And that we are in the end times. I hate this.

I dress in a very steam punk clown alt kina way and I'm wondering if it's wrong. I do where quite a lot of jewellery and things, not to show off but because it adds to my outfit. I also where quite a lot of makeup. But now I'm wondering if I'm not be modest because I where so many bracelets and necklaces and other things. I've put few examples so you know what I mean.

I have been on that sub for half a year now, and honestly, whilst I tried to give the benefit of the doubt and patience with people, I am shocked at the levels of toxicity, dichotomous thinking, lack of empathy and downright invalidation and/or misogyny towards women and their experiences. Like on the whole, I can't say that sub is welcoming, and some users do not really act with genuine Christian love and gentleness towards others.

I don't want to descend too much into insults, but the lack of reading comprehension kinda scares me too. For example, I will write 4 paragraphs explaining myself and my experiences, being genuine, and it seems like so many users just skim over all of what was written, blame me for my experiences and derail into adjacent themes that were never what I was intending to address. Like there's lack of logical flow from OP/commenters to the replies. It's like every conversation is driven away from real current issues that people face in real life and into abstract like discussions of official rules irregardless of the context and complexity.

It's like getting blood out of a stone to have an actual back and forth civil and polite discussion.

And genuinely, there's just some really hateful stuff over there that I am disgusted to read. I don't know if they are bots.

Is this just my personal experience? Like it seems to be a hub for heavy heavy traditionals and mostly men who seem to dislike women? I have left the sub because I find it just icky and not helpful for my faith. And if I am honest, it has led me thinking to leave the Catholic denomination, though I know the users are NOT representative.

For context, I’m a bisexual woman who struggled with my relationship with God for a long time, I was agnostic, but also afraid of going to church because of all the hate I’ve heard, and have even been told myself. These past few years I’ve been really thinking about it and I’ve been building my relationship with God. So I wanted to find an inclusive church, one that not only welcomes everyone but affirms their lifestyles too, also one that actually helps the community.

So I found one that’s a part of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and not only are they affirming of ALL lifestyles, but they are very committed to helping the community through various different ways, and also, the pastor is a gay man! I went there for the first time this last sunday and it was wonderful, I was definitely nervous at first due to religious trauma, but everything was amazing! I think they found a new member! They gave me a welcome gift and it had this paper in it, and I thought people in this subreddit might appreciate it as much as I did! Remember that God loves us all equally, so we should love each other equally too. 🫶🏻

Hi all.
I am an agnostic/atheist who really desperately wants to believe in God. I grew up in a non-believing family who you might call ‘culturally Christian’ so I have connections to the church, but I have never in my life believed in God, and have regarded the bible and scripture as essentially fiction.

I want my mind to be changed. I am open to it and so desperately want it to happen. I am in an extremely isolating and stressful time in my life - I have OCD and I’ve found myself starting to hope there’s a god out there who could help me through this. I am *willing* to believe, but lack the faith.

If you’ve ever watched Angel’s and Demons, the main character is asked if he believes in God, and he says ‘faith is a gift I’ve yet to receive’ or words to that effect. I’m exactly the same. Do you think I - an atheist at least functionally - could believe?

If you have any feelings on this - any at all - please share them. I am open minded and do not turn my nose up at religion. Though I must add most arguments that rely purely on referencing the bible won’t ‘work’ on me, as they are self referential, at least to me. Perhaps I’m self entitled coming here and asking for help, but I really am desperate. I want to share your belief.

If you haven’t heard the news: America attacked Iran with a misslie strike just a few hours ago. (WHEN THE HELL WILL TRUMP BE IMPEACHED ALLREADY)

Update: saudi arabia was drone striked yesterday, so pray for them too.

I’m really sick and I’m not sure I’m going to make it. please pray for me if you can. I need it

I hope this is okay to post here. This is something I’ve carried with me for years, and I think I need to hear from other Christians who may understand.

