Ex Gay

Acts 26:1-23

            There is a cohort of people who seem to think that being gay is a choice. Certainly what you do as a gay person is a choice, that goes for anyone. But being gay? not so much. This cohort seems to think that you can pray the gay away and several people have gained fame and notoriety forming organizations that will help you stop being gay. Through a variety of methods these people, mostly by fanatical right wing Christians, try to force the gay out of you. Oddly enough they call it reparative. All of these methods have been proven wrong and in fact labelled as dangerous by such professionals as the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK), the Indian Psychiatric Society, the World Health Organisation as well as psychological societies of Hong Kong, China, Australia, The American Pediatric Association and well, need I go on?

         Bolstered by ignorance and a warped faith, this cohort continues to act on their rogue ideas at the expense of the LGBTQ community.  To me it is not unlike Paul from today's passage. Paul was a devout Jew who was guided to persecute the Christians who to him were basically errant Jews.  The LGBTQ community would be errant people I suppose.

        I am very happy to report that there are many major players in the ex-gay cohort that have realized the errors of their ways and the utter damage they have visited on good and decent human beings, created gay by our heavenly Father. Still others enraged by the movement of the Holy Spirit to have people actually see the decency in gay people....and grant them rights.....and give them marriage equality, have carried their agenda abroad and across the globe. Armed with lies, hate and misinformation they illegally promote foreign policy to nations and individuals that will listen. In so doing, like Paul before his conversion, they visit hatred and violence against people even to foreign cities. This should not be allowed. 

        At this point, all I can do aside from supporting legislation, information and living a decent life, is to pray for the conversion of hearts abroad and the movement of the Spirit in areas where hate reigns. Sadly these cohorts, as I have alluded to, have the backing of large religious organisations. This is so sad and I can surely see God crying at what is perpetuated as sure as he cried when the Romans perpetrated the crusades and the inquisition. None of this hate mongering is that far removed from each other. 

          The choice for the gay community like myself is to speak up, support change in any manner we can and to educate and convert people with our loving lives.

Agrippa said to Paul, ‘You have permission to speak for yourself.’ Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself:

‘I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defence today against all the accusations of the Jews, because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently.

‘All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

‘Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

‘With this in mind, I was travelling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.” I asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” 

‘After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place: that the Messiah must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.’