Gay Bears - Guy Stuff and "Prayer Bears"

The following is an article that was on the prayer group, and because of the google groups formatting change, I thought I would post it here to preserve its nifty-ness:

Gay Bears - Guy Stuff and "Prayer Bears"

The "gay bear" movement has been known in the gay community as a group of masculine looking, and many times masculine acting gay men. This reaction against gay male stereotypes can be a positive role in the greater LGBT world. The bear movement seems to be more defined my appearances and sexuality than being masculine. What is there about being a masculine man that goes beyond the skin? Masculinity has many great qualities that postmodern society has been rediscovering, and sometimes even overemphasizing in these newer generations.

When searching for true manhood, let us remember some of the things that it means to be a man, and how our spirituality fits into this. In the gay and lesbian community, it seems as if the ladies have us beat when it comes to masculine traits! We can all learn something from each other. Spiritually speaking, prayer is the greatest weapon a gay man has, and we can fight the darkness with light if we would take a stand for God, kneel down to pray and lie down on our faces in true deep repentance. Let us find a weak person and be strong for them. Let us find a lost young fatherless person and be a spiritual father.

Let us be "prayer bears" and become Christ's representatives in the GLBT and gay bear communities. How about being a chaplain to a local bear bar or club? Everyone at times needs folks to marry and bury others. Bear events need someone to pray and give a message. Every sub-culture is important to God just as every culture is. Jesus said in Mark 16 to "preach the Gospel to every creature..." also in Matthew 28 He mentions "all nations", all "ethnos" which means every ethnic group. The principal is clear that all people are important to God and need to know this wonderful message of Christ.

We welcome resources for gay bears that have to do with the Christian faith, healthy gay masculinity, self acceptance and other sites that are "clean". Please e-mail at the gmail address under "gaypray" if you have any ideas, links or thoughts.

Here are two great places for Bears to go...

http://community.livejournal.com/bearsoffaith/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B4CBrotherhood/

...and this is another group my ex boyfriend introduced me to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianBearsGroup/