A Pastor's Response
Hi there friends,
The prevalence of ignorance on the issue of homosexuality still haunts us, and is very real to the global Church today, to such a large degree that, in most cases, the Church cannot begin to start the process of dialogue with the LGBTI community in the fear of "compromising" their faith.
This creates the cycle that lends itself to alienation of all LGBTI people from the greater Church, which means that most heterosexist churches do not really get to know who we are as people in the LGBTI community. There is such a denial that we could possibly be created by God as the LGBTI people, that this belief leaves little room for any dialogue to share our stories. After all, it is our life stories, our testimonies, that bring the most powerful witness of who we are in the end, because no-one can take away your personal testimony, or deny its authenticity.
God loves ALL people equally. When will the Church grab hold of this unconditional love? The Bible teaches us that God's perfect love casts out all fear in 1 John 4:18:
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
Yet, it appears that the fear is still clearly evident in many heterosexual Christians today; this fear, instead of God's all powerful love, seems to be ruling in many churches today. We are called to love one another with God's unconditional love. As someone once said, "Misunderstanding is the enemy."
As a Charismatic Christian, I believe in 1 John 4:4, which says: "Greater is God's Spirit in me than he (the devil) that is in the world". Why is it, then, that so many Christians that believe in the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, still fear that the devil will deceive them, if they even lend their ears to LGBTI people?
I will help to answer this; it is because people in the Church have been made to believe that all LGBTI people are promiscuous, that we are some sort of "sexual predator" types, and that everything about us is linked to sex, not love. In every society there is lust, promiscuity, etc - the world is full of it! It is not a "gay" thing; it is a "worldly" thing! Human beings are lustful beings, full stop!
That is why, of course, as a Pastor, I believe we all need the regenerating power of Jesus Christ in our lives, to change that. That is another story for another time. But this misconception, of who the majority of the global Church think LGBTI people are, is crazy, and very prehistoric! This view then leaves almost zero chance for dialogue and for people, especially Christians, to push past the barriers of their fear, to actually talk with one another, instead of throwing doctrine around, which is usually pretty distorted about this issue, to say the least.
It is not our physiology that defines who we are; it is about who we are intrinsically created to be. (Actually this word "intrinsic" is the correct translation in the passage of Rom 1:24-28, which has been used to condemn homosexual people. It defines the word "natural" used in this passage from the Greek. The word that has been used to translate the Greek is the Greek word "sarx", which is a misinterpretation. The word used here is "Phusikos", meaning "intrinsic", not connected with "natural law" as many try to imply in the Church).
When I exchange that which is natural, I exchange that which is intrinsic to me as a person. This "fairytale" hope that heterosexual Christians have of trying to force people that are different from them, to be the same as them, in order to be considered "normal", is very sad and very damaging to LGBTI people. Being different does not equal being wrong.
Psalm 139 tells me that I am "fearfully and wonderfully made". The Bible is not a book about human sexuality; it is about God's love, with Jesus Christ as the focus of our redemption through God's love.
Here is the response posted on Facebook in response to the article noted above:
This article is a very sad and cheap attempt at "spiritual propaganda" from the point of the conservative religious right. It is this kind of stereotyping that implies that LGBTI people can be "healed" from their sexual orientation.
In my years of experience in pastoral counselling, and in dealing with LGBTI people who have been told that they can be healed by the Church, I have found this truth: that in the desire for some LGBTI people to be Christians, there is a sincere need of wanting to believe that they are healed (as in the case of articles such as this), because many truly want to be close to God, but are taught that "being gay" is wrong and condemned by God, on a societal level, through the church, and through parents.
In this attempt to believe that the only way that it is possible to be close to God (through indoctrination that you cannot be gay and be a Christian), many people attempt to go through a special "healing" process" in the Church, that will convince them that being gay is wrong and that they are now healed. Churches will say LGBTI people are "healed, clean and straight", and many LGBTI want to believe this for different reasons of needing acceptance.
Most churches will agree that the Bible condemns lust, and so believe that humankind are in need of healing from lust. However, this applies to both heterosexual and LGBTI people. Unfortunately, this healing from lust is often confused with homosexuality, because the Church have always coupled the word "homosexuality" with promiscuity. Hence the typical and ignorant position of the Church regarding this issue.
