I received this message through the Grace Rivers Website. I wrote a response and prepared to send it off and it came back undeliverable. I’m supposing that the writer sent it using  a false email address so as to not hear back from me. So, I decided to publish the message and my response here. Maybe they’ll read it.

Dear John,

Every time I hear about you or read something recent you wrote, I just want to cry. I really do. As I see you and so many others turning from the truth of God and turning to your own truth based on your emotions and experiences, it saddens me. And to know that I was once where you were and now that I see the truth of God, my life is ruled by, changed by, healed by the Holy Spirit. And the saddest thing to me is that you and many others like you really, truly think that you’ve been enlightened to the real truth that God was trying to tell you all along. In some ways, I wish God’s Word was totally wrong about the path you and others are taking. Loving falsehood and hating the truth is not a good place to be from an eternal perspective. But who can speak to a man’s heart when a man’s heart is the end of everything he knows and does?

Mark,

I received your message and appreciate your passion and care for me and others you put in my category.

The transition I’ve made these last eight years has been challenging and yet enlightening. I’ve come to realize that all around the world there are thousands of diverse interpretations and responses to what we know as the Bible. There are denominations spanning the globe and here in the US that have very different views on significant translations and interpretations of this book.

For many years I truly believed I had the corner on the market of knowledge and interpretation of the Bible. I was adamant that I, as well as my fellow believers, had the full truth and that we held fast to it. I see now that we were a small faction in reality, and that I didn’t have any more evidence of what was true, and what isn’t, than anyone else.

For me, I now see just how arrogant I was. To think that a few people who believed we had the final truth, when honestly there was little evidence that we did. We only held to what was taught us, and we taught, that we believed we had to be very careful not to stray, or to look into anything that may divert us away from our truth. Smaller factions such as Amish, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, feel the same way and yet we believed they were cults and that they were too narrow.

I’m walking in freedom. Not freedom to sin, or harm others, but freedom to choose how I will believe, and I can now see that I really know nothing for sure. I walked in faith, and yet underneath it all, I knew I had questions. We were taught to not ask questions, but those things we didn’t understand we were to leave to God and keep walking. When I began to ask questions (far before any transition regarding my sexuality) I was disfellowshipped from my Christian small group for being rebellious, a false teacher, and unrepentant!!! Honestly, my questions weren’t that strange or off the mark so to speak. But the group I was in saw themselves as right in every way and I challenged the status quo. And no, we weren’t cultish, just ordinary conservative Christians who had come from a common Southern Baptist church that went through a serious split (over the issue of elders or no elders in the church.)

So, yes, I’ve gone through a major transition and I know it’s very public. But honestly, I have a desire, that people will discover, as I have, the true freedom we actually have. Freedom to seek, to walk, to choose, and to live as we feel convicted we should. I’m not a rarity. I’ve discovered many, many formerly conservative Christians are finding that freedom today. With the media, and internet, there is a lessening fear of expulsion for asking, because we know we are not alone and we have others who have walked this road.

Regarding the LBGT community of people, there has been far too many abuses laid on us from well meaning Bible believers. I’m now in a position to be a support to those who are questioning. I’m hearing the horror stories of men and women’s souls that have been severely damaged by Christians speaking from a cultural teaching that can be aligned with the Bible. But they do not reflect what I believe to be the real meanings therein. Fear, pain, anguish and yes, suicidal temptation and many other responses are glaring today as a result of conservative religious teachings. But truth is coming out as more and more LBGT people find the freedom to expose their pain.

Again, Mark, really, I do appreciate your contacting me and I understand the heart behind it. But just today I was wondering, would the larger church I used to be a part of, and dearly loved by, ever allow me to come and share my story? Would they have any interest in hearing about my life today and the transition I went through to get here? Would those who used to hug me every Sunday, telling me how much they loved me, care to hear my heart now? I’d suppose not. Why? I think it’s because they deem me rebellious, self seeking, and unrepentant, therefore my life has no value any longer. I have no story that they’d be remotely interested in hearing.

Peace to you, Mark.

John