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The Queer, Winding Road back to Faith
After years of wandering in the wilderness, I’m closer to returning to Christianity than I have been in the entirety of my adult life
A few years ago — time flies so quickly as you get older — I wrote here on Medium about my journey back to my Christian faith. At the time, I wasn’t at all sure how this was going to play out and, indeed, here we are several years later and I have yet to make the full step of returning to the church. However, I will say that I’m closer to doing so than at any time since I left Christianity in 2003. The road back to God, it seems, is a winding one.
First, some context. I grew up in a very conservative denomination known as the Church of Christ which, I think it’s safe to say, is one of the most boring denominations out there. Among other things, they don’t believe in instrumental accompaniment in service — for…reasons — and there are all sorts of other strange rules about what does and doesn’t constitute authentic Christian worship. It’s all very restrictive and quasi-Puritan.
Though discussion of homosexuality wasn’t really a major part of sermons — at least not as far as I can remember — it was still clear that being gay was a sin. This has, indeed, been the unequivocal opinion shared by many members of my…