I wasn't gonna jump in on this point, but I've seen a number of men leave the homosexual lifestyle and not go back and not be miserable for the rest of our lives. Our church assisted the Exodus Int'l organization in their programs for homosexuals who wanted to leave it behind. These guys came to us and announced they were sick of their lives, that they were going nowhere, that they felt empty, unfulfilled, sick of what they were doing.

We didn't throw the book at them - they already knew what they needed to know. What we did do is really the only thing that works - and possibly what the church has failed most embarrassingly to do until now. We didn't wait for them to miraculously totally 'clean up' to accept them. We accepted them just as they were and showed them the love and attention they hadn't gotten elsewhere.

Several families each took one of those men and 'adopted' them for a year, inviting them to come live in their homes, and basically treated them as part of the family. No big, drawn-out lectures about how it's an abomination or how they were going to hell or anything like that. (I seriously doubt there are any gay men who haven't heard that more times than they can count.)

No, they were just part of the family. Everyone in the church spent time with them, got to know them better, and we all basically did our best to show these guys that they were loved simply for who they were. At the end of that year, we let them decide what they were going to do, and kept in touch with those who couldn't stay in the area at least once a week. After five years, not one of those twenty men has gone back to the gay lifestyle.

I'm not concerned with whether or not gays are born with a tendency toward a certain lifestyle. I'm not concerned with how politicizers might disagree with what we're doing - or how churches might disagree with what we're doing (and quite a few do). All we're trying to do is prove that it's possible to find acceptance and love without being enslaved to tendencies toward a destructive lifestyle (which is what they called it, btw). We didn't pull a 'Clockwork Orange' move on them. We just made sure they experienced what they hadn't yet been given - a feeling of worth beyond the things they did, a realization that you do have control over what you do (even if that control only extends as far as going to get help) and you are more than the sum of the choices you make.

Say what you want about me or my church or our methods, but I know dozens of men who are leading fulfilled lives today, after leaving the gay lifestyle behind. It's entirely possible, no matter how un-PC or potentially 'offensive' it might be. It's just up to people to decide for themselves whether or not to give it a try.

go.

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