Fair / 25° FRecent visit by former homosexual highlights damaging effects on gay and lesbian youth
Published 10:56am Monday, January 25, 2010By JESSICA SIEFF
Niles Daily Star
For children and teenagers coming into their own, in the spaces between childhood and adolescence, adolescence and adulthood, the messages they receive from their parents, family, friends, popular culture and religious leaders are unquestionably affecting.
When it comes to the youth within the gay community, such messages are, some might say, even more significant.
It isn’t easy being young and gay in America. As young adults struggle to understand what their sexuality means, there are many platforms that give off a message that their sexual orientation may be something they can change – something different or wrong with them.
Recently, a speech given by visiting and self-proclaimed “former” homosexual Jack Morlan brought such concerns to light, when he spoke about his ability to essentially leave a homosexual lifestyle through faith.
“The belief that people can change their sexual organization is not a widely believed point of view,” said Jennifer Hsu, executive director at Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of St. Joseph and Berrien County.
PFLAG is currently working on putting together a conference in the spring that brings together members of the community – heterosexual and homosexual – as well as members of local churches in an attempt to start a dialogue that would address the strained relationship between the church and the gay community – strained because of two polar opposite views on homosexuality.
Addressing an audience during a Sunday service at the Michiana Christian Embassy earlier this month, Morlan told of his upbringing in a Christian home in southern Iowa. After he said he was a victim of sexual abuse by a male relative, Morlan said he came to believe the only way men would like him was in a sexual way.
This perpetuated a turn to homosexuality, Morlan explained. He tried to “solve the problem” through marriage – and began his college career as a married man.
Eventually, he said, he became more and more immersed in “sin.” He was only interested in money and power and influence – something he found after he confessed his homosexuality to his wife, asked for a divorce and ran away from college to Des Moines, going into business at what became a successful hair salon.
Though Morlan did say that members of the church should be welcoming of gays, recounting feelings of rejection even after he renounced his homosexuality, Morlan painted a portrait of the gay community as power- and money-hungry “wolves” who would descend on children and young adults if mothers and fathers neglected to pray for them.
Morlan is the only one who will know the truth about his story and his claim of a religious experience of seeing Jesus reach out to him and release him from the “chains” he said he’d been bound by for so many years.
His message is not unique to him alone, rather one that is being touted around the church circuit in communities like Niles, churches where so many young people sit with their families on Sunday mornings.
Hsu said PFLAG is fortunate to have support within its community and that the local clergy has been active in working with the organization in discussing the issue.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community first encourages church officials to “do no harm,” Hsu said. “At the very minimum not to condemn people from the pulpit.
“There’s still a lot of dialog that needs to go on,” she said.
The relationship between churches and members of the LGBT community is just as imperative regardless of age, but when it comes to young adults Hsu said, imagine “how damaging it can be to be told by a religious leader or member of clergy how bad it can be to be LGBT” identified.
“I do not think it gives them a pretense that they have a choice in the matter of their sexual orientation,” said Kelley Connell M.S.Ed.D. Connell is a sexuality educator and consultant who holds a master’s degree in human sexuality education from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a doctoral candidate in human Sexuality education at Widener University.
She has more than 17 years experience in the field of sexuality education and reproductive health and has worked with adolescents, college students, health care providers and patients and is originally from Niles.
“Rather, it leads to feelings of guilt, shame, and confusion to a population that may be struggling to find their way in a heterosexist climate and gives them the sense that others think they can be ‘cured’ by just praying enough, which in turn fosters an environment of unacceptance and intolerance by others,” Connell said.
Such ideas can be especially damaging to young adults, Hsu said.
“It’s acceptance that’s the greatest struggle,” she added.
Connell makes reference to a recent study by the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University titled “Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes,” which “shows that adolescents who were rejected by their families for being (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide.
“According to the Massachusetts 2006 Youth Risk Survey, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers,” Connell said.
Depression and substance abuse are also a part of what many young adults experience as they come to terms with who they are and who society expects or wants them to be.
Which is why programs or conferences developed between local churches and the local community is imperative in opening up a necessary dialogue.
Hsu reiterates that the issues facing members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender at all ages are relatively similar across the board. The struggle to be accepted continues as some states present voters with the question of whether or not to legalize gay marriage.
