Can Gay people really become straight? Only in the imaginations of those who hate Gay people.And whether it comes from junk-science sources (which are "dishonest and misleading", "unethical" and without real evidence that they work), or junk-Christian sources (which impose human bigotries over the top of God's creation, and proclaim that's what God wanted all along), it's the human idea that Gay people should be different than who and what God created them to be, that needs to change.
Indeed, once the faked and unethical "studies" and mistranslations of the Bible are thrown out, of those who claim to have been "healed" or "brought out" of being Gay, we consistently only ever see:
- Bisexual people who have simply decided to not act on one part of their sexual orientation, and,
- Gay people who have just decided not to be sexually active, but continue the rest of their lives to have the same emotional and biological same-sex orientation they've always had.
Problem with these "cures" is that:
- Bisexual people are like people who are ambidextrous. And just as someone who's ambidextrous can decide to just not use their left hand anymore -- and yet still not be a right-hand-only person -- just so with a bisexual person, who can decide not to act on their attraction for the same sex -- but that doesn't make them into a opposite-sex-only person. No matter how they decide to act on how God created them, or what human-created-ideas about themselves they choose to believe, these folks remain bisexual -- and not same-sex-only people "changed" into opposite-sex-only people.
- People -- both Gay and straight -- decide all the time not to act on their sexual orientations. For example, we see Gay and straight people alike who are single and stay celibate, wanting to wait for a covenanted relationship, or who are married to someone who is out of town or sick or something, and so they wait and remain celibate until their spouse is home or healthy again. We also see Gay and straight people who join certain religious orders and give up any sexual expression for nearly their whole lives. Indeed, all people -- Gay, straight, bisexual -- decide at various times in their lives to not act on their God-given sexual nature -- but that never makes a Gay person straight any more than it makes a straight person Gay.
So, what does all that come down to? This:
Anything "ex-Gay" is simply a lie:
- To oneself, imagining either that one has made God happy by undoing what God created to be, or that one has made God unhappy by being unable to undo what He created to be;
- To Gay people, who are taught by Gay-hating bigots (who represent God as much as the Jesus-killing Pharisees did 2,000 years ago) that the only way they can be spiritually, emotionally, and even physically safe and healthy is to reject the One who stands on their side, and not on the side of those who hate and hurt them; and,
- To straight people, who -- like white people a hundred years ago, many men and most well-off people even today -- get to believe themselves "superior" in God's eyes and in the natural world, as if all of God's creation revolves around what they do with their genitals (or skin color, or gender, or wealth, or...), and who live a spiritual arrogance that hardens their hearts and sets them against God.
And here's the thing that's always the thing, no matter what the topic being pushed at you is:
What do the lives of those telling you "the thing" look like?
We're not talking "are they perfect" here -- because obviously no one is perfect but God, and even the most God-loving and God-pleasing saints have and will sin (just ask David and Paul). No, we're talking here about what the fruit of their hearts are. We're talking about how much good they help God do versus how much damage their human sin-natures do.
In this case, what do the lives of those (we'll just talk about the leadership, here, but this will apply to most of their followers, as well) who promote the "Ex-Gay" thing look like?
Well, we've already seen that they use junk science to promote their hated of Gay people. That's called "unethical" in the human world, but God just calls that "lying".
And, they tell people that Gays are "sick", "child molesters", and so on, even though there's absolutely nothing beyond their puny little ways of imagining those they hate that "proves" any of that. And God calls that "bearing false witness".
And, they use Bibles that have been falsely translated and passages that are taken out of their historical, religious, linguistic, and cultural contexts to "prove" God said things that God never said at all. (In fact, they use these same re-makes of God's scripture to "prove" God likes all kinds of things He doesn't really like -- things like war, and oppressing of people based on their race or sex, and taking advantage of and stealing from the poor, and so on.) And God calls that "distorting" the scriptures.
More, they promote and live legalism, a false (though always very popular) version of Christianity that believes that changing the outside of a person so it's disciplined and looks righteous means the inside is changed and now godly (while true Christianity changes the inside of a person first and completely through Holy Spirit -- not human -- action, and then the outside changes, becoming more and more like the real Jesus). It was legalists that tortured and murdered Jesus, and they are condemned not only by Jesus but also in the letters of Paul and other New Testament writers. God says legalists lie when they say they know God, and are "rebellious", "lawless", "disobedient", "unfit for any good work", "empty talkers and deceivers", people who upset families, and teachers of false Christianity for their own gain.
We could go on -- but what do you say? If an unrepentant serial rapist teaches that you can only become more "moral" or "godly" if you pretend to be someone of a different race, would you become depressed and even suicidal if your skin color never changes?
How about someone who's a lifelong drug abuser, someone whose heart doesn't care how much s/he is hurting self and family? Would you hurt in your heart and hide from the world because that druggie told you God hates you because you like orange juice?
Maybe if someone has become rich by stealing poor farmers' lands and paying workers starvation wages? Should you stay up nights worrying or start living a trash life because this rich guy says his wealth is "proof" that God loves people like him/her more than you?
I'm thinking you wouldn't fall for any of that. I'm thinking you'd either ignore those people, or tell them to buzz off (or even call the cops) if they kept getting in your face.
Those who try to tell you that being Gay is wrong, or sick, or immoral, or against God and Bible are themselves people who are spiritually wrong, sick, immoral, and against both God and Bible. And Jesus and others in the Bible say that no one should listen to or follow them. Pray for them? Yes. Love them despite their anti-God living? Yes. Help them see the real Jesus and escape the trap of their false religion? Yes.
But listen to or follow? NO.
God created you Gay for the same reason He created some people left-handed, and some people brown, and some people female. Because it made Him happy to do so. Because the whole of His creation proves that He loves variety, and that He demonstrates His power and glory in a universe that shows unimaginable diversity of things and life, from all the way down to the submicroscopic to all the way up the meta-universe level. God is an artist like no other.
And who He made you to be, is not only a gift to you, and your friends, and your family -- but also to Himself.
Enjoy.
This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.
