Gays for god
The following blog is written by Dr. Greg Coles. Greg is part of The Center's collaboration team and has a Ph.D. in English from Penn State. He's also the author of the recently released: Single, Gay, Christian.
It is a truth universally recognized, that a good conservative Christian boy who realizes he’s gay will expend years in agonized and fervent prayer asking God to make him straight.
At least, that’s what I did.
Beginning at the age of twelve, I measured my spiritual life according to my progress towards heterosexuality. I tried to notice girls. I tried not to notice guys. I invented “crushes” and told people about passionate desires I didn’t actually have for my female friends. I even tried to lust after a picture of a scantily clad woman once, just to see if I could do it. (In retrospect, not my finest idea. Cut me a break. I was twelve.) But by the grace of God, I never did manage any lust over that picture. I might as well possess been staring at an office supplies poster.
I tried and prayed and tried and prayed, and I failed on all counts. If loving Jesus was suppos ALEXANDRIA, Tenn. (BP) &#; &#;Why doesn&#;t God love gays?&#; a teenager asked during our youth ministry time the other night. It was sort of out of the blue since the discussion was on the repay of Jesus, but clearly it was on the heart of at least one, if not many, of the teens there that night. I be grateful this teen&#;s boldness to ask! It&#;s a question this generation has had to wrestle with that previous generations did not. In truth, the speed with which the topic of homosexuality has come to take charge the social and political conversation is staggering, aided by what pastor Voddie Baucham described as &#;a coordinated, well-funded, well-connected propaganda strategy&#; in a article at The Gospel Coalition. The movement has become like a snowflake that turns into an avalanche, demolishing any conflict in the widespread arena, and it&#;s still growing. Without a doubt, many fresh people are perplexed. They&#;re hearing in pop culture and maybe even in their schools that homosexuality is a perfectly legitimate lifestyle that not only should be tolerated but celebrated and Some Christians respond to this argument with what seems to be the only alternative: by saying that those who identify as gay choose to be gay. This response is usually met with so much derision—“With all the homophobia in the world, who would choose to be gay??”. . . “Did you choose to be straight??&#;—that it’s seldom helpful. In one sense, of course, it’s true. If by gay you mean “a person who engages in homosexual behavior,” then God doesn’t make someone gay any more than he makes someone an adulterer, a fornicator, or a man who has relations with just his wife. God doesn’t make people engage in any sexual behaviors. We freely choose all our moral actions—that’s why we can be held accountable for them. But when most people say, “God made me gay,” they’re talking about attractions (which they consider part of a God-given identity) rather than behaviors. Although, this implies that they’re also talking about whether it’s okay to act upon those desires, since it seems self-evident to most people that we can act according to how we’re made. This article is part of the Tough Passages series. 24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged spontaneous relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all style of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are packed of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, dis
&#;God Made Me Gay&#;
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