Biblical Gender Equality

Although biblical gender equality is not the main subject of this blog, since many bible-based groups require women to submit to men and do not allow them to minister, it may be a good idea to study biblical gender equality as well. Christians for Bible Equality International website contains several good articles on this subject. However, notice that the authors of these articles are not LGBT friendly.

Recovery from Bible Abuse

One of the issues that LGBT ex-cults members of bible-based cults may need to deal with is recovery from Bible abuse directed at them as LGBT people. Since Bible abuse directed at LGBT people in bible-based cults is similar to the one in many Christian churches, literature on these issues addressed to LGBT people who were abused in Christian churches may be helpful, for example:

• Steps To Recovery from Bible Abuse by Dr. Rembert S. Truluck (The list of the twelve steps with links to them)
• Confronting Bible Abuse by Micah Royal (Part 1)
• Confronting Bible Abuse by Micah Royal (Part 2)
• Confronting Bible Abuse by Micah Royal (Part 3)
• Confronting Bible Abuse by Micah Royal (Part 4)

APA on LGBTI Issues

In the website of American Psychological Association, there are many articles on LGBTI issues. Some of them are:

• Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality
• Answers to Your Questions For a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality
• Answers to Your Questions About Transgender Individuals and Gender Identity
• Answers to Your Questions About Individuals With Intersex Conditions

Clobber Passages

"Clobber passages" are the biblical passages which are often used against LGBT people. However, actually, these passages do not condemn homosexuality and transgenderism. So, LGBT people who left bible-based groups need to learn the proper interpretation of these passages. There are many websites and articles that provide LGBT-affirmative interpretation of them. I will name just some of them:

• Challenging Conventional Wisdom by Steve Schuh
• What the Bible Says - And Doesn't Say - About Homosexuality by Rev. Mel White
• Christianity and Homosexuality Reconciled by Dr. Joseph Adam Pearson
• I'm Gay and It's OK by Rev. John W. Brown
• Would Jesus Discriminate?
• Bible Abuse Directed at Homosexuals
• Homosexuality, Transgenderism & The Bible
• The Bible and Homosexuality by Rev. Dr. Mona West
• The "Clobber" Passages
• Homosexuality and the Bible
• What the Bible Says and Means about Homosexuality
• Studies on Homosexuality and the Church by Erwin Buck
• Transgender Christians
• Religion, Spirituality, and Transsexuality
• What Does the Bible Really Say about Transsexualism? by Lynn Montgomery
• Gender Identity and the Bible: Jewish & Christian Perspectives by Rev. Chris Glaser, M.Div.
• Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and Transgressive Sexualities by J. David Hester
• Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities: A Congregational Guide for Transgender Advocacy
• transACTION - A Transgender Curriculum For Churches and Religious Institutions
• Institute for Welcoming Resources

Recovery of LGBTIQA Ex-Members of Bible-Based Cults

In my opinion, post-cult recovery of LGBTIQA ex-cult members of Bible-based cults, includes two groups of issues:
1) those that are common for all the ex-members of cults;
2) those that are specific for those of them who are LGBTIQA.
In addition, post-cult recovery may include:
1) psychological recovery;
2) spiritual recovery.
Thus, there are four kinds of issues that LGBTIQA ex-cult members of Bible-based cults may need to deal with:
1) psychological issues common for ex-members of cults;
2) spiritual issues common for ex-members of cults;
3) psychological issues common for LGBTIQA ex-members of Bible-based groups;
4) spiritual issues common for LGBTIQA ex-members of Bible-based groups.
LGBIQA people who were involved in Bible-based cults experience similar problems to those who were in fundamentalist and conservative Christian churches which condemn homosexuality, transgenderism, and sometimes intersexuality. Some of them are also not very positive to asexuality.
In principle, spiritual issues may be divided into two groups:
1) those that are related to the need of reinterpreting the Bible;
2) those that are related to personal spiritual life.
In turn, psychological issues also may be divided into two groups:
1) those that are related to the problems of the cult involvement;
2) those that are related to the problems of the post-cult recovery.
Also, in my opinion, in order to deal with the issues of the post-cult recovery, the main need is self-education. Thus, this self-education may include eight subjects:
1) thought reform (also known as mind control or coercive persuasion) and its specifics in different cults;
2) post-cult psychological recovery;
3) biblical hermeneutics and reinterpretation of the biblical passages that were twisted by the cult in order to justify their authoritarian and spiritually abusive teachings;
4) post-cult spiritual recovery;
5) psychology of homosexuality and transgenderism;
6) psychological recovery for LGBTIQA people;
7) LGBT-affirming interpretation of the Bible;
8) spiritual recovery for LGBTIQA people who were in biblically abusive groups.