“We live in a culture that assumes heterosexuality is the norm and send the message that any deviation from that is wrong or abnormal and that is just not true,” Connell said. “If you have a person who is beginning to understand or realize they are (gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender) but have been brought up in a climate of intolerance, homophobia, judgment and religious bigotry and persecution toward (that group of) people, how comfortable do you think they are being honest about who they are to themselves and others?
“This can create an internal struggle between what they know to be true about themselves and what other people tell them should be true about themselves,” Connell said. “I think the frustration comes from other people trying to force them to change, make them believe they can change and then telling them they are wrong or abnormal if they don’t.”
Indeed, Morlan did not shy away from what he felt was the seriousness effects of homosexuality on younger generations. But in a house of faith, where families go for reassurance, understanding and a sense of support in their everyday lives, it’s hard to tell whether more damage was done then good.
It can be a matter of opinion.
But many hope it becomes a matter of resolution.
“The outcenter in Benton Harbor and the Michiana Resource Center offer youth drop-ins as well as youth support groups and really what we are trying to do is provide affirming space for the youth to be who they are,” Hsu said. “A space where they aren’t being told that they’re bad.”
To contact the OutCenter, visit www.outcenter.org or call (269) 925-8330.
I cannot believe that the gay community has been referred to as power – and money-hungry wolves. That is definitely not the case. There are many of us who are poor and humble. Here, in Chicago, though LGBT is widely accepted, we still struggle with being who we are and with being openly accepted. For many of us, our families have disowned us. It is only the lucky few who are BLESSED with the gift of an understanding family. So many of us in the LGBT community have killed ourselves or resorted to violence and drug abuse because we feel like no one cares, like we don’t belong, like we don’t deserve to be alive. Dialog is essential in bringing down the curse of hetero-sexist ways of thinking and violence against my people. From a religious point, which i preach all the time, Sodom and gommorah was about sexual violence and rape and referred more to men violating young girls. Also in Leviticus where it says a man shall not lie with another man for it is an abomination… and abomination IS NOT a sin, it merely less favorable. Also in Leviticus it mentions stoning your disobedient daughters, but that one always gets ignored. Or never mixing fabrics like wool and cotton (that was an abomination), or never eating dairy and meat (another abomination). Outside of that Jesus Christ, from whom we bare the name Christians, never once spoke of homosexuality but speaks of the new covenant through him in which all the laws laid down in the old testament become obsolete. The laws that HE laid down were not to kill, not to steal, to love you brothers and sisters, to not pass judgement, and to never do something you hate. There was nothing about homosexuality, therefore, as Christians in the NEW COVENANT, we should accept one another as we are and leave the rest to GOD. I guess what i’m trying to get at is that as Good Christians, we should follow the teachings of Jesus above all. If you want to follow the laws laid out in the old testament, become a follower of Judaism or Islam (our cousins in faith through Abraham).
The men of Sodom and Gomorrah were the first recorded in the Bible to face punishment for their sexual perversion. In Genesis chapter 19, we find two angels that pay a visit to Lot’s home in Sodom. In verse four, we find that “all the men from every part of Sodom” surrounded Lot’s house, and told Lot to bring out his visitors “so that we can have sex with them.” The pro-homosexual revisionist argues that the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah was that the residents wanted to commit an act of rape. That the rape would have been homosexual is not an issue, according to their argument. However, Jude 7 indicates that Sodom and Gomorrah’s punishment was due to their sexual perversion. Their sin was not simply one of violence (rape) but of sexual immorality (homosexuality). As further evidence of the sinful nature of homosexuality, Leviticus 18:22, and 20:13 both describe homosexuality as “an abomination.”
Contrary to the opinions of some, the Old Testament is not the only place in the Bible that condemns homosexuality. We previously mentioned Hebrews 13:4, where Paul exhorted us to honor the marriage bed and keep it pure. In Romans 1:26-27 Paul is very specific, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul wrote, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.” The Greek word from which the King James Bible gets the word “effeminate” is malakos, which literally means something soft to the touch, but is used as a negative metaphor to refer to a boy kept for homosexual relations with a man. The “abusers of themselves with mankind” are those men who engage in unnatural sexual relations with other men – homosexuals. That is also how the NASB, the NKJV, and the NIV translate that verse. Also in the New Testament is verse 7 from the book of Jude, defining exactly why Sodom and Gomorrah were punished – homosexuality.
