I suspect that in the very near future my middle-aged daughter is going to tell my wife and me that she is gay. She was raised in the Church of Christ but left when she went to college, graduated, and lives in the college town. We don’t get to see her much, she does avoid us. She has had several failed relationships with men, and never refers to anyone she knows as other than “my friend,” so we stay in the dark.\u00a0 Our question is, what should be our response? In a way we have already lost her, as I have implied, but what should I say at the time? Of course, my prayer is that this never happens, but all signs indicate that it will.<\/p>\n\t
I would assume that since she has already left the church, this would just clarify why she left. You do have not responsibilities to her, now that she is an adult. Paul said, “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler–not even to eat with such a one<\/em>” (I Corinthians 5:9-11). Therefore, tell her you love her and because of that love, you cannot support her self-destruction. When she is ready to leave her sin and come back to Christ, your home is open to her. Until that day she is on her own and you will be cutting off any remaining contact with her.<\/p>\n It will be very hard to do, but it will show the strength of your convictions and the severity of her sin.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I suspect that in the very near future my middle-aged daughter is going to tell my wife and me that she is gay. She was raised in the Church of Christ but left when she went to college, graduated, and lives in the college town. We don’t get to see her much, she does…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-49140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-homosexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-this-elder-step-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":49140,"position":0},"title":"Should this elder step down?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a very difficult situation on our hands. I was hoping to get some advice on this. My husband and I attend the church of Christ and we have two elders at our church. One of them has an adult daughter who left the church. She was married\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43079,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-treat-our-daughter-who-says-she-is-now-a-homosexual\/","url_meta":{"origin":49140,"position":1},"title":"How do we treat our daughter who says she is now a homosexual?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How are we to treat a homosexual person?\u00a0 She is our daughter.\u00a0 This has never happened in our families before.\u00a0 We are so hurt by this.\u00a0 She was raised in a Christian home.\u00a0 We want her to come to her senses and live the way God wants her to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-ex-husband-wants-our-daughter-at-his-wedding-but-she-has-other-plans-how-do-i-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":49140,"position":2},"title":"My ex-husband wants our daughter at his wedding but she has other plans. How do I help?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband left me for another woman about two years ago. We have a teenage daughter who is amazing. Unfortunately, her dad lives in another state, and she travels there for the holidays and summer break. \u00a0My husband married the other woman six months after the divorce (for which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61842,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-deal-with-our-daughter-who-has-decided-to-be-a-homosexual\/","url_meta":{"origin":49140,"position":3},"title":"How do we deal with our daughter who has decided to be a homosexual?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My daughter, who is in her thirties now, was baptized as a teenager to avoid being sent to a special educational school. I tried to talk her out of it but she said she was genuine! Now, years later, she is living a life against God. She says she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25515,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-we-do-about-a-sister-who-left-after-being-a-christian-for-a-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":49140,"position":4},"title":"What do we do about a sister who left after being a Christian for a year?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question that has been bothering me for a while. A sister in Christ left the church for a reason that I am still confused about. She became a Christian about a year ago and seemed really happy about her decision. She was faithful, committed, and opened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-daughter-has-taken-a-dislike-to-my-boyfriend-and-her-grades-are-dropping-what-can-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":49140,"position":5},"title":"My daughter has taken a dislike to my boyfriend and her grades are dropping. What can I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have two questions concerning my 14-year-old daughter: Question 1: She had her yearly adolescent check-up. She and the doctor talked alone for a few minutes, and then I was asked to come back into the room. The doctor talked about the stress of school and \"other things.\" She\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}