Religious outpost offers sanctuary to gay Filipinos

Yahoo – AFP, Joel Guinto, 19 July 2015

Pastor Kakay Pamaran preaches in a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender

(LGBT) church in Manila, July 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jay Directo)

Manila (AFP) - A gospel serenade of deep baritones echoed through a dim alley in one of Manila's red light districts on a humid Sunday evening -- the joyful sounds emanating from a rare religious outpost for gay Filipinos.

In the small room, where a rainbow flag hangs next to a lace-covered crucifix at an altar, a few dozen worshippers raised their hands in prayer as sex workers strutted in front of fleabag motels on the street below.

Tucked away above a seedy bar, the makeshift protestant church is a safe haven for gays who for decades have struggled for acceptance in the conservative Roman Catholic society.

"We are a sanctuary for those who are heavily burdened. If you are suffering because of bigotry, you can come here to unload," Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) pastor Kakay Pamaran told AFP.

Like many in her flock, the 33-year-old former television commercial producer agonised her entire life trying to reconcile her sexual orientation with the Christian faith that she was born into.

Pamaran said she led a "double life", keeping a girlfriend and going to church with her conservative parents who tried to ignore her being a lesbian.

"I was taught that being gay is an abomination. I struggled as a Christian because I feel there is nothing wrong with me," she said, preparing that evening's sermon on her smartphone.

At the MCC, which says it is the country's biggest gay-friendly church, Pamaran said she learned that: "God's diversity is manifested in God's people".

Tucked away above a seedy bar, a makeshift protestant church is a safe haven

 for gays who for decades have struggled for acceptance in the conservative Roman

Catholic society (AFP Photo/Jay Directo)

Gay pride marches and pageants are freely staged across the Philippines, and a primetime television soap about two gay men was a major hit. But barriers remain.

Michael Mia, a 42-year-old call centre worker, recalled how his former born again church tried to "restore" him to heterosexuality when he came out as gay.

Mia said pastors vigorously prayed over him, made him date women, fast and memorise the Bible to "cure" him.

"I almost gave up on God. I thought I was born to be a sinner and will go to hell just because I'm gay," he told AFP.

Fire and brimstone

Eighty percent of the Philippines' 100 million people are Catholics and the church's conservative views still have a deep influence throughout society as well as government policy.

On a visit in January, when crowds thronged the streets, Pope Francis spoke out against "confusing" versions of sexuality, marriage and family, saying these were under attack.

The Philippines is the only country outside of the Vatican where divorce is outlawed.

Abortion is also illegal. Homosexuality is not a crime, but an anti-discrimination bill has languished in parliament for two years.

And while the Catholic Church does not officially condemn homosexuality, anti-gay sentiments from its local leaders are never far from the surface.

"In Sodom and Gomorrah, there were same-sex activities and God destroyed these cities in a hail or fire and brimstone," Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, one of the Philippines' most senior bishops, told AFP when asked about MCC, citing the Bible.

"Even among animals, a union is between a male and a female. How can they (gays) possibly generate their own kind?"

But MCC does not subscribe to a "literal" interpretation of the text, Pamaran said.

"There is no one way to read scripture. God is much larger than the Bible. God did not stop speaking after the Bible was published."

Founded in the US and operational worldwide, the MCC has five Filipino churches since its first service 24 years ago.

However they are tiny communities, each having just several dozen members.

Members and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community

take part in a parade in Manila on December 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Jay Directo)

Rainbow Service

Pamaran's church is located in seedy Cubao, where authorities in the capital city of 12 million people have tried to funnel other taboo but rampant practices like prostitution and quack medicine.

In a room no bigger than a small classroom, it recently welcomed a 17-year-old boy who attended for the first time. He said he stopped going to the Catholic Church several years ago after coming out.

"I told God, I miss you. That's why I came here," said the weeping college student, who said he learned about the MCC from the internet.

During communion, a choir of men wearing tight shirts, shorts and slicked-back hair sang an unlikely praise song, the Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey duet "When You Believe".

Pamaran said church membership was growing and members were reaching out to their communities.

Mia, the call centre agent, holds prayer meetings at shopping mall food courts, offering free snacks to entice participants.

But Pamaran conceded that full acceptance is a long way off.

"I don't have illusions of assimilation into the mainline Catholic Church. They will always resist anything that disrupts their order," she said.

"We have a long way to go... but we must never lose hope, fighting for what is right and what is ours."

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Kryon Q&A

Question (2003): Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?

"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”