Having established that homosexuality is a sin, we must now face that we live in increasingly pro-homosexual societies. The media and the schools have become mouthpieces for the gay subculture, and are working hard to marginalize those of us who take a moral, biblical stance on the issue. School sex education programs based on the curriculum developed by SIECUS champion homosexuality as being normal and healthy, while encouraging teenagers to ignore the values of their parents if their parents feel homosexuality is wrong. “Gay” television shows are popping up on networks like Bravo and on other networks as well.
In many nations, current and existing laws are including slurs against homosexuality in the definition of hate crimes. In fact, some in Canada have found themselves in legal trouble for reading the first chapter of Romans over the airwaves. This is a pattern that is sweeping the Western world, and I predict we’ll see similar legislation in the United States within the next few years. While the Canadian Parliament claims that a religious exemption in their recent hate speech bill will protect speech of a religious nature, in practice Canadians have already been prosecuted by human rights tribunals for things as simple as listing the same Bible verses above in a newspaper advertisement.
Even the church today is not immune to the mainstreaming of immorality. The Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the United States is suffering a rift because of the appointment of an openly homosexual bishop. This rift is widened because some of its leaders have deemed it appropriate to perform homosexual marriages. The Methodist Church has allowed openly homosexual ministers to retain their positions. Let me make this clear: I do not oppose allowing homosexuals to attend church. In fact, I think that’s where they should be. However, we must not condone sinful immorality by allowing our clergy to practice it openly. Homosexuality is a sin. Homosexuals are unrepentant of their sin. If they were repentant, they would no longer identify themselves as homosexual. Just as no church would allow their minister to engage in an ongoing adulterous affair and retain his position, so we must not allow homosexual ministers to retain their positions of leadership.
Homosexual advocates will contend that homosexuality is natural, and some will point to homosexual activity within some animal species as evidence. However, it’s not hard to figure out that homosexuality is decidedly unnatural. My wife and I used to have a couple of pendant necklaces. Each of us had half of a pendant on our necklace. When we put our two halves together, the zigzag pattern meshed together flawlessly to create a single, whole pendant (which, by the way, bore the words of Genesis 2:24). God made men and women different, both emotionally and physically. Physically, we were created to fit together anatomically much like our pendant. Our parts just match up! Remember the child’s game of matching the round peg into the round hole, the square peg into the square hole, etc.? The homosexual is trying to force two pegs together, in blatant disregard for God’s natural design! The argument above also falls flat on its face when you consider that some animal species also eat their young. I don’t think we can extrapolate that into an acceptable practice for human beings.
These same homosexual advocates will claim that homosexuality is genetic. NOT TRUE! Nobody is ‘born homosexual.’ In 1993, Dean Hamer of the National Cancer Institute claimed to have found a genetic link to homosexuality. Yet in 1999, the results of an intensive study by the University of Western Ontario found that Hamer was in error. The fact is that after all the attempts to show a genetic cause for homosexuality, no such genetic cause has been found. A British psychologist has had enormous success in providing “reorientation” therapy to homosexuals who want to change. This is not a surgery or a medical treatment, but it is effective. How could it be effective if the cause of homosexuality is physical? Well, it couldn’t be. Homosexuality is a choice, not a genetic predisposition.
Also untrue is the label applied to those who don’t approve of homosexuality. “Homophobe” has been applied to anyone speaking negatively of homosexuality or of homosexuals. But in 2002, a study by the University of Arkansas was publicized that showed that term to be inaccurate. While a phobia is a fear, researchers found that those termed “homophobic” exhibited no traces of fear. The study subjects’ reactions ranged from disapproval to disgust, but none showed any fear.
God’s laws were handed down for our benefit. HIV and AIDS, while no longer exclusive to homosexuals, are still much more rampant and spreading more quickly among the gay community (at least in the western nations). Our children are at risk as well. While GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) will tell your seventh-grader during a school assembly that heterosexual men molest more children than homosexual men do, they are not telling the whole story. That statistic is only true because homosexuals make up less than 5% of the population. Statistically though, a homosexual man is 10 to 20 times more likely than a heterosexual man to sexually abuse a minor.
A few “Christians” have hurt the cause of morality by acting out violently and/or hatefully against homosexuals. When Matthew Shepherd was killed for being homosexual,* a Baptist congregation gathered outside the courthouse during his killers’ trial. They held up banners that stated how many days Shepherd had been in hell, and used some disgusting names to describe him. They seemed to be happy that he had been brutally murdered. Hate is not the answer to anything. Every one of us is sinful, yet every one of us is loved by God. Jesus did not celebrate the death of Matthew Shepherd, and neither should we. “Hate the sin, but love the sinner,” is how the saying goes, and that applies to homosexuals as well.