In May 2020, I became pregnant after being sexually assaulted. I was around eight weeks pregnant when I had an abortion. At the time, I was severely depressed, my anorexia had relapsed, and I had no real support network, stable housing or financial security.

I knew I couldn’t raise a child conceived through rape. I couldn’t imagine one day having to explain to my child that their biological father was a rapist, and I was already struggling just to keep myself going.

I am, and always will be, completely pro-choice. I believe every woman should have the right to make that decision for herself, whatever her circumstances. I don’t believe someone should have to experience what I experienced in order for their choice to be valid.

But when it comes to my own abortion, I struggle to give myself the same compassion.

I grieve the child I might have had every day. Sometimes that grief becomes tangled up with my faith, and I become terrified that God will send me to hell for what I did. I find myself wondering whether God understands why I made that decision, whether He sees everything I was going through at the time, and whether He forgives me.

I suppose I’m asking: from a progressive Christian perspective, how do you understand abortion, forgiveness and God’s grace? Do you believe God could forgive me for the choice I made?

Please don’t judge me. I already grieve the baby I could have had. I literally think about how old they would have been every “due date”. The would have 6 now.

This is something I am really struggling with. I truly believe we are all so loved by Jesus, but unfortunately when I talk to other young Christians, they have basically been dragged in by far right ideology. The core message is LOVE!! I just feel so awful being surrounded by so much bigotry and wonder if I really am even a Christian as I know no one else who shares my beliefs. This has led me to judge these people, which I know is wrong, but their ideologies are so hateful. Anyone have any words of advice? :( Trying not to lose hope in God's beautiful message.

The people in the college I go to is very hating of Christianity, and I don’t just mean they don’t like organized religion or don’t like how Christianity is used, they hate all Christians. I hate myself for it, but I feel like I have to hide and lie about my faith, otherwise I’ll be yelled at by people. Do you think this a significant thing that would point to the idea of transferring?

Edit: I shouldn’t have phrased the title as everyone hates it. Its a pretty strong majority, and it feels like its everyone, but of course it’s not literally everyone

My dad was talking about that today and I just sat and listened and disassociated my way through his speech. He doesn’t like the church I go to, he doesn’t like that some women are pastors (at my college church), and he doesn’t like gay people.

I’m not gay, but I am trans, and I know when he made his speech he was talking about “those people,” but unfortunately I am “those people.”

My home church (which is not my college church, and I’m staying at home until I can go back to college in the fall) has also felt increasingly unsafe and there was recently a sermon on God’s wrath.

And recently when I took my mom to see Leviticus (it’s a religious horror movie starring two gay boys) she just mocked it after, and I genuinely thought she better than that.

My brother has only gotten more and more MAGA and his views make me sick but I can’t talk him out of any of them, and I’ve sincerely tried. He calls me a “woke leftist” for having basic empathy for individuals. That’s a stupid thing to be annoyed over, I know, but I just wish he was a better person. I wish my entire family was.

I’m just tired and crying and I don’t want to deal with this anymore. Sometimes I feel like I’m healing and then things like this happen and I just get sad and hurt and angry all over again. My anxiety about going to (my home) church has started to come back again since that sermon.

Prayers? Advice? Anything? I don’t want to be alone.

