[tw: slurs against sexual minority groups]

griff-kendu:

swanblood:

asexualeducation:

greyao:

Hello, Tumblr. I doubt you’ve seen an avatar that looks like mine before. You may have seen the asexual flag going around, and maybe you’ve seen juxtaposition of a cross and a rainbow flag as a symbol of LGBT Christian pride, but you’ve probably never seen a combination of the two.

If, like me, you are asexual and Christian, you probably haven’t thought much about it, since asexuality alone involves no inherent sexual sin or controversy within the Church and Christian life. But maybe, like me, you’ve been mistaken for being gay by your particularly homophobic classmates and peers (I pray you’ve gotten none of the same treatment in your church!). Maybe you were confused in your childhood over their reasons for doing so. Maybe you were upset by that one House episode. Maybe you’ve seen other asexuals on Tumblr and have noticed their affinities to “sex-positive” philosophy, non-normative gender identities, and other ideas thought of as godless trash by social conservatives and wonder which deserve that stereotype and which do not. Maybe you’ve simply asked God why you apparently haven’t been created to want to be fruitful and multiply.

If you’re a non-Christian asexual or a sexual of any kind, you may still be interested in my perspective. If you were offended when I said above that some of your ideas may be godless trash, then let me tell you that I am not so liberal that I will simply go along with every idea of sexual liberation that comes my way, since some of the more radical behaviors and theories are not Christlike in any way. But I condemn all hate of anyone, sexual, ace, queer, straight alike. I myself, unlike some in the asexual community, am skeptical towards the assumption that all aces are queer, especially in the context of qualification for government benefits; nevertheless, I recognize that there are queer aces, and I love them with the love of Jesus.

I will also post about autism as an #actuallyautistic blogger, since I most likely have PDD-NOS though I’ve never been told the name of my diagnosis, and since there’s (at least hypothetically) a decent demographic overlap between autistic adults and asexuals.

This is Gray-Alpha-Omega, signing off on his first post.

…I’m not sure how I feel about this in particular. It’s fine to be a Christian, it’s fine to believe in God, it’s fine to believe in Jesus. However, attitudes like this (the bolded part mostly) are just some of the reasons why other communities don’t take the Asexual community seriously. I don’t have a problem if someone considers themselves repulsed, or don’t like the idea of having sex themselves, but we should allow others to choose freely and without judgement how often they wish to have sex. The last thing we need right now is more people telling us Asexuals that we’re homophobic and slut shamers…

“radical behaviors and theories are not Christlike in any way”

“radical behaviors and theories are not Christlike in any way”

But… but…

Jesus was a radical. People forget that. Jesus was not a social conservative. When social conservatives were complaining about people with leprosy, and prostitutes, and how “weird” they were and offensive and how they did not want to be near them, Jesus went to them and supported them.

And I really don’t think he ever would have called a non-normative gender identity, “godless trash”.

“For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” —Matthew 19:12

Eunuchs, meaning a person who reads as male but does not have a penis (or sometimes, a person who is not fertile) are often not gender normative, the way that most social conservatives think of gender. “Eunuchs who have been so from birth” can include people who have a hormone difference from “typical” cis men, including intersexed people, etc. who are often not fertile.

So, sex and gender identities other than male and female were thought to be okay by Jesus. I don’t think he would have ever used words like “godless trash” to describe people like this.

Surgery for transgender people did not exist at the time. But, it’s clear that Jesus supported the eunuchs, and other unusual identities or conditions of birth, when many people at his time did not support them. He said things like this about eunuchs because they were unusual to society and he wanted to make it clear that they were okay in his eyes. I think if he had known about transgender people, he would have said that, too.

And, calling people’s sexual and gender identities “godless trash” is still a hate phrase. They are not just “ideas”, they are part of that person. Whether they have “been so from birth”, or “choose to become that way”, or even influenced by society (“made eunuchs by men”), Jesus supports them. It is the less socially acceptable path to do the same. But, according to the Bible, Jesus walked that path.

I myself am a Christian and asexual and supportive of the queer community (and myself identify as queer because “queer” is an umbrella term for the non-heteronormative) I always take a bit of issue with the term “Christ-like”. It makes me sick, what people use it to mean. It’s just another way of saying “better than you”. Which I loathe. To me, Christ was accepting, unconditionally loving and forgiving. That is what it should mean when you want to be “Christ-like”. Yes, He was pure and good and all that, but I think we need to quit try being “Christ-like” in terms of being “holier than thou” and need to just let go of all of our contempt and hate and judgement of others and practice what He freaking preached: acceptance and love no matter what someone did or what they were or where they were from or whatever.

Also, I’ve seen many interpretations about homosexuality in the Bible, and one thing’s for certain: no one is actually 100% sure what it means. It’s either an untranslatable word or out of context. And either way, it actually really doesn’t matter a single bit, anyway because

newsflash: There really is pretty much absolutely no way any one can not sin. Killing a dude is sin, swearing is sin, watching TV can be interpreted as sin. Can I tell you how many Christians I know watch TV and swear? I’ll tell you: every single one.

How dare you single out people for “sinning” in one way without checking yourself. A speck and a log? (And I’m aware of the hypocrisy of me saying it because I know for sure, I’m definitely not without fault.) Especially when it’s something innate and not a conscious decision (I general avoid “it’s not a choice!” because it implies that it’s not as good as heterosexuality but it is relevant here). Dang, man. Anything not done for God can be interpreted as “Godless trash” (loved the lack of capitalization there, by the way) and sin. I’ll admit, there are some things I’m a bit uncomfortable with, but that’s me, and as long as it is a personal decision that effects only that individual, it’s not my place to condemn or judge or tell them what choices to make concerning themselves, and it’s more the actions themselves than what I feel would impact the individual’s “moral worth” (for lack of a better word, IDEK what to call that).

“I love them with the love of Jesus.” I don’t know, man, Jesus’ love is unconditional, and your particular version of that love seems to have quite a good few of terms and conditions.

For goodness’ sake, this is drilled into you from a child!

(Also, “be fruitful in multiply”? I despise when people say that. I always took it as talking to a specific couple. Not humanity as a whole. We are very much multiplied already now. I may be wrong, though.)

((I’m a bit angry now and I’m sure I could come up with better arguments or points or wording but I need to take a break. I don’t even know if this rant was directed specifically to you anymore or to people at large, I lost track.))

^^^ <8D