An unlikely journey om agnostic gay man prison to evangelil Bible profsor | Fox News

Contents:

• THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.
• FROM GAY TO GOSPEL: THE FASCATG STORY OF BECKET COOK
• 'I GAVE MY HOMOSEXUALY TO GOD': FORMER GAY ACTIVIST MET J AND HIS LIFE WAS COMPLETELY CHANGED
• WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.
• CELEBRI WHO HAVE LEFT A GAY LIFTYLE
• AN UNLIKELY JOURNEY OM AGNOSTIC GAY MAN PRISON TO EVANGELIL BIBLE PROFSOR
• EX-GAY MLIM MAN TURNED CHRISTIAN MISTRY LEAR SHAR HOW HE ME TO FAH J
• CHRISTIANS REACT TO 'I AM MICHAEL' FILM ON FORMER GAY ACTIVIST-TURNED-PASTOR

THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.

For two s, McKrae Game was a top-tier figure among ex-gay Christians and a leadg advote for nversn therapy, a unselg practice wh the goal of helpg LGBTQ people supprs their homosexualy and bee “straight. ” But Game, 51, now disavows the movement and acknowledg he has been gay all told the Post and Courier that nversn therapy proved to be trimental, a “lie” and “false advertisg.

The most proment ex-gay anizatns have shnk or shuttered; lears have fected; and many church now fear that beg associated wh such wily discreded techniqu will st them as unwelg or bigoted.

FROM GAY TO GOSPEL: THE FASCATG STORY OF BECKET COOK

Addnally, the Inter is rife wh stori of LGBTQ people who have reported sufferg psychologil harm as a rult of participatg the programs and proment Christians are quietly tryg to rurrect ex-gay Christiany, and the new rnatn is hipper and perhaps more evolved. Yet beneath the smetic tweaks ss the same msage that has damaged many liv over many s: If you’re a Christian wh same-sex attractns, change is both possible and first wave of Amerin ex-gay Christiany the 1970s alced around mistri and anizatns specifilly voted to the e.

But the current wave is far more centralized, beg led by pennt thors and personali who are embedd the nservative Christian world rather than segregated to an issue-specific views differ ever so slightly om the next while orbg tightly to siar them, such as the possibily of “former homosexuals” havg a healthy heterosexual marriage, differentiatg between one’s behavr and inty, and a ubiquo, if obligatory, nod to church’ historil failur to love people who intify as of the movement’s most articulate lears is Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, a former women’s studi profsor at Syrace Universy who says she “adopted a lbian inty” her 20s as a rult of beg fluenced by femist philosophy.

”When I spoke wh her, I asked if she nsirs herself “ex-gay, ” and she said she do not e that label to scribe herself but then proceed to scribe how she was once, but is no longer, a lbian. When I asked if she believ nversn therapy, she said she do not and then said is “ part bee heterosexual s is no more sanctified than homosexual s. ”When I poted out the fn of the term “ex-gay, ” she pivoted to talkg about how Christian church have failed to mister to and love LGBTQ people.

'I GAVE MY HOMOSEXUALY TO GOD': FORMER GAY ACTIVIST MET J AND HIS LIFE WAS COMPLETELY CHANGED

But then Butterfield add that she disurag the age of the term “gay Christian” and even oppos “Si B” Christians who accept their LGBTQ inty but are mted to celibacy for relig reasons.

But she prents a msage that will rg faiar to the many LGBTQ people who have survived ex-gay mistri and therapy: Through the power of J, same-sex sir n and should be overe. For Butterfield, homosexualy is not an inty that scrib who a person is but, rather, a sful actn that a person do — but n stop preach her gospel of change through her popular books, speech at Christian nferenc and church, and is the unmistakable msage of the life she now liv.

Butterfield left her female partner after her nversn and is now married to her hband, artist Jackie Hill Perry is another risg ex-gay star who formerly intified as a lbian and is now married to a man. ”When I prsed her, the thor of “Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been” said that she has never met anyone who has experienced a plete change sexual orientatn, but she add that she has read stori about people who have.

WHAT COM AFTER THE EX-GAY MOVEMENT? THE SAME THG THAT CAME BEFORE.

