The Engage Family Blog

Why more people are believing it is a choice.

 The idea that homosexuality is a genetic component born into certain people that they are not responsible for responding to is losing ground. A recent article by the Alliance Defense Fund highlights the various organizations that are reaching out to homosexuals, and seeing them reach back.

The primary focus of the article is on the nonprofit evangelical organization Joseph’s Coat Ministries, whose founder, Chris Delany, is a self-described “ex-gay” who decided that he was “willing to give faith another chance.”

Delany spent 12 years as an openly homosexual man and, after numerous boyfriends and gay bars realized that he was miserable and needed to change his life. So he embarked on what he calls a “lengthy spiritual transformation in which he was sexually reoriented.” And now, fifteen years, one wife, and two children later, Delany uses his former life as a tool to reach out to others that are struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction. (Read the story: Faith Said to Change Sexual Orientation here)

And I for one am thankful for Mr. Delany and the Joseph’s Coat Ministry, along with others such as the Pennsylvania based Harvest USA, Exodus International, and Focus on the Family’s Love Won Out Ministry. The mere fact that there are so many ministries reaching out to homosexuals, and that these ministries are expanding because of growing demand suggests that it is possible for a homosexual to change his or her lifestyle.

Many of these organizations are using what’s called “reparative” therapy to help people deal with unwanted same-sex attractions. And not everyone thinks this is a good idea. Richard L. Pimental-Habib, an openly gay clinical therapist says, “It doesn’t make sense on any level. The ultimate result is that it doesn’t work.” And David Kaplan, with the American Counseling Association, says “We do not know of any situation where a homosexual has been converted to heterosexuality. What you can do is you can change behaviors…”

Well that just seems to be the point doesn’t it? If homosexuality is not genetic and is instead a choice, then it seems necessary to help people make an alternate choice; to change their behavior. And, quite frankly, it makes perfect sense, on many levels. People are not kidnapped and forced into the programs at these organizations. They come willingly because they don’t want the same-sex attractions that they are feeling. They want to change. And to say it doesn’t work is a slap in the face to the many people that have changed their lifestyle and are no longer homosexual.

It seems that with more people learning about the Flawed Arguments About Gay Marriage, and the reasons Why Marriage is Inherently Heterosexual that the pro-gay community is seeing its chances for legalized same-sex marriage slip away. This all comes as a result of the growing disdain for the idea that homosexuality is a genetic, in-born component of a person that is unavoidable. And that belief comes from the work of the aforementioned organizations that are seeing indisputable results in the lives of people who now call themselves “ex-gay.”

The fact is, to deny that a person can call themselves an “ex-gay” is to deny that an African-American has different colored skin. It just can’t be done. And it still remains true that there are more and more “ex-gay” people out there, and not one single ex African American.

Further Food for Thought:

Maybe She’s Born With It.

Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage? (Part 3)

Settling the Issue: Same-Sex Marriage IS NOT a Civil Right 

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