With that said, we must not be afraid to stand up and champion the cause of morality. Some will call us bigots and homophobes for our belief that homosexuality is a sin, but we cannot let name-calling soften our beliefs in God’s moral code. The pro-homosexual movement can only marginalize us if we allow ourselves to be marginalized. There are two ways we can do that: a) we exhibit hate toward homosexuals rather than love, or b) we remain silent. We must proudly champion God’s love toward the homosexual without condoning his or her behavior. Let His love shine through us, and may we all be examples of the morality God desires.
Thank GOD there is a way out for those misquided youth
who choose the evil perverted path.
I hope there could be help for those whom choose to
be Black, Latino, and or Asian, so We could all be the same before our great White Loving Hetro GOD.
He wouldn’t get Mad, and Hit us over our Heads,
and through us in the eternal flames, jumping from brick to brick, justa screami’n and writhi’n, forever and ever, and ever.
but end up floating on the clouds singi’n and playi’n our harps forever.
Then We would not be thrown to the flames, but sing praise to Our great Norwegian Jesus, And GOD would indeed change His name to Hallowed, that we all pray so Hard for.
while we are going after the “gays, and those who choose NOT to be White, lets go after those EVIL “Milk”drinkers the Bible so loudly Condemns.
I’m not real sure what good this discussion has done. In the minds of most Americans there really isn’t a “homosexual issue.” Gays are as much a part of our lives as anything else is today. For the most part, they, like anyone else are pleasant, productive Americans. What else can we ask?
I pity ignorance, username 75. I hope that your God does too. We should embrace tolerance, acceptance and education. And, I will post my name.
Response to referenced bible passages above:
I have been doing some research… Jude verse 7: Likewise, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice, 6 serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Footnotes in the Cannonical Bible: practiced unnatural vice: literally “went after alien flesh.” derives from Gn19: 1-25 and specifically 4-11 when the townsmen of Sodom violated both hospitality and morality by demanding lot’s guests (ANGELS and messengers of YHWH) be handed over to be sexually abused. Unnatural Vice: refers to desire for intimacies by human beings with angels.
Moreover, abomination and sin are not the same thing.
Abomination: Detestable
Sin: A condition of estrangement from God resulting from disobedience.
As far as Leviticus is concerned, in addition to the lovely verses you supplied:
disobedient children shall be put to death
Adulterers shall be put to death
those who practice incest will be put to death
If any man or woman has sex with an animal, they shall be put to death as well as the animal they mated with.
If you have sex with a woman on her menstrual cycle, you both shall be banished.
burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, as it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev.1:9.
Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations.
Lev 11:10 describes eating shellfish or any creature of the sea lacking scales and fins as an abomination (as you have so clearly stated is the equivalent of sin)
Lev 16:20 Scapegoat: placing your sins on an animal which is then led into the desert (i’m sure you still follow this as well)
Lev 19:27 do not clip the hair at your temples nor trim the edges of your beard
Lev 11:6 touching the dead skin of a pigor a rabbit makes you unclean …. so your lucky rabbits foot, eating rabbit, anything rabbit fur… anything that comes from a pig including but not limited to: bacon, chops, pork rinds, footballs (which use the skin of a pig), ham…well you get the idea
In short i’m sure you have committed some of these offenses. Should we as God fearing christians do away with you as well as prescribed by scripture?
Matthew 7: 1-5
Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.
Pauls Letter to the Romans makes claim that God will abandon all exercise self-indulgence of any sort including but not limited to sins of the flesh.
1 Corinthians 6:9 mentions boy prostitutes, not homosexuals, and in further reading also mentions the following: fornicators, idolaters, thieves and robbers, the greedy, drunks and alcoholics, and slanderers and liars. That describes NEARLY (key word) all of the worlds nations, their leaders, and those living within their boundaries.
I find your biblical foundation selective and exclusive
I found another good one for you
1Cor. 11
5
But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had had her head shaved.
6
For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil.
Do the women in your faith cover their heads.. if not they’re shameful.
The point here is that if you’re going to follow one rule… implement them all. You can’t pick and choose which ones you follow. It’s all or nothing with God’s laws. Moreover, all 613 of the commandments laid out in the old testament were JEWISH LAWS…. NOT CHRISTIAN