Before one continues reading this commentary, keep in mind that Christendom is not the same thing as faith in Jesus. Christendom is the accumulation of ideas and traditions developed by people after the Apostolic Era ended.

Ideas and traditions can become so ingrained in the collective psyche that opposition to them is risky. However, an appeal to popularity is a fallacy of logic, and succumbing to popular belief is not on the Apostle Paul’s list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

If a million Christian preachers say, “A,” but if the Bible doesn’t say, “A,” then isn’t wrong to point out that the Bible doesn’t say, “A.” A million Christian preachers can be guilty of marching lockstep in groupthink and read into the Bible something that is not there.

So, one isn’t contradicting the Bible when one says, “LGBTQ+ Christians exist.” Instead, one is contradicting a kind of groupthink that permeates Christendom.

When one reads John 3:16, Romans 10:8–13 Ephesians 2:8–9 and 1 John 5:13, one can see that saving faith in Jesus is all that one needs in order to have eternal life. One adds to the Gospel when one insists that one must also be a cisgendered heterosexual in order to have eternal life.

Indeed, the Bible doesn’t even mention transgendered people. Nor does the Bible say that one chooses one’s sexual orientation.

Seriously, who would choose a sexual orientation that has historically resulted in one being on the receiving end of all kinds of verbal and physical abuse? As one cartoon dog says,

Also, opponents of the LGBTQ+ community misunderstand what it means to be LGBTQ-affirming. So, here is a clarification.

To be LGBTQ-affirming does not mean that one approves of or promotes any particular sex acts. Instead, it means that one affirms what the New Testament states in 1 John 4:15 [NRSVue]:

“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.”

Nothing in the Bible prevents members of the LGBTQ community from believing and confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. Members of the LGBTQ community who do so have not committed the unforgivable sin. Thus, they are as much bound for Heaven as opponents of the LGBTQ community who believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God.

The latter continue to sin even if they won’t admit it. If they can continue to sin and still go to Heaven, then the same is true for members of the LGBTQ community who are trusting in Messiah Jesus alone for eternal life.

The Bible does not rule out the possibility that one’s sexual orientation is something that one is born with, and God doesn’t punish people for the way that they are born.

Now, if one objects to that last sentence because of what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:26–27, then one ought not leave out what Paul writes in Romans 1:22–25.

In short, Paul is saying that the ancient Romans were guilty of worshipping false gods, and therefore God punished them by giving them over to dishonorable passions.

Now, just what false gods have members of the modern-day LGBTQ community been worshipping that cis-gendered/heterosexual people have not been worshipping? If heterosexuals and LGBTQ people have been worshipping the same modern-day false gods, then why aren’t the heterosexuals given over to the dishonorable passions that the Apostle Paul mentions?

Is it not possible that Paul is describing a situation in the ancient Roman empire that does not exist today?

Granted, as this writer reveals in another commentary, certain sex acts carry with them a serious medical risk, and those particular sex acts were a feature of the ancient Roman empire as well as a feature of modern-day societies. Adults who choose to participate in such risky sex acts bear responsibility for any negative medical consequences that might result from their choice.

That is not being religious. That is being an adult.