“I was at school when a guy walked in and my teacher told me he was gay. I have to admit that he freaked me out. It might have been because of his manicured nails and his ponytail. Of course I could tell that he was a guy despite his feminine qualities. He asked me where I got my shoes from and we talked about how much schoolwork our teacher was giving us. He was nice and I realized that he was very easy to talk to. I don’t think that it is right to jump to the assumption that all of these people are bad or that they are attracted to you.
First of all I don’t want you to think that I’m a gay basher. I’m not and I’m not that type of person who can’t tolerate homosexuality. But it is my belief as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses that my God Jehovah does not approve of the act of homosexuality. It goes contrary to the laws that He set in motion.
There are a lot of people out there that may be fanatics who say that God will burn these people eternally in hell, such as in the recent event involving Matthew Shepard, who was violently kidnapped, robbed and left for dead because he was homosexual. At this young man’s funeral, ministers stood outside of the procession and held up placards saying that homosexuals would burn in hell for an eternity. Even though Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t condone homosexuality, I certainly don’t think that one should interrupt a person’s time of grieving. I don’t think that at any time it would be appropriate to do that.
The Bible does not teach that God will punish homosexuals, or any of his creatures, by burning them in a fiery hell forever. In Romans 6:23 it tells us- “For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.” This basically means that if people choose to change from being homosexual to heterosexual, God won’t destroy them. We must live like Jesus Christ did, preaching for the Bible. This is the ideal life for a Jehovah’s Witness. Jehovah Witnesses acknowledge that it will be hard to change and they will try to help. I personally believe that there might be some people that are brought up a certain way that prevents the person from engaging in heterosexual activity. So even though I do not hate the actual person and am neither taught to, the Bible teaches that the act, not the person, is bad.
Writing this story was hard
I had a hard time trying to get this article done because there were so many people trying to tell me what to say. My Dad had marks in pencil on the paper that the editor had already proofread. He was using big words about the religion that others won’t understand. My home-school teacher had pen marks in blue and she wanted me to use an old quote that I didn’t like much but she thought was important. The only way I knew which ones was the editor’s comments were because hers were in black.
One of my editor’s questions: if a friend of mine came to me and said that he or she was gay, how would I react? It’s kind of hard to imagine. I don’t think I would condemn them, meaning I would stop talking to them or ignore them on the street—but out of love for them I would have to keep my distance by not going out with them. I would want them to have the best chance that they could to get into Paradise Earth and if they were willing to accept help, I would do what I could to help them.
Doing my research, I found that homosexuality is not a new thing. The Bible tells the story of two cities thousands of years ago, Sodom and Gomorrah, that were destroyed because the people did not listen to their God Jehovah and the only good man left in the city. The citizens of the two cities continued to carry on their homosexuality and their gross immorality (this means that some of them were carrying on extra marital or incestuous affairs) which ultimately lead to the cities’ destruction. The lesson that I get from this is that I as a Jehovah’s Witness should listen to what my God says or it could mean my own personal destruction.
Even though I know this probably won’t change anyone’s mind about what’s right, I just thought that people should know what my religious views are. I wrote this to give hope to those that are scared or lonely, because we all fall short of the glory of God.”