According to Gert-Jan, there are several verses about the situation that a man lays down with another man, consequently, they would be condemned and punished by God. “If conservative Christians say it’s not allowed to express your own identity, it is hurtful.” That’s why the relationship between the freedom of speech and freedom of religion is sometimes tense: “Can a Christian say everything even though it might offend another person? Where does the freedom of speech end and where does the freedom of religion start?”ĭifferent opinions within the church about LGBTQ+ Christians are a result of different interpretations of the Bible. “Some people say you can have homosexual feelings as a gay person, but you cannot express them in a sexual relationship with another gay person”, tells Protestant Gert-Jan van Leeuwen (47) and president of ChristenQueer, a Christian LGBTQ+ movement that provides a safe place for Christian gays to meet like-minded people. How these incidents have been dealt with clearly shows that the opinions about LGBTQ+ Christians are still quite different amongst Christian communities, although the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. In March, the Catholic priest Pierre Valkering revealed he is gay and refuses to live in celibacy. In January, the Nashville Statement forced the Protestant Churches to take a clear stance on the acceptance of LGBTQ+ Christians.
How do conservative Christians behave towards LGBTQ+ Christians? This year, both the Protestant and the Roman Catholic Churches in the Netherlands have been confronted with this question. Individual gay believers who are coming out are being repressed. The Netherlands is a tolerant country towards gays, but within the Dutch Catholic church and conservative parts of the Protestant church, open homosexuality is still a problem.