Jay Michaelson's "God vs. Gay"

Webcasting around the world from the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona. This is the dividing line. The Apostle Peter commanded Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us.

Yet to give that answer with gentleness and reverence. Our host is dr. James White director of Alpha Omega ministries and an elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. This is a live program and we invite your participation.

If you'd like to talk with dr. White call now at 602 973 460 to or toll-free across the United States. It's 1 877 7 5 3 3 3 4 1. And now with today's topic here is James White.

Show Notes, Travel, and Upcoming Debates

So I didn't even blog the last dividing line. That's great. Nice to know where as I'm going on. Maybe someone out there who has access to the blog might be able to get that done even during the program.

Rather than just waiting for me to do it because then we'd be behind even farther than that. So a nice thing about the blog is you can pretend that we actually blogged it a few days ago. He's put different data Yesterday on the dividing line and then just make it look like it actually.

Appeared then sort of rewrite history. Nothing to see here. Move along. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get that fixed. We'll get that fixed.

Yes, of course if you subscribed to the iTunes feed then. Then all would be be well and and of course the name of the file is always the same. But anyways for people like red goatee who you know this struggles with all those things.

We we need to we need to post these things so he can he can listen and and we need to we need to help all of our listeners no matter where they are in the order of capabilities anyways. Good to be with you today on a beautiful a cool day cool day here in Phoenix.

My heat turned on this morning. Some of you going my heat's been running for months. Well. Not not around here, and it was about 40 degrees this morning and and I'm sorry a 65 65 degrees. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, my family's used to it. I I figure you live in the desert. You did that heat stuff at. I think the one in my office here is set to 63. Yeah, that's why you always have something down here to where I noticed is much warmer on your end of the office today.

And.

Anyways.

Good to be with you today. Got a number of things look at but might be taking phone calls as well. Depends on how far we get into some of some. Of the things we're looking at. I almost I mean I was tempted briefly yesterday morning.

I went out for an early morning ride because I wanted to ride in the cold. I believe or not actually someone a good Good friend out there in the listening audience had Provided me with a with a pair of super duper waterproof windproof winter riding tights and I want to test them out and so I want to go at the coldest time of the day.

So I was out there in the dark yesterday morning. It got down to thirty five point nine which some of you in colder climes are laughing because that's your high. But when you live in the Sonoran Desert thirty five point nine is is pretty cool.

Especially when you're on a bike and you're like going down a hill at thirty miles an hour you throw in the windchill. And that's that's moving. It's that's pretty cool. Anyways. I was listening to a book Michael Brown.

Had.

Directed me to and we'll get to that in a moment. That's the first thing we do is we're gonna look at that and then we've got some stuff from David Woods trip over to the UK and some of his debates. And man there was a nasty MDI article.

I.

Need to bring that up when I start playing something else, but just just very quickly a great. Thanks to Everyone who has been standing with us During this what do we call this? The the the web store outage the web store outage time our many thanks to everyone who has been standing with us during that particular point in time and It's very very helpful to to keep things going keep the lights on and I was just getting a report on how things are going and We can tell everyone it's gonna be worth it.

Can't wait. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's gonna be worth it. The cards could be a lot nicer. The web stores can be a lot nicer. The blog is gonna be allegedly I've been told haven't gotten here yet But the blog is gonna be easier for me to use which might encourage me to blog more If I'm not having to use that rather Nasty nucleus web interface that I've been using for many years now.

So, you know, yeah, hopefully January 1.

We can go nuclear on nucleus. Oh cool. Okay. Good. Good. So that's that's a good thing.

Unfortunately, everybody in in channel is now talking about my having mentioned wearing tights.

You know.

When you ride a. When you ride a. Ride a bike, you know. Do you remember. Remember bell-bottoms. Remember bell-bottoms. Back in this you try not.

We are definitely dating. I wore those in junior high.

Yeah, I know. I know I know. They looked hey the hair the glasses. It was all the there was all the rage man. It was it was great, but you remember even regular pants if you ever rode a bike with them.

What happened got caught in the chain. I got caught in the chain so you've got you know, if you're gonna ride a bike and I'm I'm working toward, you know, the end of the year here and I do a lot of riding.

