Lesbian Woman Creates ‘LGBT Bible App’ to Promote ‘Inclusivity’ Within the Church
PHILADELPHIA – A lesbian woman who is frustrated by the lack of homosexual-friendly material available in Christian bookstores has created what she describes as “the first LGBT Bible app,” featuring resources that celebrate homosexuality and do not condemn same-sex sexual behavior as being sinful.
“This app is for people who identify as ‘spiritual but not religious,’ progressive Christians who have had premarital sex and don’t care, who are frustrated with purity culture, who are pro-choice, pro-women, and who want to accept and embrace interfaith connections,” Crystal Cheatham told AutoStraddle.com.
Cheatham, who hails from Philadelphia, describes herself as a lesbian Christian. Although she once thought that her same-sex attraction was incompatible with her belief in God, she has since decided to embrace and celebrate her lesbianism.
“I’m black, I’m a lesbian, and I’m tired of feeling like my faith doesn’t matter,” Cheatham said in a press release. “Some think it’s an anomaly that a black lesbian can be a Christian, but there are many out there like me.”
After coming out as a lesbian, Cheatham said she became frustrated by the lack of books and resources available in bookstores for people like her who identify as lesbian Christians. Therefore, she decided to address that by creating a pro-homosexual app called “Our Bible App.”
“Our Bible App is the first LGBT bible app,” the app’s website states. “Creating devotionals for progressive Christians, we uplift believers of ALL stripes.”
“Our Bible App supports the belief that spirituality is a spectrum and that faith is a journey,” it outlines. “At its core, the holy text was written to be inclusive of all of God’s creation especially those on the margins.”
Scheduled for release this Friday, Our Bible App will feature a library of progressive devotionals and a collection of Bible versions that refer to God in gender-neutral terms.
“Through devotionals highlighting pro-LGBT, pro-women and encourage interfaith inclusivity, we hope to provide a tool that is needed to create healthy prayer and meditation habits,” the app website’s claims.
Cheatham says that she hopes her app will help Christians embrace and accept homosexuality.
“There are so many Christians out there that want to be accepting of LGBT people, but don’t know how because they haven’t received the resources,” she told PBS NewsHour.
However, Ken Ham, president of the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, says the Our Bible App is “biblically wrong” and misses the point of the gospel.
“[The creators of this app] are ignoring the very heart of the message of Christianity, that we become born again (John 3:3)—become new creatures—and gain a brand-new identity when we turn to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)!” Ham wrote in a blog post on Monday.
“These professing believers are trying to find their identity in their sexuality and gender rather than submitting totally to Jesus Christ,” Ham continued. “But we are no longer defined by our sin when we are Christians. We are defined by Christ who lives in us.”
“There should be no such thing as an LGBTQ Christian any more than there should be a drunkard Christian, liar Christian, or adulterer Christian,” he added. “We are simply Christians, and our identity is not in the sinful desires that we all still have (though Christians are given strength to restrain ourselves [1 Corinthians 10:13]), but in the One who died for our sin and gave us new life (1 Corinthians 6:9–20).”
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