GAY TRUTH

voor box uitsnede monstrans (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I’m a Catholic male and same-sex attractions are a part of my story. However, it has recently been written onto my heart that I might be called to marriage—with a woman. What? Let me explain… Not About Therapy This has nothing to do with therapy with the objective to change from “gay” to “straight.” I’ve never done that, and I have found peace in knowing that the Church is not trying to get me to pursue that. This has, however, come to be after many years of continuously striving to say “ Yes ” to God , and “Yes” to growing in virtue (in particular, the virtue of chastity, which I struggled with for most of my life). I came to desire a chaste heart because I desired holiness, and I desired holiness because I desired to unite my heart with the heart of Jesus Christ . This desire came about because I first experienced the love of Christ through  someone like   you ; someone who simply loved me where I was ...

[Editor's note:  I have come to know Wendy and her story through an amazing set of circumstances that only God could have arranged. She is a delightful woman who loves the Lord with all of her heart and has asked BarbWire to share her moving story of redemption and freedom from homosexual sin through the power of Christ Jesus . Wendy has said that it is her hope that her testimony might resonate with even one person who can relate to the circumstances that Satan used to lead her into the homosexual lifestyle. If you are that person, then you (and God) will know it. What the enemy intended for evil, God is using for incredible good in the life of Wendy. The same can be true for you. - Matt Barber ] My name is Wendy and I was born in a small town in Virginia . I was in church, every time the doors were open, for as far back as I can remember. I also attended the Christian school within my church that was rooted deeply in an Independent Baptist doctrine. My mama was very sickl...

English: Headmistress and primary school students in Ghana (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Following the conclusion of the Synod on the Family in Rome , the Catholic bishops of Ghana met at their plenary assembly this month to continue to consider the challenges faced by Ghanaian families, and to reaffirm the Church's teaching on marriage and family life. The theme of this year's plenary was “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization .” "The African cherishes the family as the fundamental base of humanity and of society," the bishops observed. "As a family, respect, sense of belonging and care for one another are our values." The plenary, they said, focused on concerns that today the family is undergoing "significant challenges that rock the very foundation on which God has set the human society ." The bishops affirmed that the Church’s perennial and unchanging teaching on the family "is based on the n...

English: The spire of St. Joseph Church in Detroit Category:Images of Detroit, Michigan (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Detroit ’s archbishop has banned a homosexual activist from making a presentation at a parish in his diocese, and the speaker, along with the church’s pastor, is using Pope Francis to object. Archbishop Allen Vigneron , who last year  weathered   criticism  for affirming that Catholics  who support homosexual marriage should not present themselves for Communion, put a stop to homosexual activist Francis DeBernardo’s planned presentation November 22 at Christ the King parish in northwest Detroit. DeBernardo, who heads up  New Ways Ministry , was going to speak for Fortunate Families, a group for Catholics whose children are in the homosexual lifestyle. Christ the King Pastor Father Victor Clore was notified the week prior to the event by an archdiocesan official that the parish could not host the meeting,  according  to the De...

The next several years are going to be messy for Christians. We already know that some who claim to be within our fold will continue to challenge the historic, orthodox teaching about sexuality, marriage, and the essence of what it means to be made in the image of God. But even those of us who agree that marriage is what the church has always thought it was, will disagree on how best to move forward in a culture hell-bent on denying it. Case in point: Over at First Things , a premier publication of Christian thought, Ephraim Radner and Christopher Seitz have offered what they refer to as “ The Marriage Pledge,”  calling clergy of all stripes to no longer sign government documents of civil marriage. To be a “clear witness,” they have decided they “will no longer serve as agents of the state in marriage” because to do so would be to “implicate the Church in a false definition of marriage.” This is an idea that has been kicked around for some time.  Past First Things ...

Just seven months after the Alberta legislature defeated amendments to the new Education Act that would have forced all Alberta schools to establish gay-straight alliance clubs, ostensibly to combat bullying, Liberal opposition MLA Laurie Blakeman has brought them back. Since then there has been a provincial election that weakened the province’s social conservatives, a scandal that brought down a premier, and a bevy of turmoil within the opposition Wildrose Party . So Blakeman may feel the bill has a better chance, as well as want to make mischief with both the Wildrose and the governing Progressive Conservatives . “I think in the end everyone will pass the test,” she said, meaning all MLAs will support measures most opposed earlier this year. “I think the bill will pass, but it’s a lot of my explaining between here and there to make sure that happens.” Bill 202, the Safe and Inclusive Schools Act, is backed by the two tiny Liberal and New Democratic caucuses, while the P...

A Mississippi woman wants the state Supreme Court to recognise gay marriage – so that she can divorce a partner she married in San Francisco . Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham, a 52-year-old credit analyst, who already had two children from a failed heterosexual marriage, moved to California in 2008 so that she could marry Dana Ann Melancon. But the relationship soured and they separated in 2010. When Ms Czekala-Chatham, who now has  a new girlfriend , applied for a divorce,  citing  adultery and habitual cruel and inhuman treatment,  she failed. The state predictably argued that Mississippi could not grant a divorce for a marriage which it did not recognise. It was a result that she found  devastating . In her eyes, divorce was an important dimension of the social recognition of marriage. “It's humiliating to know that you spend that money, that time to be in a committed relationship and for it to end. I mean, that hurts. But then to be in a state that d...