You got a deck kind of thing. It's just how it is. But anyways, thanks everyone who has helped us to get through all of that stuff. I will mention is that I've thrown a few items on the Ministry resource list if you've been if you just been itching to do something the ministry resource list.

There's an item on the blog right now that gives you direction to that We started at I think that's at least three years ago. Maybe four I've lost at three or four three or four years ago that ministry resource list has been Incredibly incredibly encouraging to me and since I mentioned it the Muslim debate initiative blog.

Let me read this to you. This is just read a section this. This is from Sadat bin Anwar MDI Canada. I'm not Haven't met the gentleman or if I have I wasn't aware of it. I was expecting the answering Muslims team to be slightly peeved over David Woods Mediocre and dispiriting performance at speakers corner in London's Hyde Park a few days ago.

Admittedly woods not so pleasant reception by the Hyde Park Muslims and MDI member Paul Williams in particular was not exactly helpful to him winning any Islamophobic brownie points with the larger audience that was present.

But since when was speakers corner been anything about more than a shouting match? Well, there is an interesting admission certainly doesn't make me have much of an interest in in getting into such situations because I I Don't know.

I happen to actually respect both sides more than just getting into shouting matches. But anyway Debates at this extraordinarily Extraordinary and unique venue have been won and lost on the merits of one's vocal cords charisma megaphone amplification Capability witty one-liners ability to deal with unruly hecklers and even well-timed jokes.

I Think that's a way of saying truth is fairly irrelevant here. Moreover wood was not lecturing Now this is interesting check this out. Wood was not lecturing a group of evangelicals in Texas. This was London England and everyone knows that British Muslims are not the soft and pushover American Muslims that David Wood and his ilk are used to dealing with back home.

Wow. I thought this guy was from Canada and I mean from from the world most the world's perspective the Canadians aren't exactly. You know, I mean other than the Mounties, you know. And and a few hockey players.

They're just too cold to do much else so anyway. Repeatedly and rather mercilessly heckled into the ground by questions about God command the killing of babies in the Bible Woods usual demagoguery and lines of attack against Islam and Muslims.

Presently on a free loose in the more congenial American climate met a premature dead end of speakers corner and the usual hot air. We are accustomed to watching dead wood blow evaporate rather quickly into the crisp London air.

I.

Actually wrote to Dave and I said dude what's what's what's the real story, you know, cuz I've I've seen when I see Muslims saying now they're Ahmed. Why. I clean the floor with me. I I'm not really quick it accepting and accepting that particular perspective and so He said that This is really weird.

That's not weird. This is this is just so. Illustrative of the reality of the Paul Williams saga, you know. Paul Williams wants to present the air that he's he's so scholarly and He's just so accustomed to the rarefied air of British intelligentsia that he just doesn't want to have anything to do.

This fundamentalist like James White not such a backwards view of scripture, you know and but for some reason. After doing two debates with Chris Green who likewise pretty much has the same view of scripture I do.

He's at speakers corner now, what are you doing? It's speakers corner Paul and According to David he comes right up front and stands there.

Yelling at.

David the whole time he's trying to speak Why did your God command the killing of babies in the Bible? Why did you just over and over and over there's there's Paul Williams. There's the man who doesn't want to debate James White because he doesn't have a standing in the scholarly community.

Staying there at speakers corner acting like an insane nutcase Tells me that Paul Williams won't debate me not because of my views because he knows he can't he knows he can't he knows he would lose and he would lose badly in front of his constituency and Everybody knows it and he knows it as well.

So, I'm according to David he's got some video and I can't wait to see this video I want to see I want to see this video. It could be very very very interesting To catch that but I did find this article.

You know if if something like this appeared on one of our websites You'd hear you'd hear about it forever. Oh You see you are a bunch of Islamophobes. I guess is is sadat a Christophobe then I mean if we're gonna be fair that does.

Anyway, I don't know.

Huh? So, um yesterday as I said, I'm out writing about and I'm listening. I was talking with my well, I was actually communicating with Michael Brown and He was in India and we're working on this stuff.

I hope you all are excited about this February 14th through the 16th in Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm also talking with folks at RTS. So we're gonna do something on Islam at RTS is Charlotte campus but Michael and I are gonna be teaming up to debate some Muslims and then Michael and I are gonna be debating each other finally on the doctrine of election and It's coming up in February.

