The Church Should Be A Place Of Love Not Fear For The LGBT Community

The Church Should Be A Place Of Love Not Fear For The                                                                                                                                       LGBT Community

Transgender Christian In Chains

                 

          Face Book:  Transgender Christians In Chains Facebook
          Enail:           BobbieLang@Reagan.com

 

By Meggan Sommerville, March 31, 2014 at 12:02 am

I want to welcome guest blogger Bobbie Lang, author of her own biography, "Transgender Christian in Chains". Bobbie now lives on a lake in the fabulous Texas Hill Country with two lazy cats and Kate, a crazy dog who thinks she’s a kangaroo .  She is fully involved as an advocate for the transgender community and is actively engaged in building a bridge between the denominational church and the LBGT community.

By Bobbie Lang

For any child navigating through adolescents, life can be a challenge filled with new discoveries and revelations that sometimes lead to missteps and misdirection.  Fortunately in most cases there is usually a parent or mentor that can help guide them along as they explore the mysteries and rites of passage.  However, for a child struggling with gender confusion this journey can be extremely daunting and often there is no one to turn to or a place to go to find answers, or at least emotional support, for the internal conflict they are facing.

“What is my place with God and how does this affect God’s plan for my life?”  This was a question that I, and many others, face in addition to questions concerning sexuality, orientation and puberty.  Unfortunately for most in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, the places of worship are far too often not a place of sanctuary filled with loving guidance, but has the appearance of a hostile fortification where anyone who does not fit into the traditional doctrinal precepts are often shunned and worse- expelled.

All through my childhood and early adulthood I struggled with these questions but knew I would find no direction in the counsel of a church pastor or empathy from members of the church.  I felt alone and isolated and my questions and confusion only grew worse.  Then, after surviving two suicide attempts I finally surrendered and decided to transition.  As a woman it was my fervent desire and determination to be a Godly woman and in all things give God the Glory.

I found a new house of worship and was soon asked to lead in various outreach ministries of the church.  However, I was still uncertain if I was living up to God’s plan for my life.  As I became better known in the church as a Godly woman, someone who loved God with all her heart, I finally felt comfortable enough to confide in the pastoral staff about my past and asked for partnership in prayer for God to reveal to me His divine plan and call upon my life.

I was not asking for “answers” or “judgment” directly from them but to help me through prayer and discipleship.  However, judgment is what I received in that I was no longer allowed to be a part of outreach ministries, prayer teams and was excluded from Christian fellowship.  I was not allowed to share with others the spiritual gifts that God had given to me and trusted me with.  I was pushed into a corner and ignored.  I was not barred from the congregation but I was not allowed to be a part of God’s family.

After this I understood what Christ spoke about.  In the book of Matthew, Jesus solemnly warned those that followed him about the scribes and Pharisees that thought that they held the rightful place in Moses’ seat.  The Pharisees dictated to the people to observe the laws but “They tie up heavy loads, hard to bear, and place them on men’s shoulders but they themselves will not lift a finger to help bear them”.  Matthew 23:4

This happened three different times in three different churches in the course of four years.  Finally, I fled the church and for the next sixteen years I was forced to worship and seek God through private Bible Study and devotionals.  Had it not been for the spiritual roots that grew deep during my childhood, I would have walked away from God and been lost to sin.  The vision of the multitudes in the LGBT community that have not had the opportunity to know of God’s love at an early age haunted me and in the years since the exile from those churches, my compassion for them has intensified.

It is my intense desire for the church leadership to present a sanctuary to all individuals, regardless whether you belong to the LGBT community or anyone seeking God’s plan for their life.  It should be the goal of each and every church body to open it’s doors and hearts to everyone and disciple them in the everlasting and loving word of God and not tie them up in the perceived traditional dogma or traditional edicts.

Each place of worship should represent everything that Christ embodies.  It should teach God’s love while holding fast to the truths of the Word.As God opens doors and pathways for me to speak before pastors and congregations, He has given me the exciting opportunity to present a new and different image of the LGBT community to the church pastoral staff and church congregations.

The misrepresented and over exposed negative image that has prevailed in church teachings has done great harm to our community.  We need to be shown as good and  ordinary people, each of us trying to find our place with God, each of us with our own struggles and each of us looking to the Redeemer to point us in the direction we should go.  When it was asked of Jesus what the greatest commandment was He answered, the first is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Matthew 22:37-39.

This should be what anyone entering the door of any place of Worship should be met with and placed deep in their heart.