The sin that the Bible condemns is not homosexuality, but lust, whether you are LGBTI or heterosexual! But this has nothing to do with sexual orientation, and some that experience healing from lust on a "deliverance" level from the certain churches, are told they are "delivered" or" healed" from their homosexuality. This is confusing, as some people truly experience a sense of God having touched them, but this is then interpreted to the LGBTI person (by those in the Church) that they have been "delivered" from their homosexuality.
Sadly, I have yet to find a case where this is true. Rev. Sylvia Pennington was a heterosexual pastor in the USA, who, for many years, had a ministry to "heal" homosexuals from "their homosexuality". Years later, she believed God spoke to her and her ministry turned around completely, and she actually pastored a LGBTI church before she died. She wrote many books, one called, "Ex-Gays: there are none". The title speaks for itself.
As a heterosexual pastor, she soon discovered that God loves LGBTI people, and it is love that LGBTI people need, not healing. She got it! I believe it was because she moved past the place of fear, and made a safe space where dialogue could occur. As she listened to people's stories, and saw LGBTI people as people, not as perceptions anymore, God's love in her made her realise that there is no such thing as an "ex-gay".
Ex-gay ministries are the most destructive, harmful entities we could encounter, and the truth about them must come out (see more on Wayne Besen's site: Truth wins out at www.TruthWinsOut.org, where many of these ex-gay ministries and their leaders are exposed. This is besides all the stories I hear that horrify me when people share their experiences of what "straight" Christians have done to them, to "make them straight").
I am sure we all need healing from our different areas of emotional pain, including the pain that the global Church is accountable for, for bringing to our Eunuch nation. The scars are plentiful and I have many in my own church who will share their testimonies about this. But it is not the healing from our sexual orientation that we need, which the Church does in the name of God!
Usually after a period of time, I am called by many LGBTI people who have made such claims as in the article above (ie. that they have been healed from their homosexuality), that have now come to realise that they are not healed. Their need to be healed in the first place is for different reasons (desire to be acceptable to parents, other people, and God, to name a few), but have realised that they have not changed their sexual orientation at all. Some have hidden it, whilst their churches believe they are now straight.
I have heard many life stories over the last 18 years of being in the LGBTI community, from LGBTI people, and they point to the reality that LGBT people are born LGBT. I include myself in these statistics.
This negative stereotyping, as in the above article for example, and the ignorance of who we are as LGBTI people, contributes to and fuels the fire of homophobia in the conservative right churches. I am not saying that a LGBTI person doesn't believe at the time that they are "healed", but I often have to "pick up the pieces" of the very people that have made such claims, once they realise that they have not been healed of their sexual orientation as the Church have told them.
If anyone believes in being "made whole" through Christ, it is me. But it certainly doesn't incorporate changing who Christ created me to be in the first place, namely, my sexual orientation as a lesbian.
We must understand the need, for many LGBTI people, to believe that if they are straight, they will no longer need to experience the rejection they face with being LGBTI from families, dear friends, or even in the workplace and, of course, to believe they will be "right' with God if they are "straight". Rejection is a powerful thing, affecting all of us in a fallen world to some extent.
When LGBTI people are constantly told that their "lifestyle" is wrong, that they "can change", simply because they do not fit the stereotypes that make other people feel comfortable (ie. being straight), many LGBT people get married to the opposite sex, to "fit in". Who wants to be an "outcast"?
The very tool, the Bible, that many Christians use against us as LGBTI Christians, is actually a book of great freedom, for those of us who will use it wisely and those of us who will see it through the lens of God's eyes; will come to know, that we are loved, yes dearly loved and cherished by God, as the LGBTI community. - The truth, surely will set us free but not from our sexual orientation, from our sin. (Jn. 8;32)
Christ came to change our hearts not our fingerprints! When will we get this?
I will leave you with this amazing scripture:
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every person's conscience in the sight of God. (2Co 4:2 NIV)
Blessings
Rev. Deborah Bell
Senior Pastor
Deo Gloria Family Church