So everybody's been waiting for this and I think it's really cool that we're gonna be teaming up. I guess the debates gonna be backwards. I would rather do the debate together first and then do the debate an election afterwards, but it's gonna be reversed.

So we're gonna debate election first and then debate the Muslims second. So I think the debate on election will be the 14th and debate with Muslims on the 16th, but we're still working on it's coming together and So we've haven't be communicating about stuff like that.

And so I had written to him and asked him If he had any how to enter action with Justin Lee.

Who.

Wrote the book torn which I'm gonna be making some comments on. I don't have it up right now. It's It's gonna be hard to get to in fact, let me mention this now I know this is really scattered dividing line.

Sorry, but there's so much stuff going on. We the dividing line is now on Grandpa watch. Okay. I'm just I am I am announcing it right now. The dividing line is on grandpa watch. My daughter is ready to deliver at any moment and in fact, I'm I should start bringing my phone into the office because she's ready and she wants to and She's 39 weeks.

So it's anytime ready to go and We're all just waiting to to greet Clementine to the this this part of the world she's already Last night. My wife was reading her stories. We went to Barnes Noble and we I'm in the wrong business by the way My books only like 10 or 11 or 12 bucks, you know months worth of work hundreds of footnotes 300 pages long Dr. Seuss books cost more than mine do.

Oh The bad kitty Christmas and it was 16 bucks for like 14 pages. It's like a buck a page. I'm in the wrong business, man. I mean talk about Work intensiveness, you know, this is this is all wrong. But anyways, so we are on grandpa watch.

So if you tune in Which is a silly word use because no one tunes in anymore you you hook up or whatever it is but if you tune in and And I'm and we ain't here or it's just the way back machine is just way backing continuously that's cuz I'm sort of busy and You know, I I don't I won't be here So we're looking forward to that and it's gonna be exciting, but I'm just just just announcing that for you just so, you know.

That's that's that's gonna be going on. So anyway.

Jay Michaelson, Queer Theory, and the “God vs. Gay” Argument

I.

Want to do a review of Justin Lee's torn. I think it's. I think it is an awesome example of the flood absolute flood of Pro quote gay Christian closed quote. Literature books articles, but especially books just Flowing.

I remember back when Jeff Neal and I Wrote the same-sex controversy. We were amazed at how many books had come out on Home, you know pushing homosexuality back then it has just continued to grow and grow and grow.

And.

There is just a flood and so I had written to Michael. I said hey have you had any interaction with Justin Lee. Because they're in the same general area and.

It.

Sounded like from reading the book that Justin Lee would be someone that Michael would be. Would be. I think of the two of us Michael would probably be the better of the two of us to interact with him.

I mean I have full confidence in in Michaels ability to deal with all issues. Relating to homosexuality his book is still the standard and I hope I hope if you're looking for a book to give to folks that you'll go to our Amazon store and Buy folks a queer thing happened to America because it still is very very very important.

Amazon .com org. Okay, thank you very much. And So we were just talking about that and and he wrote back and and he said oh. There's so many books coming out right now, and he sent me links to some others that I had not seen and one of which is titled God versus gay God versus gay, and so I.

I.

Took the time to to grab it and I hooked it up to the MacBook Pro the night before last and started recording and so on that cold weather ride on Monday morning I Started listening this book. I'm halfway through so I should finish it up on a ride tomorrow Lord willing but I again.

For those that are new the program. I do a lot of my studying on the back of a bike or on a rower these days, and it's weird How my mind works it. I index books by where I was. And in fact when I go back and read the book the ride starts playing through my mind.

Oh, I. I listened to this when I was turning this corner at this point and Especially climbing and descending. I'm not sure why that is. Being on the flats not so much because maybe it's not so you know memorable, but I was there's some really steep Hills people say Phoenix you got yeah, it's called the Valley of the Sun and I was climbing.

There's this neighborhood over in a particular area, and I guess I shouldn't really say, huh.

And.

I mean there's some 10 to as high as 18 percent grades, and they're not super long. But they will get your heart rate all the way up there. Well. I was coming down a particularly steep grade when I heard this one section of this book and.

I.

Keep laughingly saying I almost crashed because what I was hearing, but I almost crashed because what I was hearing. I really did it was. You've got to be kidding me. And I almost came back and said rich need to do a dividing line today, but it's.

