QUEER ALTERNATIVE
The alternative, In Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God the creator of creation gave man-kind a constant option to have an experience that will always be with humanity, knowing there is an alternative in the life of humanity. The alternative that God gave, we know as the word “choice.” We may question why; why did God give alternatives.
Alternatives give sight to understanding that can lead to wisdom. The choices we make is either acceptable or not acceptable, good or evil. The problem we run into is that what we deemed to be acceptable does always equal good; what we deemed as not acceptable does not always equal bad.
That is an identity crisis. We have lost our identity by losing the lost words not found in scriptures that have been denied to future humanity. What am I saying? Is that we find and establish our identity from the word of God. The problem is that the words from the Bible do not contain all of who we are and what we are supposed to be. The document, the words that are in the Bible are fragments of God true intentions for his people.
The problem is that we have not realized that we were operating in a fragmented life. We are operating accordingly along limited knowledge. What we do not know, understand or agree can cause a separation that leads to anger, depression, and an all-out attack on one another. When we can’t identify what we think is the truth, it separates us from love. Separation becomes a manifested source of a misguided perception that drives people away. God gives us choices because it allows an alternative to becoming closer and the security in knowing one identity in him. In other words, God gives the power of choice.
Choice does not have power unless there are alternatives. How do we know what alternative to choose and work from gives us a true identity that lines up in perfect unity? First: you have to have your Bible. Second: you have to believe that the words that are in do not contain all of Gods words and instruction. Third: Must believe and have faith in what you will learn can be confirmed, denied or have you redirected in order for the truth to be revealed.
What you will find is that what you thought was true was a lie, what you thought was unacceptable to God was very much acceptable. The biggest discovery and the most difficult for some is that when they find an alternative that lines up with God does not line up with what humanity has taught. The choice to let go is not always easy. When your alternative is established; choices have to be made. You are faced with an answer that just may contradict all beliefs, but establishes the will of God. Do you choose the power within you to make the correct choice? The choices we make define our behavior and treatment towards others.
We can no longer blindly operate from the Bible if we do not hear what God is telling us from its words. The chapters of the Bible was not selected by God, it was put together by man and their limited understanding. What we consider sacred is what they wanted to be sacred. They tried to combine what they thought would be the best-written and influential writings of the time into one book.
We do not know their true intention but we try to make an interpretation of meaning and context of what has been written. Our attempts to understand the meaning of life and God had an affected way that can’t even be counted.
There are more scripture, more words for us to find and interpret that the Bible can confirm or deny. We must do this to become closer to the understanding of God.
When the word of God is left out of lives mistakenly or intentionally it could never hide what God wants us to know. God divinely allowed some words ‘in’ and purposely left some words ‘out’ so that God people will not become lazy in their searching and doing for God.
God left clues in his word for us. God words help us find and bring unity in knowing our true identity. In our search for alternatives and the truth, we must not forget what I refer to as the Peter factor.
Matthew 16:13-20
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
The Peter factor is that you do not forget that God will ask you “Who do you say I am?” How you respond is a choice. Remember that your answer will not always come from flesh and blood, but like Peter, your answer will come from our Father in heaven. It when God tells you something it will hold up to scrutiny; the truth confirmed the word of God.
Queer Alternative is about finding our identity no matter how odd or strange it may be. Working to find our identity has been, and is the biggest fight in human-kind. We have fought wars over identity from a global scale, civil war scale, even in our own back-yard and family-scale over alternatives; choices of all kinds. Choices about identity have brought about destruction in humanities history.
The fight for identity has caused a paradigm, a pattern in how we see ourselves, our basis for our uniqueness. If we are to be a person of faith then we cannot learn from the Bible without going outside of it in order to understand what God is telling us on the inside of the Bible.
The word of God tells us to go out, it tells us that our thoughts and our ways are not God way. When we become limited to the word of God, then our action, thoughts, and behavior will reflect that limitation.
When I was a security guard, I work alongside a co-worker who in his Christian faith limited himself to the Bible. He refuses to consider that there could be more to God word outside of the sixty-six books of the Bible. We spoke on things that he considered wrong, what he believes goes against God; this person could not allow himself see or discover other alternatives found outside of the Bible, that the Bible could confirm within its words.
