Friendliest denominations?

[Janes Groove]

yes the Church does not condone homosexuality/Trans and considers it a sin. But Ideally it loves people with Same sex attraction or Trans and wants to welcome them and love them just like anyone else who has fallen under sin no matter what the type.

So in other words the Catholic Church with it's "hate the sin, love the sinner" approach is telling trans people. "It's okay to be trans, but it is a sin, so you better knock it off."

Not sure how healthy that concept is to fully embrace from a psychological health perspective if in fact one is really transgender. 
Actually, now that I think about it it sounds pretty toxic and I think it could lead to some very unhealthy outcomes. Pass.

[Sowilo]

I look at it as a parent that loves there child very much but   at the  same time  the parent  makes it clear that don't agree with there child's way of life but do it with love and support. And  is there to help not chastise, but  I understand  the objection. I struggle In the chastity  dept, and have a hard time with  there  view on contraception. 

[Michelle_P]

So in other words the Catholic Church with it's "Hate the sin, love the sinner" approach is telling trans people. "It's okay to be trans, but it is a sin, so you better knock it off."

Not sure how healthy that concept is to fully embrace from a psychological health perspective if in fact one is really transgender. 
Actually, now that I think about it it sounds pretty toxic and I think it could lead to some very unhealthy outcomes. Pass.

Not sure?  It's incredibly unhealthy.

I was 'caught' at age 15.  I got to visit 'doctors' who didn't have exam tables, just chairs in a room with low light who wanted to talk to me.  My parents were offered treatments for me.  I think, thanks to Mom, that I was spared electroconvulsive and faradic aversion therapy, in favor of simple testosterone injections and counseling by the parish priest.

I was taught that I suffered from a perversion, but if I repented my sinful ways, I wouldn't go to Hell. So began almost 50 years of Hell on Earth, damaging me, and with my damage, hurting those I loved as I struggled with it.  Now, by the sinful act of being honest with myself and finding treatment, I am condemned for all eternity. Thanks a bunch, Monsignor.

Why did the Creator make me this way?   Who sinned, me or my parents, that I was born a transgender person?

Oh, 'original sin'?  Because one of my ancient ancestors broke a rule, sinned, and so condemned all their descendants to be damned unless they joined the right club and performed the right rituals?

So much for what that nice Jesus person said.  Misleading people with that "this happened so that the works of God might be displayed" nonsense!  Hrmph!  There ought to be some sort of punishment for misleading people that way.

As I said, I'm looking for a spiritual path that doesn't involve a mandate that I swallow whole some absurdly inconsistent and self-contradictory ideology. The whole "Welcome, thank you for your donation, you're going to Hell" thing isn't appealing to me.

[Sowilo]

I'm not going to get to into it, but like I said I appreciate  you taking this seriously and being genuine. I def agree that Catholiscm  is a package deal, where it seems like in some  protestant  churches  or other paths  it has more leeway we these thibgs,  and you can  pick  and choose where with  The  Church, the teaching  doesn't  change. But yeah totally understand

[Janes Groove]

I'm so sorry you had to endure that at the hands of that quote unquote "parent that loves there child very much."
Sounds absolutely medieval.

where with  The  Church, the teaching  doesn't  change.

Now that's not entirely true is it? They did kind of disavow that whole Inquisition thing, although some of its torturers are still official saints.  And the burning of witches. Oh and they finally gave up on their insistence that the Sun revolves around the Earth.

[Deborah]

On confession.  For many years I was a Protestant before I finally became a Catholic.  Every week I did confess my sin of being trans to God and did feel real repentance.  On occasion I even managed to remain "not trans" for up to three days before falling again.  Finally, I came to the conclusion that this weekly repentance was a big lie to myself and to "God". 

So I quit trying on my own and asked God for his help in "healing".  That healing never came and God remained silent.  The weekly confessional lies continued. 

In the end I became Catholic for this, and other, reasons.  Still no "healing".

The weekly confessional lying depressed me greatly knowing I was going to fail anyway and knowing God wasn't ever going to do anything to help.  Hearing the constant barrage from the religious about how I and others were choosing to reject God only added to this sense of despair.

In the end the only possible conclusions were that either St. Thomas was correct about predestination and that I was predestined for God's rejection or alternatively that whatever God there is has absolutely no resemblance to anything contained in Christianity. 

This decision was not reached because of a desire to sin or because of a desire to reject God or even from a lack of Christian knowledge. Rather  it came from my learning and knowing exactly what Christianity was and reaching a rock bottom pit of despair because the God of that Christianity apparently did not care at all about me.  He allowed me to be born with this, ignored my pleas for help, told his followers to hate me and those like me, and condemned me to eternal torture.  Weekly communion was just a reminder of my sentence of death.  There is no hope there.  There is no joy.  There is no light.  There is only darkness and hopelessness; rejection and despair.

Unconditional love is not unconditional when it comes with the condition that I become something that is impossible for me to become.  Love is not love when my genuine pleas for help are discarded for decade after decade. 

Love the sinner and hate the sin is no comfort at all when the sin that is hated is not something I do but rather something I am.  I AM THE SIN. 


It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
André Gide, Autumn Leaves

[FTMax]

Hi all,

This topic has derailed into something that doesn't fit the original purpose of my thread. Posts as old as this one shouldn't really be brought back to life in the first place (you can make your own!), and the posts that have been added since it was brought back continue to get less and less helpful in the context of the original question.

Thread locked.