My gay best friend is now homophobic
For context my friend (24M) and I (24F) have been best friends since we were toddlers so around 20 years of friendship. In the last couple of years he has gotten very involved in Christianity, having grown up in a religious household he reconnected with the religion later on in life since it helped him cope with a lot of things. I was scared of this happening and his views started to become more and more extreme such as being overly conscious of behavior that is considered sinful and religion becoming a larger and larger part of his identity and life. Now as of a few weeks ago he sent me these messages saying he no longer wants to pursue homosexuality since it is not what god intended and truly believes now that it is a sin. He claims he still loves his friends who are apart of as well as the LGBT community as a whole but doesn’t agree with their choices. He claims he’s not homophobic yet his beliefs are contradictory to that. I am devastated and heartbroken because he will never experience love and his repressing his entire identity while simultaneously believes that homosexuality is a sinful behavior that should not be engaged in. He works at a shitty job and is pretty isolated in the new area he moved to which I think is what pushed him farther into this religious delusion. This is my longtime friend of two decades and I am heartbroken because I feel like I have lost him that he is losing himself. I don’t know how I can keep him in my life knowing he holds these views. If anyone has any advice or perspective I would greatly appreciate that I truly don’t know what to do or how to navigate this situation. Posted this on another subreddit and the people on there didn’t have much empathy for my situation and saying I was terrible I feel like the people here might understand this situation more. More context I’m bisexual so this is also hurtful to me to hear the being gay is a sin part. Please be nice.
Trader Joe’s PB&J snack duo
TLDR; my gay friend became super religious and now believes being gay is a sin