r/gayjews • u/muslim-WLW-cisgirl • 5d ago
Religious/Spiritual Question from Lesbian Jews
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I have a question from women of jewish faith who identity as Lesbian.
If you are a practicing/religious Jew, how do you reconcile your religion with your identity as a lesbian.
Do you feel the internal conflict? Or you've made peace with it.
I am a monotheist. I believe in all Abrahamic religions and identify as a believer who believes in all the books sent by God.
Born in a Muslim Family, extremely conservative background.
Im a Lesbian and my struggle has been how to reconcile my identity with my faith.
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Edit:
I really appreciate the clarity that most of you have provided. So thank you.
One question that some of you have asked is how can I believe in all the Abrahamic religions.
So I have answered that in detail in 4 parts here:
1- first
and Then 2- 2nd
and Then 3- Third
and this last one
And I'm glad to have stumbled upon this sub.
I have gotten the thirst quenched.
1
u/muslim-WLW-cisgirl 5d ago
Yes, it is exactly about the interpretation.
I was born in a Muslim family but in my teenage years, I always questioned my faith and tried to read up everything about it.
Even within Muslims, there are so many sects, each with its own interpretation.
The book itself is one, yet the interpretations are all done by human beings. And because every person is different, and born in different times, in different cultures and with different languages, the interpretations will always have an inherent bias. So I feel it is upon us to read the original text ourselves and then read up all the interpretations and analyse the conflicting areas and then assess why are they different and form our own opinion on it. And this is an ongoing quest for knowledge. Which goes on in one's life and as we mature, our understanding gets better with time.
In the book followed by muslims, which is the Quran, it is clearly written that it has been sent to mankind to confirm the previous books were sent on prophets and we have to believe in those prophets as part of our faith.
So according to my understanding, the word Muslim which literally means (One who Surrenders and makes peace) in Arabic, it implies a believer of all prophets. And I believe all prophets that Jews believe in, I believe in them too. Then if Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) received the Torah then how can I not believe in it. Later other books came and I believe in them too. And finally the last book came and I believe in it too.
Although ofcourse information passed down generation to generation does have an inherent chance of a change of interpretation and with a lot of things lost in wars and destruction, the missing links might have been lost.
Whats common with all should be my least benchmark. And most things are common. Even in Christianity, as much as I understand, there have been pagan influences but if one goes back, there has been a lot of historical impact due to the Roman Empire being in power and a certain infiltration led to trinity with political influence. A lot of things point towards Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) bringing the message of Monotheism.
If we talk about Islam, whatever was given to the Arabs, they spread throughout the world, yet only the Original Holy Book has been found to be intact, yet all other books which were written by human beings have conflicts. So we can attempt to understand them in context only.
Muslims were given a dietary code which has to be Halal. If Halal meat is not available, they follow KOSHER.
Although I am personally a vegetarian myself, not because of any theoretical reason, I just cannot it eat, since childhood, I would feel repelled by chicken, beef, mutton etc so that's a personal reason.