And then we got so I got one tomorrow Morning, so we'll you know we'll live. We'll we'll push through and we'll make it so I Have this material in the book in front of me. Let me give you some background here.

This called God versus gay the religious case for equality. Queer action slash queer ideas. He actually promotes the idea that one of the best terms we could use is queer. Now do you remember do you remember when queer nation showed up in Salt Lake City?

Oh? Yeah, that was. What about oh one? Two somewhere right. It was right toward the end of when we were doing stuff it too long ago if you remember. I understand you're. You're well into your 50s now.

I'm just about to get there next week.

Yeah, so what I'm positive. It was in the 90s. It was really mid 90s really yeah. You know in fact it would have to be before. It was before that it would have to be before 95. Really, yeah, because as certain someone was with us and oh, so you're oh, okay, okay, so far than that, huh?

Okay, all right. Well anyway Queer nation showed up at the general conference the Mormon Church years and years years ago and back then queer. Man, that would be like using the n-word or something. But they've used it of themselves as a means of attracting attention.

Remember the guy who made up the Mormon missionary badge and rainbow colors. No, yeah, he was dressed up like a Mormon missionary, but his badge he had him in in the six colors of the gay rainbow. Oh and.

That that was interesting and they were they actually had this little March down On the south end of the South Temple which really didn't amount to a whole lot of people. No no no no they they were. Extravagant enough we'll put that way.

Oh, they certainly drove your attention. Draw some attention. Yeah, they did no question about. Well anyway.

He actually suggests now that queer is the best word to use and I found that very very strange. This fella is a Is a is Jewish with a master's degree in New Testament.

Okay.

Raised in a conservative Jewish home With a master's degree in In New Testament, and so he is a real grab bag when it comes to Buddhist spirituality and Hindu spirituality and and Just all sorts of stuff.

Okay, so this is just your your general. Really mixed up religious perspective, okay? But the argument basically is.

That.

The the the the big text the bad text as he calls them are ambiguous and unclear and can be read in multiple ways and therefore we should go with more important priorities and the greatest priority of the scriptures whether it's the Old Testament or New Testament or any other scriptures is That we are to love God and love ourselves.

Therefore equality and promoting equality and acceptance of Homosexuals, of course, he is the term gays or queers that this is. In line with the greater priorities no matter what you're reading of the ambiguous texts are and It seems like there is a real agenda it seems like these folks are communicating with one another and There is a particular drumbeat that is appearing in these books promoting gay Christianity.

It is a drumbeat that taps into the emergent stuff. It's not surprising. The emergent people are all becoming Affirming of homosexuality and and all the rest that kind of stuff and.

And.

It it's hard for me to not believe that there is not communication Between these folks so as to say this is what we need to be pushing right now this is what we need to be emphasizing right now and So many of the themes one of the themes that clearly it's been has to have been communicated at their meetings and things like that is We need to blast the ex-gay movement.

They've always hated the ex-gay movement because anyone who comes out of the movement is a repudiation of their primary argument. Which means which is there can be no change. One thing is for certain.

While there was a recoiling from the look for the gay gene thing for a while because then it'd be something could be fixed. Now the idea is no. We are born this way, this is what we are and it can not be changed and so the vitriol the hatred expressed toward anyone who says I once was and I'm not anymore the the the message of both torn and God versus gay is if you're gay you always will be If you have same-sex attractions, you always will have same-sex attractions.

Period end of discussion. Give up the fight. You cannot do anything about it. It is and and now evidently instead of looking for the gay gene because they haven't found one. Now what they're saying is well you see during development Um exposure to certain levels of hormones and other chemicals cause lesbians brains to look like male brains and Homosexuals male homosexual brains to look like female brains and certain parts of the brain now.

This guy and I'm sorry. I guess I'm just gonna have to go back to the Start here, even though That other yeah, Jay Michelson, I'm sorry Jay Michelson is is the name Michelson doesn't. Say this one one thing that was helpful about Justin Lee's book is That for example when he raised the same issues He said now It's possible That the differences in cat scans of the brains of individuals is due to How they have lived?

Rather than being the reason of why they act the way they do. In other words if a man has constant fantasies about other men and Then acts out on them or even doesn't but just has those constant fantasies that can actually change the brain and Change how the person speaks and behaves and the very fact there is such a thing that we jokingly called gaydar.