Bobbie Lang

3/28/2014

 

 

If you like the fresh and different viewpoint I have for transgender Christians struggling with gender confusion and their faith in God please follow and like me on Facebook at

Facebook      Transgender Christians In Chains

 

Email             BobbieLang@reagan.com

     

                           

 

 For more information about Bobbie Lang you can get my autobiography “Transgendered Christians In Chains” Amazon.com     It is my heart and soul for my writings to help mend painful lives and heal painful experiences by sharing the story of my victories and the lessons learned from defeat.   It was never or will ever be my intention to push my autobiography for the purpose of monetary gain. 

Agony of Responsibility (What if I am Wrong?)

                    

Agony of Responsibility  (What if I am Wrong?)

Yesterday’s blog post was extremely stressful for me on so many different avenues.  For me to make the statement that I now support gay marriage was almost as hard as saying I now support any of the seven deadly sins or any other host of errant behavior.  Please understand where I am coming from.  I was raised in an extremely conservative southern Pentecostal church who believed that any one sin, no matter how insignificant it may be would lead you right to hell.  It didn’t matter that you gave your heart to the Lord yesterday; if you sinned today you would be jerked right out of your shoes and slammed into the pits of an everlasting and all-consuming hell.  Growing up with that belief was in itself a form of hell, living every day in fear and not in the loving Grace of our Lord and Savior. 

As I grew older I committed myself to studying the Word to understand what God really said about salvation and falling from Grace.  As I studied the Word and listened to His voice I learned to walk in the Light and Peace of the Father instead of the fear and anxiety of what would happen to me if I messed up.     But old lesson die hard and many of the erroneous teaching of my youth still linger.  Like Gay Marriage. 

The fear of going to hell consumed my life for nearly thirty years after my transition.  Whereas, I knew the Lord loved me which ever gender I was, I could never break free of my childhood teaching.  The fear of going to hell plagued me.  If I died today, where would I spend all eternity?  If somehow I made it to Heaven by the skin of my teeth, would I get a crown?  Would Jesus proclaim me before the Father and say “well done, my good and faithful servant”?  I wanted so much to please God but my childhood teaching would not let me live in peace.

Finally, in 2013 I finally broke through and found the peace I had sought after that long thirty year journey.  The Father had shown me so much and I had learned so much and I knew He was calling me to share these Pearls of Wisdom to others struggling with the same issues.   I had so much needed someone along my walk to have guided me but I had no one.  I had to find my own way and I wanted to help others.  However, every day, my youthful errant teaching endeavored to dislodge and disrupt what God has led me to do.

I know the responsibility of sharing my life with others and often the burden weights me down.  If someone is looking to me for guidance, and if I lead them astray, the Bible tells me it would be better for me to have a millstone tied around my neck and dropped into the deepest ocean.   The tremendous responsibility often overwhelms me.  The pressure of causing others to miss out on God haunts me.  What if I am wrong?  What if I didn’t hear God correctly? What if Satan has got me deceived?  What if…..what if……WHAT IF?

I also knew that when I started writing these blogs and presenting my viewpoints I would be angering the church and the LGBT community alike.  And I have done just that.  Because I my Christian views I have been banned from some LGBT writing web sites.  I don't know if my writing is helping anyone or if I am offending my readers.  I rarely get comments back and I often get very discouraged.  I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness with no support from anyone. 

I love the transgender community.  Ya’ll have endured so much, for so long against all odds and sometimes I don’t think we are any closer than when I started my journey in the early ‘80’s.  Please understand that we are all on this journey together, yet, each individually and leaning on each other for support.  I haven’t all the answers, yet I know where some of the watering holes are and I know where many of the land mines are hidden.   I am not Moses but I know God walks with those who walks with Him and sometimes He has to carry us.  Please pray for me. 

Bobbie Lang  May 26, 2014

If you like the fresh and different viewpoint I have for transgender Christians struggling with gender confusion and their faith in God please follow and like me on Facebook at

                                           Facebook:  Transgender Christians In Chains

or                                        Facebook:  Bobbie Lang

Or                                       Email me at  BobbieLang@reagan.com

 For more information about Bobbie Lang you can purchase my autobiography “Transgendered Christians In Chains” on Amazon.com.  It is my heart and soul for my writings to help mend painful lives and heal painful experiences by sharing the story of my victories and the lessons learned from defeat.   It was never or will ever be my intention to sell my autobiography for the purpose of monetary gain. 

