How did you discover faith ?

[foreverlikethestars]

Im a bit desperate for guidance at this point. I never had much experience with religion but the little I did went very poorly due to being lgbt

 

[TheAntidote87]

Philosophy- Starting with Plato and Aristotle- moving to Thomas Aquinas. I realized God isn't just some man in the sky, but something so much deeper philosophically. I also realized I had a intrinsic understanding of concepts like right and wrong, justice, etc and I wondered why.

 

[Grav]

I'm still discovering what faith means to me but the easiest way for me to explain it is I've always been into paranormal stuff, especially near-death, life after death, powers of the mind, etc. For me, even if you screen out most of the junk there's still some stuff that's not easily explained and it may have a kernel of "something else". Whether that "else" even knows or cares about us I can't say. I'm also a history nut so I come across different beliefs, not often but it happens, and when I mix that in I still have a tingling in my head that says "there's something" but I'm not sure what it is (a big part of why I'm still around). The near-death experiences and are interesting when taken out of the TV psychic world. Maybe they're just nothing but it's never been really examined to the fullest, at least to my satisfaction. I also hear people talk about a global conciousness which, to me, is probably the same thing, a '"something". I'm too distrusting of people and history gives a nice long show of how inhumane humanity is so I don't follow a specific religion but have a general belief. I could be completely wrong but most of the "faiths" I've come across have love as a base in them and to me that's my religion, although I'm not in any way the ideal, and if I use that as a guide at the very least I'm not making things worse.

 

[Life_and_Death]

I'm wiccan. I've always loved the earth and whatnot. Plus if you don't believe in anything you don't have to. Or if you do that's fine. The wiccan rede is really the only thing you have to follow. And that basically just says be nice and think about things before you do something.

 

[timf]

I was raised a Lutheran. When I was a teen, I asked some questions that received no adequate answers. When I was 30, I started to read the bible. Slowly I came back to faith. For me, the key was to see what was true more than the doctrines of a particular denomination. The bible can be confusing and even boring. There is no shortage of people that will yell at you or get angry because what you have come to understand. However, there is a verse that says, "let each be persuaded in his own mind".

I would recommend to keep plugging away in a search for truth. It may also be helpful to look at those who profess faith and see if you can find one that clearly show light and love. It might be helpful to ask that person to help you grow in understanding. It wouldn't hurt to begin with prayer. It might be tentative at first, but I have come to believe that one can find faith.

Deu 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

 

[Notwinnernotawin]

When I found out I needed to hold on to something bigger and stronger than what was hurting me. That's when I decided to look back at God, after years of spiritual blindness.

 

[I_love_to_bake]

Magic mushrooms.

 

[CC123]

I believe that Unitarian Universalist congregations are LGBT friendly

 

[esse_est_percipi]

Im a bit desperate for guidance at this point. I never had much experience with religion but the little I did went very poorly due to being lgbt

I don't have much faith, but I recommend reading the gospels.
Ignore everything that came after (i.e. the Church etc)

 

[so tired or manic]

my faith is in my animals. they're better at knowing when I'm out of control than I do. they get extra clingy so it's hard to not notice.

I met a trans priest? pastor? I don't remember. I just remember admiring them for foraging their own way in this world, especially taking a path of religion despite how hateful religions tend to get towards trans people.

 

[Funkymonks]

I was raised as a catholic but I no longer practice because as I got older and things happened in my life I simply couldn't accept their teachings. I'm from Ireland and live close to a home thar was run by the Christian brothers so I know of families that have been seriously affected by abuse.
If your looking for religion, try your local churches, although I hate to say there are not many lbqt that are genuinely accepting.
If your looking for spirituality there is a website called Gaia, which is for all levels.
Good luck to you and I hope you find what your looking for.