But we all know it works. Where you can you know? It's really easy if you want to know that if you have a functioning gaydar set You watch Project Runway, and if it if it blows up Then you have a functioning gaydar set and you you can tell.

We all know that there is a that there are certain characteristics to especially wildly flamboyant homosexuals and. But the question is is is the Function is that the result of the brain being made a certain way in development.

Or is it the other way around is it because a person thinks and acts that way that it impacts the brain. Because we know That certain behaviors can change the way that the brain The size of the brain and size of certain portions of brain activity in the brain, etc. Etc. Etc.

Just look at a cat scan of a grandmaster chess player.

Versus a.

Linebacker in the NFL. Okay, this could be differences, and it's because they do different things and. So Justin Acknowledged that Michelson did not. But anyways, that's a that's neither here nor there at the moment.

By the time I get to this section and this is Page 21 all right, so not not very far in it's not a long book. So it's about an eighth of the way into the book by an eighth of the way in the book. I Look at this point.

I'm getting the theme. The theme is equality. The theme is love. The theme is loving God. Okay, and and the that coming out is actually an expression of your love for God and yourself and and. And all the rest of stuff.

Okay, and so I understand what he's doing. He's creating an interpretive grid Outside of actually looking at the text and then he's gonna use that interpretive grid to change what the text actually mean.

Nothing new about this. But unfortunately for many many many many many many people in The evangelical community they are susceptible this kind of argumentation because it tugs at the heartstrings and Folks let me tell you something.

We only have ourselves to blame for this. We only have ourselves to blame for this. Yes, the society that we don't we don't think logically we don't teach our children logical thought we don't we don't.

We don't model for them. Having a respect for clear thought and consistent thinking because hey if you're just an animal who cares whether you think clearly or not. You know go with the emotions anyways, but one thing I will lay at the foot of many a church is that we Succumb to this and we we model the idea of an emotional approach to things by the way we worship.

But don't get me wrong. I recognize that man has a Emotional aspect to him, but I really appreciate it. We have a user. Is he in channel right now. I do not. Yep, he's not opt up. But I will op him up so people in channel know who we are talking about.

We have a user in channel. It's pretty quiet has a wildly crazy sense of humor.

A.

Former Roman Catholic used to really dislike me when he was and then the Lord was gracious to him and I saw him to say something yesterday. Somebody had come in channel and had said something along the lines of I think Vicky Ann and he were talking about this phrase relationship with Jesus and how that can be really abused outside of biblical parameters.

And They were talking about how that you know, there's yes, we're made as emotional creatures. Emotions are part of things but they're only a part of us and They are not to rule us and I love what he said.

I didn't jump in to comment on it. But I love what he said. I'm gonna have to sort of paraphrase here. But but what he said was I get emotional in worship, too but my emotions are peace and joy.

And.

Patience and and they don't just come flowing out in in in behaviors and. That is I think that is a sign of Christian maturity. I really really really do but look many many evangelical churches have bought into the idea that you've got to get everybody happy clappy and Get their emotions revved up and that's and you know get get the battery going to just Keep them going through the sermon.

Let alone anything else just to make it to the they're not gonna listen to your sermon unless you've revved them up with the emotions and. So should we be overly surprised? When the the opponents of the faith use the same kind of methodology and tap into the emotion and hence provide an effective apologetic.

Because that's what our folks are used to to what's or how we do to church. All right, you know. They don't even recognize when it's happening. Don't even recognize when it's happening. So I knew you know, I knew it was coming.

I Knew I knew how this this worked. But I want to read you a portion in this book I want to read you a portion of this book he starting on page. Let me let me look here words. Yeah, let's back up here this he's actually giving you some stuff that he had spoken at a room after he had come out.

Now let me back up here. All right. And I was told by my rabbis that sexual orientation was a lifestyle choice that if I wanted to I could be straight or at least celibate. I Knew this I knew was false because if I could have done anything anything to stop being gay I would have.

I hated being gay and I tried everything abstinence negative reinforcement fantasizing about women. I was even in a loving relationship with a woman for over a year trying all the while to be straight.

I tried immersing myself in Ahavat Hashem the love of God. Hebrew, of course, he's raised in.

As a Jew.

