In the Hut on Nov. 10, students sat down with the author of “Love Lost in Translation,” K. Renato Lings. I very much enjoyed hearing that what I was told when I was younger were lies. God does love you, even if you are gay. Apparently, when the Bible gets translated, it goes through changes each time but gets further away from the truth. I was astonished at how a linguist like Lings views the Bible and its original texts. I was at first skeptical of God, who was the terror of my life for so many years. As a gay male growing up in Tennessee, I was always told how full of sin I was. I was instructed to go with my parents to a church at 15 so the spirit of homosexuality could be cast out of me. Needless to say, this was a traumatic experience.

Lings explained how in Genesis II the direct translation from Greek to English means side, not rib, so God made woman equal. God created Adam in his own image and then cut Adam in half to create Eve, which was in fact both sexes. That the King James’ Bible was written to control an unruly England is a revelation to me. The king took liberties with translation, since the word plev̱rá means “side,” just like the sides on King Solomon’s Temple. I asked Lings to reiterate this to me. I felt ecstatic with joy as an incredible feeling swept through my soul.

God loves LGBT people the same as everyone else. It is possible that the antihomosexual God of Israel loves me. Wow. Then, the author goes on to tell me of more mistakes in translation. Is it possible, at this late date, that we truly are just finding out how the right wing driven Church has set in motion events that would kill my fellow homosexuals, for a lie? How could such a lie be allowed to continue and do so much damage? I am insulted and frustrated that a few simple white lies in the translation of the Bible have caused such a wave of destruction.

So much hate and destruction done in the name of a God, who never intended such actions. I could not be healed of an affliction that was not evil or of negative repercussions. I had been misled for so many years. My life has not been God making a mistake, as I was led to believe. I prayed to die thinking that was the only way to be cured, but God did not allow that to happen. I begged for salvation by failure of my genitals, but that also did not occur.

I am tired of hearing how God hates fags, dykes and trannies. My eyes have read the truth, my ears have heard it and my soul has felt it. Time for God’s true message of who is loved to come out.