Somewhere in our history, we have been conditioned to believe that the word of God cannot be questioned; we been trained not to go beyond what is written. Why is that? What danger lies beyond the bookends. The perceived danger to go outside the bible is not found in the stepping out it comes when you deny, suppress or take away the ability to choose. The power of choice cannot be contained or given to a selected few it is a gift given to everyone.
Choice causes people to fear or be empowered. You can call it a queer alternative for change. The queer alternative is not always about sexuality people make it out to be.
Queer Alternative is about differences. When you have been in the position of dominance you will do anything to maintain that dominance of power. You will fight because a change is coming. The power of choice is a gift from God since our conception to the time when man first understood self-awareness. God gave us the ability to choose, but we keep forgetting or ignoring the fact that God guides humanity in all our choices good or bad. Having the power of choice, no matter what others think or do when we exercise that power it brings us closer to the truth in knowing who we are so that we can be in a position to accept our identity that is in God.
Being queer is hard at times because it appears that as a queer they are being identified by sexuality. Queer alternative people are searching for a place of unity, a place of acceptance. A place that seems it cannot be obtained. The problem is that queer or heterosexuals are looking in the wrong direction and not seeing the clues in the word of God. God has laid out clues.
Here are three clues to begin your journey in finding your alternative to your identity. We all have strange or oddness about ourselves in a sense we all are searching for a Queer alternative.
Clue One: Isaiah 55:8
New International Version
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
New Living Translation
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
Clue Two: 2 Timothy 2:15
King James Version (KJV)
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
New International Version
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
Clue Three: Matthew 6:33
King James Version (KJV)
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 22:36-40
King James Version (KJV)
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
(How Great is this commandment?)
How great is this commandment? It is calling us to love thy neighbor. It is so great that it was mention in Leviticus, Matthew (3x), Mark, Luke, Roman, Galatians, and James.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And the second is like, unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
And he answering said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandments, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:
These are the clues that tell us to go outside of the word of God to find the word of God. In clue two it says “seek.” Seek do not only mean look in but to look out, go outside. If you notice not once did it mention or spoke on sexuality to do what we are called to do.
Identity is so important to us because we want to be accepted, we want to be needed, even if it means self-acceptance.
In the article, Queer Alternative speaks to Kuhn’s and Karl Mark interpretation of alternatives and choices. “Kuhn’s (1970) discussion of the role of paradigms within science includes an account of paradigm change or the transition from one conceptual framework to another, Recognizing that sexuality, like science, is a human practice”
“Karl Marx, for example, described the practice as ‘sensuous human activity’ (1970, p.121) and remarked that ‘coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-changing can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.’ Just as Marx made reference to revolutionary practice, Kuhn made reference to revolutionary science.”[1]
These two gentlemen made mention to the practice of service to God. We fall short when we think in the realm of science or revolution. Imagine seeing science and revolution as twins with two different concepts in how to conceive and rationalize alternative that produces the option to produce the ability to choose. These twins are battling in such a fierce battle that they do not see what each other can offer in the clarity of acceptance, individuality, and identity. They are so focused on the power of choice that they use their influence to divide the people from the hidden truth. The truth of choice.
Our identity is in God, in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. The thing that science and revolution have in common is that both are in a constant state of change. God is not in revolution. God is constant. Humanity way of life is fluid and in a state of transformation.
When we find ourselves in God then and only then can we understand the alternative that God gave to us. Choices reveal our identity in knowing who we are, whose we are to know that love unifies our differences that releases us from our identity crisis.
When we cannot accept one another then we will always develop labels and cause division. If we keep seeing and operating in God from a singular or binary perspective then we limit who God is and who we are in God.
God is neither singular or binary and yet God can be singular, binary and trinary. We limit God based on our limits, We base God with our understanding. That’s why we get mad or choose not to believe in God because God does not fit the alternative of our thinking. Why am I here? Why me? Maybe it not about you? It all about God. When we find our purpose, find our acceptance, find our sexuality, find morality, find righteousness, find peace then maybe you will find your identity defined by the creator.
Question:
- What will you do when you find your identity and the search is over?
- Has Denying or Ignoring ever healed or protected you from pain and destruction
- How you ever tried to, Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
- What is your Queer Alternative?
[1] Marinucci, Mimi. Feminism Is Queer. Zed Books, 2016. P.29