How can gay Jehovah's Witnesses take comfort in the account of Jephthah's daughter?
The account begins:
Then Jephʹthah made a vow to Jehovah and said: “If you give the Amʹmon·ites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Amʹmon·ites will become Jehovah’s, and I will offer that one up as a burnt offering. Finally Jephʹthah came to his home in Mizʹpah,and look! his daughter was coming out to meet him, playing the tambourine and dancing! Now she was his one and only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter.When he saw her, he ripped his garments and said: “Oh no, my daughter! You have broken my heart, for you have become the one I have banished. Now I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I am unable to turn back.”
How can we compare that to a gay Jehovah's Witness?
A father rejoices at the birth of his son.
In time the son learns that he is gay.
The father becomes aware that his son is gay.
How does Jephthah's daughter react to her father's vow?
But she said to him: “My father, if you have opened your mouth to Jehovah, do to me as you have promised.
She accepts that lot in life that she did not ask for.
What did that mean for her?
"It was a real sacrifice on the part of both Jephthah and his daughter, for he had no other child. (Jg 11:34) Therefore no descendant of his would carry on his name and his inheritance in Israel. Jephthah’s daughter was his only hope for this. She wept, not over her death, but over her “virginity,” for it was the desire of every Israelite man and woman to have children and to keep the family name and inheritance alive. (Jg 11:37, 38) Barrenness was a calamity. But Jephthah’s daughter “never had relations with a man.”
So when one of Jehovah's Witnesses learns he is gay, it was something he didn't ask for. It was thrust upon him, unchosen, unwanted. For many gay Jehovah's Witnesses, they sacrifice getting married and raising a family. They will not enjoy the love and intimacy that marriage affords. For a Christian to live with his unchosen, unwanted gayness, it will mean great sacrifice on his part.
The gay Jehovah's Witness weeps.