Focused only on Torah and learning. Sublimating my sexual tension. I was a kovach at Yitzro one who mastered his inclination and I was miserable. What do you wish for when you blow out your birthday candles?

I wished only to be straight. What do you pray for when you pray to God? I prayed to God for ten years the broken heart which our tradition teaches is the purest prayer there is to make me straight now this is this is the This this is what you've got getting torn this is what you got in this this is part of this new wave of argumentation and this is why the emergent folks and Rachel held Evans and people like that just collapse in Light of this because they have no foundation to stand against it.

There's there's no touchstone. You can not question someone's experience. That is absolute orthodoxy in our society now. Experience trumps all things unless it's Christian experience unless it's actually in line with Scripture then it's irrelevant.

You cannot change your sexual orientation you cannot. I tried you cannot. The worst is what it did to my ahavat Hashem my love for God. Why would God make me this way? How could I be so evil? I couldn't make sense of it one thing I know and I know other people have other opinions, but in my experience From ten years of what I have lived it is impossible to love God in denial.

You hate yourself. You hate God for doing this to you and you see the world is fundamentally irreparably broken. I pause for a moment it is. That's one of the problems here. It is all this. When we could read Leviticus narrowly only one kind of sex only between men.

Maybe only in the context of avodah Zara idolatry. You know we have holocaust laws that construe some mitzvot commandments narrowly simply to avoid ordinary unpleasantness. Yet here we are causing some people to kill themselves.

Catch that this is another of the the drumbeats now the drumbeats now. If you I didn't bring up the email, but you saw it we had an email sent in what about two weeks ago. About two weeks ago your kind of anti-gay rhetoric is what causes killed kids to kill themselves.

That's the new thing now. If you say anything against homosexuality you are causing people to kill themselves. Which obviously means if you say anything against pederasty bestiality incest murder Robbery if you make any moral stand and if someone feels bad about that.

Then you're responsible. That is the that is the voice of anarchy. It's the voice of anarchy.

Anyway.

That that uh.

Here we are causing some people to kill themselves to hate themselves and to turn themselves away from God. For one particular interpretation of two verses. Can this possibly be the right reading. Is this really the truth that some people should be shut off from Hashem?

And enclosed in self-hatred the top Talmudic sages knew many things that I do not know. But they didn't know about sexual orientation. Yeah, there's another theme people back. Then didn't understand what we understand today.

That's baloney. They did know it is a constantly repeated repeated statement, but they did know. It's a very new category. 200 years at the most they didn't know this truth that because of the way some of us are Intrinsically that this kind of love is the only way we can love and thus the only path to fully knowing and loving God.

Now folks, there is another theme loving is the greatest good no matter how you do it or what you love as Long as you love. Now you do realize what this would open the door to. This is the argument of pederasty.

This is the argument of incest. This is the argument of bestiality. These people say they were born that way. These folks have no defense against that and the only thing they can say is well, that's not real love.

Well, that's awfully bigoted of you. That's obviously bigoted of you. Today when I grow closer to God, I grow closer to accepting who I am.

I.

Returned the reality of God in this moment in this place and I remember that God made me perfectly and that loving a man is a pathway to loving Hashem. Particular love to universal love that is my fundamental truth and it is beautiful and it is holy even if it sometimes is Laced with tears and that was what he had presented and you see why the emergent folks collapse at this just.

Because it's all gooey and just so love love love. And remember biblical love is defined by God himself its objects its purposes and its necessity. Our society has no basis for defining love anymore. It's just something you feel.

Hey, just everybody's just got to do it. Just gonna love. That's all there is to it. And there's here's the part that I wanted to do a whole program on. And I'm just now getting to it. I am different now from how I was years ago, I no longer wish to be anything other than who I am and I'm grateful that I have been able to find love both human and divine precisely by accepting rather than rejecting the traits of my personality and soul.

Yet as I work with people still struggling with their sexuality, I am struck by how similar their stories are to mine. So many people believe that to come out to accept one's sexuality and be open about it with others would be the end of their religious lives.

Just as I once believed. They cannot conceive as I could not that coming out is the beginning of the authentic spiritual life. Not the end of it. Once I was honest with myself, I could be honest with God.

Once I started loving myself I could start loving God and once I allowed my heart to open it opened in all directions. And so here is the very theory That is being presented the very theory is That to love God you have to love yourself.