Coming to God alone without hiding

 

 

The “Ex-Gay” is an oxymoron statement as once sexual orientation is an innate part of ones being. It can be likened to the term ex-straight? Can a straight person choose to be gay? It is a well known challenge in the gay community to be able to seduced straight men! Most have failed because you just can’t change the sexual orientation of a person, and it is not like a bird flu infection or “duck flu” virus. A straight person can chose same sex actions outside his natural inclination, but it would need a strong motivation. The motivation in the bible is depicted in wicked violence of men, and their religious worship of idols. The same sex acts by a straight person is not motivated by mutual affection and love, but rather by sexual control and abuse in Sodom and Gomorrah or as an act of faith in the religious worship of idols in the New Testament. These do not make them ex-straight. The straight lifestyle of hatred, violence, wickedness and worship of idols has certainly spread far and wide with gays being blamed for it. The bible says that the heart of men is exceedingly wicked. Our conservative theology seems to make us more prone to self righteousness and hypocrisy with Gays as a convenient scapegoat. Pastor Rick Warren said that Gays should not be given rights because of their small numbers of 1 to 2%, ie gays are dispensable.

(Ezek 13:22 NKJV) "Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life.

Addressing the clobber verses as being gay related allows us to avoid dealing with the evil within our hearts, the wickedness of humanity, and the utter lack of morality and righteousness, injustice and violence that the whole world is in? It is convenient to blame Gays, the weakest minority, rather than address the issues of our heart, and our actions. There is a fear that the verses could be directed at straight men. It was reported in Illinois recently, Christian and Non Christian faiths made a joint call for gay marriages to be substituted by civil unions, less God will destroy the city in 10 years time. But Jesus did not condemn the Jewish towns in the New Testament for having gays in their midst, He condemned them for not accepting Him as their Lord and Savior. It’s not about Gays, it’s about Jesus, whom many of these religious groups also denied.

(Mat 10:15 NKJV) "Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

Jesus referred to Sodom and Gomorrah when describing the Jews who rejected His call for salvation,. Sodom and Gomorrah rejected and raped the Angels who came to declare God’s salvation to their cities, to declare God’s grace and mercy. Here, we have Jesus, God Himself coming in love and demonstration of healing and power, and yet some Jewish cities chased them out of the towns that they visited. Jesus came with the offer of God’s grace and mercy, and they rejected Him and so deserved judgment. Jesus was associating the cities with Sodom and Gomorrah on the basis of rejecting Him as their Lord and Savior. It was not a gay issue we make it out to be. We like to associate Gays with Sodom, and claim that God destroyed the cities because of homosexuality. Some explained it in terms of the then prevailing culture. But how much different is the culture of violence in prisons where weaker inmates are sexually penetrated by straight men? It is the same culture, the same wickedness in the hearts of men. Are we any different by our false witness against the Gay community.

We are reminded of King David, committing sexual immorality and attempting to cover it up. What is the church trying to hide? It takes little to realize our hypocrisy. Are we subconsciously hiding our own sexual sins by associating Gay marriage with destroying our straight marriages, saying that Gays violate the Jewish laws which we ourselves do not follow, or by continually associating gays with sexual abuse of minors? Because our theology does not work, it does not change people from the inside. It is just outward actions and laws which do not change our character much. We have to somehow exalt and emphasized our righteousness and morality by comparing ourselves to gays. In a survey on pornography, the states which are more religiously minded and against gays tended to have higher attraction to it. Perhaps, Gay bashing is part of our guilty conscience.

When a Pastor of an ex-gay ministry from Malacca came to speak at a dialog session, I realized that he came from the same church as I did more than 10 years ago. He testified that he was then living in "sin" with many boyfriends before coming to know Jesus Christ in that church and he emphasized consuming Jesus was the key against this apparent lifestyle. I was actually quite jealous as he shared because I did not have any of such orgies he proclaimed as common. I was perhaps more consistent in my Christian walk whether straight or Gay still demands for me a long term committed monogamous relationship before sex. Perhaps he had the many relationships in defiance subconsciously of the closet and condemnation that society has put him in. He finally succumbed to a belief that it was all apparently due to some imaginary gay lifestyle whilst not calling the equally promiscuous sex of the straight community, a straight lifestyle. It takes a lot of effort to keep up the ex-gay lie and seemingly desperate to associate faith in Jesus to justify it and rationalize this change. For many such “Ex-Gay” ministries are self serving need to continually repeat and rationalize a lie until it becomes a “truth” in their mind in their the battle to suppress their natural sexual orientation.

Jesus is calling us today, to rest, to live by grace and stop fighting against that which we cannot change. For God has created the very vast majority to be straight and a small minority to be gay. We should accept how He created our sexual orientation as. They are no point of denying and living a lie and be conflicted. The start of resting and “consuming Jesus” is when we start focus on Jesus for who He is and what He has done rather than trying to use Him for the wrong motives or living under the closet of the churches wrong theology on gays. When we start living, we start focusing less on our inward sexual orientation and more outwardly, our rest will come. We begin to see with the vision, mind and heart of Christ for the nations, starting with our gay tribe. Our hearts will be at pain to see the oppression and abuse of the gay tribe by religious groups and the majority, resulting in deep spiritual and mental wounds and the continual daily internal and external struggles of the oppressed.

Father God, create in us a clean heart, and give us rest today, the rest to accept how You have created Us wonderfully, and the grace to accept that which we cannot change and to have faith that You will make all things wonderful in Your time, and the grace to live each day, a new day. Let us come to Your Garden alone not hiding our sexual orientation and enter the rest in Christ that You have ordained for us.

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Words: Charles Austin Miles (1912)