 

[everydayiloveyou]

Im LGBT also (lesbian) and I personally found religion when I had my first depressive episode around grade 8. To be fair my ctb plan back then was really stupid lol but I was planning to do it before New Year's. One day I prayed seriously on a really bad day of school, like down in my knees and everything. I asked God to help me if He was there. Then the next day at school, it was raining and some girls in my class started talking to me about the rain and life and school. I usually never got spoken to in that class and usually the other kids would make fun of me behind my back. But that day changed my perspective on things. I felt like someone was listening to me. And then that school year started going super well! That particular clsss always sucked, but at my other classes I had actual friends and we'd talk all the time. It was a really fun year and I still miss them dearly.

I was an atheist and I never really believed in a God or religion before that day. My parents were vaguely Christian but they weren't devout or anything and I've only gone to church once in my whole life. If you want to get into Christianity maybe try downloading a Bible app and reading a page every day. I recommend the Amplified version or Common English version. That's what I started doing after that rainy day, and I've since read the Bible front to back twice. There's a lot of questionable things in it, particulary in the Old Testament, but I mostly take Jesus' direct quotes as fact. And nearly everything he says of is based on love and forgiveness.

Personally I don't have any interest in going to church ever or joining faith-based interest groups. I dont think anything will go bad because of that specifically. Faith is your own journey and you can choose what to do. If it gives you comfort to believe and trust in a higher power, then thats great! You might find a lot of peace and distraction in reading the Bible and making your own interpretations. After all thats what basically every church does anyways! But if you dont vibe with the Bible and Christianity, you can always pick up the Torah or Quaran. Or even believe in nothing or everything. Its up to you, the world is full of options.

 

[AllReturnsToNothing]

I'm a queer person so I totally get where you're coming from. I think it helps if you expand the realm of possibilities beyond just the very narrow realm of religious faith you were allowed to experience as a child. Which in my case, being brought up under an incredibly vague brand of protestant American civil religion type Christianity made my ideas of religion pretty narrow. I took a world philosophy class in college and got lucky enough to get a really good professor who likened religion as a tool to get through life. I think he specifically used some kind of "boat" analogy about crossing a huge river and how it's okay to not want to ride someone else's boat and instead create one made just for you. It also helps to broaden your view into how other faiths perceive the world or the divine. I'm particularly fond of the Hindu idea that all things are Divine, or "godly", and are simply aspects of the Divine. In my case it's kind of fun to believe that this otherwise mundane world might hold some kind of divinity to it.

Truthfully i'm incredibly fascinated with religion but it does suck being a queer person whose death would be celebrated by most world faiths.

 

[foreverlikethestars]

Magic mushrooms.

aha i can partially relate to this one

 

[Deleted member 1465]

I'm afraid I have no faith, just... suspicions.

 

[ocd is bad]

This sounds stupid but one of the few people who talked to me in high school had a name related to religion and I guess I took it as a sign. Idk.

 

[muffin222]

I had a spiritual awakening about 3 years ago while I was meditating while stoned on weed. Since that day, I began to feel that there was another layer to the world beyond the physical form and our everyday 3D perspectives. I found that as I opened my eyes to this new way of perceiving the universe, the means and the information sources I needed to uncover my own personal truths, principles, and answers revealed themselves to me naturally as I researched and sought out answers online and through books. It's almost magical in a way, how the answers and philosophies we seek reveal themselves to us organically as we take the steps to find them

 

[Done at Fifty]

I find great comfort in Neale Donald Walsh's books Conversations with God. He claims to be having a conversation with God who is also his higher self. Even though I'd say he's just talking to himself, it has great insight and views on the meaning of life. The way its written, like a quiet chat amongst two friends, relaxes me.

 

[Escapist]

I grew up in a religious family, so I always had some form of a religious faith in the background. It got more personal in my early adulthood when I had a strong spiritual experience of God and God's love. Since then religion has been both my heaven and my hell, it has been both the best and the worst thing that ever happened to me, if that makes any sense...

Neopaganism is the most accepting religious community for LGBT people I think, some pagan traditions even celebrate homosexuality, which doesn't happen in Christianity. Liberal Christians can also be very accepting but you gotta get lucky and not run into the wrong kind of Christians.