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Heart and Soul: Wrestling with God

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Can Jews and Muslims be LGBT and still stay close to God?

14/10/2016 GMT

Wrestling with God

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Wrestling with God

What is it like to wrestle with your faith and still stay true to your sexuality?

What is it like to have to wrestle with your faith and staying true to your sexuality at the same time?

David Baker is a practising and proud Jew. He is also gay and in the eyes of many of his fellow Jews the two cannot go together. He has had to wrestle with these two sides to his identity leading to many hours of praying and soul searching, exploring whether he could still remain within his faith.  

Just after the Orlando shootings in June he was invited to the Iftar, the fast breaking meal in Islam, alongside LGBT Muslims and it was there that he realised that Jews and Muslims have more in common than he had first thought.

David has been to meet fellow Jews and Muslims who have had to wrestle with their faith, explore the teachings and scriptures and argue with God to come to a place in their lives where their sexuality does not preclude them from being faithful. 

(Photo: A man wears a rainbow coloured crocheted skull cap. Credit: Thomas Coex)

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