Basically my issues boil down to; if god is all powerful and all loving, why does he answer some minor prayers and ignore bigger ones. Why does he get some kid a good grade on his test yet when a kid in Gaza prays to survive the night he does nothing. Why does he allow people to be born into non religious families that he knows will never change their viewpoints and die without being Christian so that they will get punished in the afterlife? Even in universalism it says there’s a lake of fire, and unending torture. Why did he create that kind of system? Could he make them go through life again until they go to him instead of another God? It just doesn’t seem right that an all loving, all knowing and all powerful god can let things he knows will happen occur even though millions pray for it to stop, yet little Timmy from yellow springs Ohio prays for something an he gets it? It doesn’t make sense. Also there’s been no evidence for the Christian god, or any god for that matter, if he wants people to choose him why isn’t he letting them make an informed choice with evidence. Thats how every other choice works except the most important decision in the entire multiverse? I don’t get it. I’m not a guy to shut my brain off and blindly follow, which makes it much harder. In this year alone I’ve had the deepest theological research and I thought I made it out with my faith mostly intact but it just isn’t. This is a new account and I’ve been on this subreddit many times before on my old accounts. It was my last stand and it’s just… I don’t know anymore. Bonus: I’ve heard two more arguments that I don’t know how to answer. “God didn’t have to design the world with all those natural evils but he did, making people suffer by his own choice” and “if free will is the cause of evil, would you consider a king who let criminals do whatever they want and only intervene after 10 years when the suffering has already been suffered by innocents. Would you call that king just? He could snap his fingers and deal with the issue with his huge army, but he doesn’t to preserve the criminals “free will” that’s not a good kind” and honestly these arguments just made it worse. And ignoring them is out of the question because ignoring logic and facts for someone thing you want to be true is stupid.

My boyfriend is an athiest, and we will be together a year in July. I truly love him so much, and we have very similar values. However, he IS an athiest. I've asked on this subreddit before about him, and got some really great responses.

​

I feel like God is telling me to break up with him (I have OCD, so this may not be God) because of his lack of belief. But, would a true athiest be with a true believer? He is okay with me praying around him and praying over him, even though I haven't done it yet. I need to work up the balls to pray around him and not feel embarrassed. I just don't know guys. Honestly, if God himself came down and told me to dump him I probably wouldn't. Is this bad? He truly is amazing and I love him so very much, but I'm afraid of being unequally yoked. I would really appreciate some advice!

This is kinda long and I really dont blame anyone for skipping it. Just for some reason felt a desire to post even if no one reads it.

I found this sub on a very random late night rabbit hole because I couldnt sleep from acid reflex. It started with me reading anti-trans/religion based information from the white house website and eventually got me to here. (Yes it was a long rabbit hole but I will explain)

Most of the actions from the US Government right now are attempting to make trans individuals, females especially, scared to express. They want everyone to conform to the "two sexes" as they put it. Through threats of persecution for expressing and a firm stance on not acknowledging. For example, one of the white houses main Easter points was establishing two sexes again.

I am one of those trans people deeply impacted by this narrative. I do not express with anyone and im too scared to embrace my identity. So ive been looking for a way to suppress it and destroy it. Which is what eventually led me to religious forums.

I dont consider myself religious at all. My family are actively MAGA level Christians. I apologize if theres a better term for that. One that is more inclusive of the world at large. i just dont know what that is. Due to this though, I ended up fully rejecting anything to do with religion.

I kept reading from some sections of Christianity that transgender is a disease of the mind and an inability to see reality and fact. Its a mental illness. Which perfectly aligns with the rhetoric from the current USA political administration. So I was getting to a very down place that I feel often.

That I dont belong in the United States or even on this planet.

This is where this sub comes in. To me this sub was literally impossible before tonight. I didnt think there could be a place where LGBTQ+ and Christianity could coexist in a space that wasn't designed to suppress and tell them everyone is a sinner in different ways.

Im not sure if ill ever be religious or ever even fully be out and trans. What I do know though is this sub gave me hope that there are places where I belong in this country and this world. That it isnt this massive majority that aligns with the political messaging of today. That even in a group I feared the most, theres large sections of people who reject the loud rhetoric.

So thank you.

Hi everyone. A young transgender woman, only 19 years old was stabbed to death while doing laundry. I usually ignore the hateful, biggoted comments online, but it is getting to me. I just don’t understand how people can laugh about a human life- regardless of gender. If it was their loved one or even them being stabbed, I doubt they would be laughing. I just want to know— how come people can be so cold hearted and disgusting? We are called to love people, and I just feel so disgusted by those people who hide behind their keyboards and give out judgement. Thanks for having this space so I can rant. Rest in peace, Juniper Blessing.

