{"id":221,"date":"2018-11-20T22:44:24","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2018-12-06T08:31:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T00:31:41","slug":"if-you-vigorously-disagree-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=221","title":{"rendered":"If you vigorously disagree with me"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you vigorously disagree with anything written in my blogs, do not be surprised .\u00a0 Each of us is naturally rooted in our own history of experiences with LGBTQ believer.\u00a0 Take comfort that there are millions of others who are locked into a \u201ctotal war against the homosexual minority\u201d [302,000 Google hits].\u00a0 But a sustained war can be debilitating, and there is a sane wisdom in the admonition of Jesus to \u201clove your enemies.\u201d\u00a0 So, while you are thinking of the kind of <\/span>refutation that you\u2019d like to prepare, give a thought also to the kinds of experiences that you might want to gain for yourself by visiting a support group and finding out first-hand what gays and lesbians really think about themselves and what kind of support they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium<\/em>: \u201cWhenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God<\/strong>\u201d (\u00a7272). The pope further reminds us that \u201cA Church which goes forth is a Church whose doors are open. Going out to others in order to reach the fringes of humanity does not mean rushing out aimlessly into the world. Often it is better simply to slow down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others<\/strong>.\u201d (\u00a746).\u00a0 This is ideally the best attitude to bring to a support group that you are visiting.<\/p>\n

Preparing yourself for visiting a support group<\/h6>\n

Consider doing an online search using the search phrases \u201clesbian support group\u201d or \u201cgay support group\u201d or “teen support group.”\u00a0 Pick out a \u201cgroup\u201d that fits into your comfort zone.<\/p>\n

When I did my online search using Google, I adding the word \u201c*Cincinnati\u201d so as to insure that my initial hits were local.\u00a0 I received 728 hits for lesbian groups and 6200 hits for gay support groups in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

I chose to introduce myself as \u201ca straight interested in better understanding the lives of gays and lesbians.\u201d\u00a0 You might want to do something like this for yourself so as to avoid setting up false pretenses.<\/p>\n

After your second meeting, I invite you to write a reflection on your experience and send it to me at Milavec@Jesus4Lesbians.com<\/a> with the words \u201csecond encounter\u201d in the subject line.\u00a0 I will be glad to hear from you, to learn from your experiences, and to give you a reply.\u00a0 Alternately,\u00a0 I invite anyone who visits a support group to post below their experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bring a friend to the first meeting, if the thought of being the sole interloper makes you uneasy.\u00a0 My hunch is that you will be amazed.\u00a0 I myself received a warm welcome, and I didn\u2019t have to pretend that I had any homosexual leanings to earn that welcome.<\/p>\n

If you want to find someone who lives close to you to join up with you and go to a support group, type your first name, age, sex, and zip code [e.g., Aaron 80 m 45211] as the header to your post.\u00a0 In the body of the post, briefly describe what support group you’d like to visit, where it is located, and why this particular group seems most appealing to you.<\/p>\n

For parents and guardians<\/h4>\n

If you are a parent and are very much troubled by the experience of Gloria and Tony that I narrated earlier, then you most definitely will want to find yourself a \u201cParent Support Group\u201d such as the one advertised above.<\/p>\n

For those parents and guardians who are in conflict with a youth who has what you identify as a “dangerous” or “immoral” life style, please know that God wants to return you and your beloved child to a place of peace and love.<\/p>\n

Remember that priests and pastors are sometimes very poorly equipped to be of help in this matter.\u00a0 I myself have spent 25 years training future priests, and I\u00a0 know firsthand that some seminaries are very ill-at-ease when discussing homosexuality.\u00a0 Confide in your priest or pastor if you must, but don\u2019t make the mistake of implementing any of the advice you receive before having tested it out within your Parent Support Group first.\u00a0 Your child is too precious to risk doing unintentional harm to him\/her by making repeated mistakes.<\/span>\u00a0 In the end, you will find little consolation in the fact that the pope is infallible if you get trapped into being excessively rigid or excessively lax when it comes time for loving your child with the same unconditional love that you have received from your heavenly Father. \u00a0God is love, and God loves your child no matter what sexual orientation they have received from their Father in Heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fraternally,
\nAaron<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you vigorously disagree with anything written in my blogs, do not be surprised .\u00a0 Each of us is naturally rooted in our own history of experiences with LGBTQ believer.\u00a0 Take comfort that there are millions of others who are locked into a \u201ctotal war against the homosexual minority\u201d [302,000 Google hits].\u00a0 But a sustained … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “If you vigorously disagree with me”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,5,4,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}