It all began in our most desperate hour . . .
Locked away in our bedrooms with nowhere else to turn, we turned to Google and searched those four now pivotal words:
“Christians struggling with homosexuality.”
What we found would change our lives forever. Nestled deep in the corridors of the Internet was an anonymous community of men blogging their stories of faith and homosexuality. This e-brotherhood affirmed something powerful of our long starving hearts:
We were not alone.
From 2008 to 2013, our stories spread around the world as our community grew — one brother at a time. Over the years we’d take our online community offline, meeting up at conferences and coffee shops alike, and we started forging unlikely friendships unlike all others.
When Xanga closed its metaphorical doors in 2013, our blogging community suffered a blow. We maintained contact via social media, and some of us even started new blogs, but our online community was not the same.
Everything changed in 2015 when ten of us convened for a weekend retreat in the Southeast, some of us reuniting after many years and most of us meeting for the very first time. Our weekend of laughter and late-night talks was like something from a storybook. Tucked high into the mountains, we rediscovered the force and beauty of our community.
We left those mountains blessed by our renewed brotherhood but burdened all the same: what about everyone else still struggling to reconcile their faith and homosexuality with nowhere to turn? If they turned to Google as we did all those years ago, what — who — would they find?
We resolved it our duty to birth anew our storytelling community of old. To open our arms for the lost, lonely, and hopeless. To tell them what we were once told all those years ago:
You are not alone.
Beyond our fellow same-sex attracted believers, we also share our stories for our heterosexual brothers and sisters. We are here to say that this “issue” of homosexuality exists as people here in your midst, and like anyone else in your pews, we are yearning to be heard, known, and loved.
We never chose our sexuality, but we aren’t content to pursue it either. We are locking arms with each other in the belief that our Father has something better intended for His children.
Though we stumble and though we stagger, we will struggle together — and probably laugh a whole lot along the way, too.
So, pull up a chair or a cozy quilt — or, if you prefer, a pen. Our story continues from Xanga to today, and we all have this unshakable feeling you have some pages to contribute.
Check out our stories and let us know who you are with a comment, or visit our contact page or authors page to shoot us a private message. We’d love to hear from you.
We are Your Other Brothers, and we’re glad to have you along for the latest chapter in this inexplicable story . . . our story.
For more on our origin story and purpose, check out our exclusive interview with The Christian Post.
