GAY TRUTH

Cheri DiNovo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Ontario New Democratic MPP Cheri DiNovo was apparently so taken aback to be talking to a reporter who questioned her tyrannical bill to prevent teenagers getting psychotherapy for same-sex feelings, she abruptly hung up. Media coverage of DiNovo’s “Affirming Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Act” has been as soft as marshmallows melting over an open fire. So talking to a LifeSiteNews reporter was probably her first encounter with informed criticism. “What about a teenager who  wanted  treatment for same-sex attraction ?” I asked. “Would your bill prevent that?” “Absolutely,” responded DiNovo proudly. “Because it’s abusive. Every professional organization has acknowledged that it is, from the nurses, and doctors to psychiatrists and the psychologists.” “But those who do such therapy argue that her bill is a restriction on the freedom of choice and of conscience of teenagers who don’t want to have same-sex feelings,” I pers

uality  ,  Illinois  ,  Reparative Therapy  ,  Video SPRINGFIELD, IL , February 27, 2015 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – Not only would Illinois legislators not be protecting children by enacting a ban on “conversion therapy,” they would be engaging in “a form of child abuse,” according to a man who left the homosexual lifestyle three decades ago. Stephen Black of the  Restored Hope Network  told the  Illinois Family Institute  that reparative therapy helps minors who struggle with unwanted same-sex attraction . While opponents have said that psychological counseling to reduce sexual attraction violates truth in advertising laws and borders on torture, Black described it as little more than “pastoral care for people who want to come out of homosexuality.” The  Conversion Therapy Prohibition Act  (H.B. 217),  introduced  by Democratic State Rep. Kelly Cassidy , would ban such therapy for minors, subjecting medical professionals to discipline by the licensing or medical review boar

Active gays who deny biblical teaching on sexuality have long since spoken loudly and proudly about their lifestyle. But with few exceptions , celibate Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction had largely remained silent about their plight, in part because of fear and misunderstanding within the church. Yes, high-profile examples such as Rosaria Butterfield's train wreck conversion inspire us. Her story has a happy ending now that she is a mother and wife of a pastor. But what about Christians whose feelings never change? Their plight led in part to Exodus International shutting down and Alan Chambers apologizing for ex-gay ministry .  Testimonies such as those featured on the new Living Out site speak to the struggle to walk with God in faith when no relief is in sight. Any hope of changing minds on homosexuality needs to privilege such voices as the rest of us learn to speak with empathy and understanding. The last 10 years of cultural shifts might have looked q

" Pray the Gay Away? " was the title of the latest episode of "Our America " with Ling. The longtime television journalist , whose new series is on OWN ( Oprah Winfrey Network ), sought to find answers to a question that continues to be asked today: Is it possible to be gay and Christian at the same time? For 17 students at The Naming Project's summer camp, it is. "Everyone in this camp has heard many times over being gay is a sin, almost as though it was a broken record," the Rev. Jay Wiesner, pastoral director at The Naming Project, told Ling. "Our hope is to be able to offer a place for kids to become at peace with you they are." Chelsea Shamy, 19, remembered being rejected at her church and at school after coming out as a lesbian. But she is convinced that God accepts her the way she is. "I just felt so rejected because I know that's not what God is. God is love and that's not what they were sharing at all," she said on

The gay community has expressed dissatisfaction with Nixon for suggesting that being gay is a choice. Nixon has made the comment twice, once in a speech and once in a New York Times interview, causing a backlash from the gay activists, who do not want homosexuality to be depicted as a choice. "I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line 'I've been straight and I've been gay, and gay is better," the actress told the New York Times. "And they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that homosexuality can be a choice." Joy Behar , a co-host of the View, expressed confusion about the decision to be gay last year. "I don't know how to respond to that, I mean I don't think that anybody in this world wants to be gay, considering all of the vilification that is brought upon someone who is gay. Why would you choose that?" But Nixon questions why being gay shouldn't be a cho

Exodus International president Alan Chambers has, explained the Orlando-based ministry's recent U-turn on reparative therapy. And while the organization's stance remains acceptable to most evangelicals, some scholars fear that Chambers's theological convictions—sprinkled throughout those interviews—have not. "It's not that he is simply not saying the warnings [against homosexual activity] in Scripture. I could live with that," Pittsburgh Theological Seminary professor Robert Gagnon said of Chambers's recent comments. "It's that he is saying the exact opposite of what Scripture clearly teaches … . He's preaching an anti-gospel." The theological heresy in question is antinomianism. The term was coined by Martin Luther to refer to those who believe that since faith is sufficient for salvation, Christians are not obligated to keep God's moral law. Gagnon, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice and a plenary speaker at Exodus'

I've been asked to comment on the controversy provoked by a recent interview in the Atlantic with Alan Chambers , the president of Exodus International —an evangelical ministry founded to help Christians and non-Christians find freedom from the guilt and power of a same-sex lifestyle. Christians may debate public policy, but in this interview, Chambers raises issues that are very clearly addressed in Scripture. Especially when we are dealing with human lives, daring to draw our counsel from God , we need to affirm the simplicity of biblical teaching on the subject while rejecting an over-simplifying of the issues involved. The problem (sin and death) as well as the solution (redemption in Christ through the gospel) are simple, but hardly simplistic. In terms of sin, Scripture is quite clear about the condition ( original sin —guilt, bondage, corruption leading to death) and the acts that arise from it. There are versions of the pro-gay and anti-gay agenda that assume a simp

Homosexuality and the Churches. Until the latter half of the twentieth century, the churches gave little public attention to the phenomenon of sexual attraction and sexual behavior between members of the same sex. The traditional view of most ecclesiastical bodies condemned homosexuality, finding justification for the condemnation in natural law and in such biblical texts as Genesis 19:4–11; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10; and Romans 1:27 . The first sign of a re-evaluation of the issue appeared in 1955 with the publication in England of Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition by Rev. Derrick Sherwin Bailey , an Anglican priest. Bailey challenged the Church’s traditional view with current findings from the behavioral sciences and a reinterpretation of relevant biblical passages. His work broke ground for a number of studies published in the U.S. which were sympathetic to gay and lesbian concerns from a religious point of view, beginning with H. Kim