                                             Amazon:  Transgender Christians In Chains

Transgender, Homosexuality and Marriage Equality? Questions Answered

                                           
                                                Email:         BobbieLang@Reagan.com
                                                Facebook:   Transgender Christians In Chains
                               or              Facebook:   Bobbie Lang

          Transgender, Homosexuality and Marriage Equality?

                                                     Questions Answered                                

During my transition from male to female and after my gender reassignment surgery in 1984 I struggled with the idea of dating and all the issues and questions of intimacy with men.  As a male my interest was in females.  I had dated a few girls in High School and I had all the typical hormonal instincts of discovery of the opposite gender I suppose every young adolescent boy has.  As a young man I married a beautiful woman and fathered a daughter.  However, I was just acting out the script that I was typecast to play because of my apparent anatomy.  Through all the years of my psychological therapy the questions concerning dating was a main topic of group discussions.  Most everyone thought they could handle the idea of dating men but it was not true for me.  The idea of even holding a man’s hand much less kissing him made me sick at my stomach and I thought I could never do that.   I knew I was not a homosexual man but as a woman what would I discover my sexual orientation to be?

As I began my new life I returned to college to pursue education that would prepare me for a new career.  I was in my mid 30’s and I was absolutely captivated by all these young men in their early 20’s asking me out.  At first I refused but eventually I gave in and began to date.  I enjoyed the fact that men saw me as an attractive woman and I felt at peace that for once in my life I was living the person I thought I was meant to be.  I enjoyed the company of men and the attention that they were showing me and I was attracted to the strength that I found in them.  After a day filled with activities such as camping, hiking or boating I could easily fall asleep and felt safe and secure in their strong arms.  However, whenever the men’s thoughts turned to romance I became extremely uncomfortable and I often wondered what I would do if I was ever asked for my hand in marriage.  Then it happened.  Twice I was asked and twice I broke off the relationship and moved on to someone else.  Eventually, though, I began to believe that I could be the dutiful giving wife that most men desired so when the third man proposed I accepted.   Plans were made and as the wedding day approached I knew I could never go through with the marriage.  The idea and fears of sexual intimacy petrified me and I knew that this marriage would never work.  I ran away from the altar and from men in general, however, the strength in men and men’s attention toward me still attracts me, even today.  Now I live my life as a lesbian and I found that is where I am happy.  So does that mean that I was a heterosexual male and now I am a homosexual woman?  How you view me is a matter of semantics and I can accept either identity without being offended.

So what about marriage equality?  All my life I have been absolutely against gay marriage.  Even in my autobiography released within the last year I stated I was absolutely against it.  It always seemed to me that gay marriage was an attempt by the LGBT community to normalize something that isn’t normal.  I do not think that me being transgender is normal and I do not believe that homosexuality is normal.  I have also heard the excuse that marriage would afford the marriage rights of any heterosexual marriage.  Kate, my partner of nearly nineteen years, and I have been able to acquire legal and family administrative rights through the help of a good family attorney.  So why does the LGBT community demand marital equality? 

For many, believe it or not, the answer may be found in the Bible.  It is about the Biblical guidance concerning fornication.  Fornication are sexual permissiveness is mentioned forty eight times in the Bible.  I think every time I have heard the church criticize homosexuals and the resulting lifestyle it has been in the context of having multiple partners.  Sexual intimacy is one of the gifts that God has given to man and it is a wonderful thing between committed partners.  But the key phrase here is “committed partners”.  Sex outside of marriage is wrong, plain and simple.  End of story.  For the heterosexual community to expect the LGBT community to practice celibacy outside the bounds of matrimony is  wrong and asking them to do things that they themselves would not do is also wrong.  This is no different than the Pharisees who thought they sat in the seat of Moses and put impossible burdens on man and would not life one finger to help them.

So have I changed my views on marriage equality?  I have prayed so intently for God to give me the ears to hear and the heart to listen to His Word so I now support any loving and committed relationship, or marriage, between two men or two women.  I thought I would never come to this point and yet, here I am. 

Bobbie Lang May 25, 2014

If you like the fresh and different viewpoint I have for transgender Christians struggling with gender confusion and their faith in God please follow and like me on Facebook at

Facebook:          Transgender Christians In Chains

Or Facebook:     Bobbie Lang

Or Email me at BobbieLang@Reagan.com

For more information about Bobbie Lang you can purchase my autobiography “Transgendered Christians In Chains” on Amazon.com.  It is my heart and soul for my writings to help mend painful lives and heal painful experiences by sharing the story of my victories and the lessons learned from defeat.   It was never or will ever be my intention to sell my autobiography for the purpose of monetary gain. 

Amazon.com:  Transgender Christians In Chains