I support not only same sex marriage, but also the LGBT community in general. Can I still be a Christian despite this?
There are two parts to this. First, supporting same sex marriage. Second an undefined support of 'the LGBT community'. It depends on what that second support means. If it means standing against violence done to LGBT people, that's good. If that means assisting groups like Courage, that's good. If it means loving people, but urging what is best for them, that's good. If it means endorsing the LGBT agenda to destroy the Christian concept of marriage, that would be very bad. Since I don't know what your meaning is with regard to your support of 'the LGBT community', I only refer to your support of same sex marriage immediately below.
Not really. Or yes, but not an informed and obedient Christian. A Christian needs to be informed by Scripture. A Christian looks to the practice of other Christians over all the centuries as well, as an adjunct to what Scripture means. And a Christian pays attention to authentic teaching of those authorized to teach the faith. Those all line up against same sex marriage and line up with complementary marriage between one man and one woman. That is the simple Christian norm. It is an odd Christian that rejects all of that. To do so knowingly and willingly and deliberately is to have adopted heresy and in a real sense to have decided to stand somewhere other than in the Christian faith. To have sort of 'gone with the tide' is not so bad as long as one catches on and starts swimming against the current.
I know that something such as same sex marriage directly goes against what's in the Bible (marriage being between one man and one woman). I'm really conflicted here. I feel guilty, but I can't change how I feel. Thanks for reading.
You are right that same sex marriage goes against what's in the Bible. Jesus was very direct when he spoke of marriage as between a man and a woman.
"Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female [Genesis 1:27], and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” [Genesis 2:24]? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."
That's Jesus as recorded in Matthew 19. No man and man marriage or woman and woman marriage. Just a man and a woman. If you disagree, best to be done with Jesus entirely. You don't seem ready to do that though.
You can change how you feel by willing to follow the truth. It doesn't happen overnight, but eventually conforming your thoughts to the truth reshapes your feelings. You can still have concern for those with same sex attraction, which is a good thing generally, but you can come to see what God intended for marriage rather than what the cultural juggernaut wants you to feel about marriage.
Truth is not a 'feelings' thing. The Scriptures, the lived experience of Christians through the ages, and the teaching of Catholic and Orthodox bishops is uniform on this matter. Homosexual acts are wrong. We should in no way approve of such acts.
That does not mean hating people with same sex attraction. It does mean that we should love them enough to not abandon them to their desires, rather to hold out a hope of a life with Christ. We do not love those with same sex attractions if we encourage them to sin.