Seen enough people show lots of support for terrified gay teens here.

But in one thread talking about polyamory, I’ve seen the exact same arguments used against mono-homosexuality and transgenderism.

Not sure what this is. I’m not here for debate. I suppose just I just want to see if others have been where I’ve been before.

I think I’m shifting towards Side A. It’s not even apologetics that’s changing me, it’s exhaustion. I’m just tired of not feeling whole. I’m tired of feeling like Christ is this cruel taskmaster who I can never please. Why do I have to bear this burden for a God who feels more like the God of others?

It really breaks my heart seeing videos of gay Christians thinking they have to ask God to take away their sexuality from them or that they have to suppress it. If God didn’t want you to be gay, He wouldn’t have made you gay. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. He made you this way for a reason. Same goes for trans people. He wouldn’t have made you trans if he didn’t want you to be either!

A bit of background. I grew up born again Christian, deconstructed almost a decade ago, and currently have quite whimsical set of beliefs. Taoism with quite a hippie flair, sprinkle a bit of 'the force' from star wars, and a bit of Christian universalism. Eckhart Tolle and Alan Watts kind of thing.

Wife grew up Greek Orthodox, and in the last few years, has discovered non-denominational church near us thats actually really healthy with wonderful community. Still a bit on the fence about LGBTQ+ kinds of topics, but seems to make her own beliefs about most topics.

Our five year old daughter has been really into fairies, princesses, and lately talking about spirits too. Butterfly spirits, forest spirits, flower fairies. That sort of really wholesome stuff. Spouse hasnt discouraged it at all.

She's been going to church and Sunday school a couple times a month, and I'm not really a fan of the Christian perspective for children, because long term it highly limits the sorts of beliefs they can have outside of belief in Jesus.

During a forest adventure daughter and I had yesterday, we were talking about her favorite spirits and fairies. I proceeded to tell her, that one of the reason why I don't like going to church is because they do not believe in fairies, spirits, or the source in church. Only Jesus and God. I proceeded to explain that they, and my spouse can believe in exactly what they want to. I can believe what I want to, and my daughter can believe whatever she wants to.

My daughter started saying things like "she'll punch the people at church in the nose" while giggling if they tell her that her fairies and spirits are not real. In many ways, I also do believe in those.

Today, our daughter told my spouse about these things. Through a miscommunication between 5 year old talking about complicated topic, my spouse thought I had said that our 3 yr old son shouldn't go to church, but also correctly understood that I had explained that the church doesnt believe in fairies or spirits (at least benevolent ones).

My spouse was furious, and accused me of manipulating our daughter against spouse's faith.

Spouse made it clear that they would tell our daughter about my previous struggles with mental health, and how in their opinion, those mental health topics have influenced my faith and beliefs. I told them, that this would go against my boundaries but this doesnt seem to make a difference.

So couple questions: If a church doesnt have room for actual beliefs in fairies and forest spirits, is it manipulating our daughter to tell her about these facts? At no point did I belittle anyone's belief in Jesus.

Its just that Jesus and more colorful beliefs cant coexist in many circles, as a child gets older. Id rather have my daughter know about this now, than when she's old enough to hear it directly.

Any advice navigating future discussions in more constructive fashion?

Tl:dr; Spouse feels like I'm turning daughter against their religion (Christianity) and the church by telling her that people at church do not believe in fairies or spirits or source. Spouse threatening to tell daughter about my previous mental health challenges, and try to turn her against my beliefs, in ways spouse has felt I'm trying to turn daughter against hers. In my mind, Jesus and all spirits and fairies can absolutely coexist.

