coemgen said:
As far as these "formerly gay" people -- the one's I've heard speak clearly state they're not acting and they have in fact been changed through God's grace. Do you think they're just lying or brainwashed? (I'm really asking you, not just trying to argue. I want to know your thoughts.)
95% of it is a semantical game. If I grab a random woman, say that we're together, and put a smile on my face every time we're in public, I'm successfully an "ex-gay." Nevermind that I feel absolutely nothing for her, because emotional attraction means nothing. It's the image that counts.
Also, at the time of your dream, had you accepted Christ into your heart? If you had, I have to tell you what you were "told" wasn't Biblical. A person who had accepted Christ wouldn't be told they were going to hell for ridiculing their sister. At the very least, I think the Spirit would've moved you to seek forgiveness for it from him and your sister. I know this probably angers you that I'm disecting your spiritual experience, but if you think about it if you're being told something that contradicts what God says in the Bible, it may not be of God.
Ah yes. I was prepared for this exact response, which is why I never like to share any religious experiences here. The "it's not really God, because then it would require me to question my monolithic beliefs" argument. I come from a Catholic background, which...
1) Has openly and resoundingly rejected Biblical fundamentalism.
2) Believes that faith and good works are necessary for salvation.
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,' but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble.
Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called 'the friend of God.' See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by a different route? For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." - James 2:14-26
3) Considers the entire notion of born-again Christianity to be silly cult-like behavior.
So think about that the next time you want to attribute my spirituality to Satan, will you?
For what it's worth, I consider the dream to be a metaphor, not a literal. At the time (which, mind you, was a few years before I did all this Biblical research), here I had been fixated on sexuality being my downfall, and here, my worst behavior was in how I was treating my fellow neighbor.
"Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law." - Romans 13:10
And that's why I take issue with all these Christians focused on homosexuality. A gay Christian that loves is fulfilling the law, however many commandments or rituals there may be in this world.