing Christians, seek to deprive you of civil rights and call you an abomination in the eyes of God? How do you feel when clergy preach against you and what they call your “homosexual lifestyle” and demand that you give up “the sin of homosexuality” in order to become “right with God” or else you’re going to hell? How do you feel when even family members discriminate against you, and make it very clear that they don’t accept you for who you are?
Now, how do you handle those feelings, and what do you think about the person hurling one or more of those epithets at you? I guarantee that after you read Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide For Gay And Lesbian Christians, by the erudite and eclectic Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge, you will finally understand the psychological and spiritual strategies that you may employ to not only neutralize the effects of the hurt that you understandably feel, but translate those insults and that hurt into further psychological and spiritual growth, as well as help move the struggle for full and equal civil and sacramental rights for GLBT people forward.
As Rev. Chellew-Hodge writes: “Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are in exile—cast out from our homes, our churches, our jobs, and our society. We are ostracized and oppressed by dogma, tradition, and legislation. We are a wounded and outcast people, desperate for a word of hope from the one who loves us most.” (Pp. 151-152)
Fortunately, this book that is one of a kind gives concrete methods by which GLBT people can both contend with personal and institutionalized homophobia and also lead happy lives while so doing! Rev. Chellew-Hodge uses her own considerable experiences, other eclectic sources, and her keen insights that puts into a healthy perspective essential psychological and spiritual coping mechanisms that is a breath of fresh air in dealing with the sufferings, heartbreaks, and anxieties attendant upon attacks by those who seek to both demean and distort both the Bible and the reality of GLBT people’s sexuality and very lives.
Continue reading HERE
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