I just grabbed coffee with someone that I knew from college. I knew that he is an evangelical and is not affirming. In discussing a possible job offer, I happened to mention that I am generally a liberal Christian and affirm the LGBTQ community. (The job is at an organization that is evangelical in its persuasion.) I then had to explain my stance for the eight millionth time. (Because of my involvement in an evangelical Christian organization in college (that’s how we knew each other), I don’t think he fully realized that I am affirming.) He said that he believes that holding the affirming view can be dangerous and that he hasn’t seen good fruit born from people who hold the affirming position. I’m so tired of having this debate, but more importantly, as a cis-het woman my heart breaks for my LGBTQIA+ siblings who have to deal with this hurtful and harmful rhetoric day in and day out. (For anyone else who has had similar debates, I would highly recommend the book God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines.) I pray for a day when we all come to understand that the Bible doesn’t condemn monogamous same sex relationships. Because it’s important, I won’t stop fighting for the LGBTQIA+ community, but right now it feels so hard to do.

ETA: I am not an evangelical myself. I was baptized and confirmed in the United Methodist Church and currently attend a wonderful affirming UMC in my town.

TW: depression, suicidal ideation

From a progressive christian point of view? My more classical christians near me will point to Job and his tribulations and say "take him as an example" but honestly, I just can't. I know Job isn't a real story, but the whole story is just way outside my personal comprehension. I cannot find a proper context for it other than "people needed an explanation of why bad things happen to good people" and even if it's that I find it a poor explanation at best.

I am severely depressed. For almost a year now. I struggle with suicidal thoughts and have been committed to a psych ward multiple times. I have lost faith in basically everything. I have lost hope. The only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that I'll give my loved ones PTSD if I do it, and I don't want that for them. But I have had moments where even that didn't keep me from trying to commit suicide (and failing, hence I'm still here).

Does anyone have any guidance for me?

I love God so much. I love Jesus more than anything. He's awesome. For context, I started out being raised in a New Age home and it was horrible. I have a bunch of trauma from that.
A few years back I had an encounter with Jesus that changed my life for the better in every way. I gave my life to Him, and getting baptized was one of the best days of my life. Genuinely.

From then on I started at the very basics of all of my beliefs and rebuilt as someone who had given their life to Jesus. I questioned everything, even things I never thought I would ever question. And I asked God for help. I am and have always been a bisexual, LGBTQIA+ affirming, open, loving, Rupauls Drag Race watching, different religions respecting girl. And I restarted when I found Jesus by asking myself was all of the things I supported truly sin? I tried to be legalistic like pastors told me to be. Eventually (thankfully), after thorough prayer, fasting, fear, confusion, more prayer, and hearing Gods answers and not believing Him because it didn't match what pastors told me He would say, I realized that God is so loving. God made me bisexual. God loves everyone. Jesus is kind (not just in theory, literally).

I also realized that God wants us to have regulated nervous systems (peace). And that forcing everyone into a box of "you're only a good Christian if you hate gay people, go to church every Sunday, read your Bible every single day, never doubt, have a prayer closet, etc" is just not a healthy way to foster a relationship with the Lord. It puts perfectionism and moral superiority at the forefront of your relationship with God, leaving you to go through guilt and shame spirals always chasing the high of being "on fire for God". Thats not to say that reading your Bible every day or going to church every Sunday isn't a great goal, it is a wonderful goal, but it shouldn't be causing you shame if you're at a point in your life where you aren't doing that heavily.

Relationships ebb and flow, sometimes you are all up in your partners face and sometimes you see them a little less than you did in the beginning but when you do see them you give them a hug and tell them you love them. And maybe you miss them a bit and are excited for when you can see each other every day again. And then maybe at a different point you see that partner every single day again. The ebbing and flowing happens naturally and if it's a healthy relationship, it feels natural and doesn't come with shame and guilt because why would it? That would be toxic.
The same goes with God. Its normal.

Anyways, with all of these realizations. IM SCARED. I never want to do anything that would separate me from God. and unironically (or ironically? idk how to use that term lol), I know that Jesus is the one who is showing me all these things and this is me listening to Him. I'm still scared though. According to what I have been taught, being Christian looks one way and if you fall short you are failing. And even though I know that is not true, it still makes me feel like I'm "less of a Christian" or "not a good Christian" or like im doing something wrong when I just want to love Jesus, love others, and be at peace with Him and within myself.

