my straight christian friend

I have been classmates with C since 9 months ago. Because we stay down the street from each other, we spend lots of time talking on our way home after lessons. On one hand, I am very thankful that I am able to come out to someone I consider a good friend. On the other hand, her expressiveness in declaring her love and affections for me (jokingly of course) makes me uncomfortable at times.

C is a good christian girl, cheeky at times, but with her foundations and beliefs in place. Her view of homosexuals is the same as most "mainstream" christians; " We accept you for who you are but we do not condone your lifestyle if you are in a sexual relationship with someone of the same gender." I am sure we all had christian friends who had said that to us at some point in our life.

Fortunately for me, C's not like that. She is more open than many christian friends I know. Others would try to avoid this topic as much as possible. Because she seemed so open to the concept of same-sex relationships, I initially suspected that she could potentially be closeted. But I was wrong. After many conversations with her, I think she's perhaps 90% heterosexual, and her traditional christian beliefs will inhibit the remaining 10%. ;)

I figured that the reason why she could be that open was because of her gay buddy. She has a very close colleague who's gay, so she's exposed to the "gay lifestyle". and I really do mean lifestyle because her buddy is one of the typical gay men who believes that it's okay to have sex as long as the other party wants it too. Because of all the sharing she has been exposed to, she has come to a level of openness that helps her to be more open-minded to the concept of love in a same-sex relationship.

What's the application from this sharing? Firstly, it helps to come out to people around us; the more people are exposed to LGBTQ peeps, the more "normal" this "concept" will seem to them over time. Secondly, discern the type and the amount of information we share with them. We can be authentic and open, but timing is also very important. It is loving and caring to protect our friends and loved ones from information that would cause them to stumble. It is not just about us. Most importantly, if we want people to know that being a gay christian is possible, we have to live in a way where the only difference between straight christians and gay christians is our preference in the gender of our life partner. A personal life testimony is more powerful than our knowledge of God and the bible in our current time and age.
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