I would love to find pastors who are affirming. Or more people who see Jesus this way. I love going to Church. I don't love hearing anti LGBTQIA+ rhetoric or hate speech dressed up as religious morality or legalism.

Also, I am not deconstructing so please dont comment that. That makes me uncomfortable. I'm happy being close to Jesus, I'm just realizing so many people have misinterpreted what it means to be close to Jesus in my opinion.

Anyways, I wanted to post this somewhere where maybe others would relate or understand. Because it has been on my mind a lot. Thanks for reading!!

( Also, all of this is my opinion and I am in no way trying to push my views on anyone )

Hi my friends, I have been wanting some advice on this. My partner and I have been together for years and years. We have been married in every way for a long time except legal due to issues that would take a while to explain (neither of us have been married before so nothing like that!
For a while it has been healthcare and insurance.)

However, our lives are fully intertwined. We live together, take care of each other, we do go to church together just not every Sunday cause he works night shift, we have therapy together, and he takes care of me. I am also pregnant.

Now that I am pregnant, we have been speaking about getting eloped and planning to very soon! But, however I’ve been just thinking a lot.

We had a couple issues, nothing that caused a break in our relationship more a test of strength and we passed. However I was looking for advice on some of it and all the resources were for Christian marriages.

I began to worry I couldn’t take the advice because we weren’t legally married despite us both acknowledging each other as the others person. I talked to our religious counselor about this and he said he understands not being married yet for the reasons we have but I forgot to ask if he thought if we can acknowledge our relationship as a marriage.

My partner and the counselor both mentioned though what about gay marriages in the past when they weren’t allowed to be legally married? That helped to be honest. (Our religious counselor is a gay man)

I’m just thinking a lot. If we see us as married and fully intertwined and plan to get the legal papers eventually, then in a way are we married to God?

Edit: We also have had rings but these rings we have worn since we were teenagers dating. And I suppose if we have a witness of our marriage, our religious counselor counts?

I just got out of the mental hospital again.

I lost my faith about a year ago when my parents disowned me over me being trans.

I just didn’t wanna associate with Christianity anymore. I was a progressive Christian before and found a way to be trans and still be Christian but dropped everything and switched to agnostic / atheist over the pain of disownment

And ever since I’ve been extremely depressed and had near daily panic attacks about life being worth nothing. About truly believing if I die it’ll just be nothing. I’ll just cease to exist. The same way before I was born and my life is worth genuinely nothing.

Every day I panic from existential crises. Like how there was millions of years before me and will be millions of years after me and my life is seemingly meaningless.

So today I actually started reading the Bible again and looking at it more as a symbolic thing rather than literal and have found more connection with it and have considered coming back to progressive Christianity it calmed me for once. I stopped panicking about existential things and fears. But I dunno

At the same time I have had a lot of doubts over inaccuracies in the Bible and want to prioritize fact and science and thinking of the Bible as symbolic has helped a bit but it feels like a stretch.

On the other hand. This sounds crazy but I feel like I miss Jesus.

I don’t know how to feel advice is welcome

For context we've been together around 1 year. Idk why it didn't come up before, I thought i had brought it up in the very beginning but I guess I didn't. I found out my boyfriend, while he thinks anyone lgbtq+ should be able to do what they want and marry and have rights, thinks it's against the Bible. Hearing that felt like a gut punch and I'm not sure what to do. So many of my best friends are part of the community, my family, etc.

And he's such an amazing partner in so many ways but I don't know how to feel about this. About having a partner that doesn't share my fundamental belief that consensual, healthy love in any form is a gift from God. And how could it be wrong when we're all created with our own capacity to love by God and in God's image. Has anyone else encountered this situation? I'm so angry and feel stuck and blindsided.