Perry also reils at the term “ex-gay” bee that giv the imprsn that someone will stantly eradite their homosexual sir: “I love my hband, but I also experience same-sex attractn. This clus people like Matt Moore, a wrer who was highlighted a piece that was origally published 2013 (later updated 2016) reportg that he had an active profile on the gay datg app Grdr. His Instagram acunt is filled wh stapl of gay culture, om “Goln Girls” mem and unrwear remendatns to flowy Versace silk prts and ab-revealg cropped tops.

At least not claims that his parents’ divorce and an experience of sexual asslt created same-sex sir him at a young age, but he preach that J is helpg him overe his homosexual I spoke to him, he said he “had to make a choice of my fah over my feelgs. Many Amerins believed at the time that homosexualy was a mere matter of choice, and worse, a s that would endanger one’s eternal their mds, same-sex-attracted Christians who wanted to live a life of hols uld supprs their sexual sir through some mixture of prayer, spirual disciple and therapy. Mistri and anizatns rose up and preached the ex-gay eventually the movement was plagued by shiftg public opn, and ex-gay Christiany’s most proment lears began repudiatg the movement and tellg the tth about s failur.

CELEBRI WHO HAVE LEFT A GAY LIFTYLE

Ex-gay in John Plk was oted as chairman of Exod Internatnal, the world’s most proment ex-gay mistry, after beg photographed at a gay bar 2000.

Chambers, who once lled homosexualy “one of the many evils this world has to offer, ” lobbied agast marriage equaly and touted exampl of happily wed “former homosexuals, ” said that 99. 9 percent of ex-gay mistry participants he had met had not experienced a shift sexual Bethel Church, a mega-ngregatn based Reddg, Calif., wh a popular worldwi worship mic brand, may be tryg to fill that void.

” The se clus a shop plete wh T-shirts, stori om people who purport to have been nverted om homosexualy, a ffee-table book and, of urse, a donatn tab. The mistry is poised to lnch a seri of events and is g #OnceGay to intify supporters, many of the once-thrivg ex-gay mistri are gone. In the years sce, Cook pleted a gree at Talbot School of Theology and wrote a memoir of his nversn, A Change of Affectn: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Remptn, which jt released.

AN UNLIKELY JOURNEY OM AGNOSTIC GAY MAN PRISON TO EVANGELIL BIBLE PROFSOR

In terms of rpondg to those close to who e out as gay or lbian, ’s important to love them unndnally whout promisg your nvictns. By studyg scripture, he then reached a pot where he no longer saw marriage as simply a life-long mment between two dividuals like a secular or gay marriage.

EX-GAY MLIM MAN TURNED CHRISTIAN MISTRY LEAR SHAR HOW HE ME TO FAH J

Lookg back on this enunter, I n see that had all the trappgs of what beme known as the ex-gay movement, of which I was once an eager proponent. Alan Medger, the first executive director of Exod Internatnal, scribed as “a change self-perceptn which the dividual no longer intifi him- or herself as homosexual. Recent bat among nservative Anglins and Prbyterians over whether someone n claim a “gay inty” are only the latt round of siar disput that have echoed church rridors for years.

Before there was an ex-gay paradigm of cure, there was an olr orthodoxy that clud a Christian paradigm of rg for believers who aren’t straight. In the bgraphy Wound Prophet, Michael Ford documents how Nouwen discsed his experience as a celibate gay man wh his close circle of iends. As Stott wrote Issu Facg Christians Today back 1982, “In every discsn about homosexualy we mt be rigoro differentiatg between this ‘beg’ and ‘dog, ’ that is, between a person’s inty and activy, sexual preference and sexual practice, nstutn and nduct.

For Stott, a homosexual orientatn was part of the believer’s inty—a fallen part, but one that the gospel don’t erase so much as humbl.

CHRISTIANS REACT TO 'I AM MICHAEL' FILM ON FORMER GAY ACTIVIST-TURNED-PASTOR

In the Uned Stat, as the 1969 Stonewall rts New York announced the birth of the gay rights movement, orthodox Prottants were already askg what posive visn Scripture giv for people who are gay. The 1970 psdonymo InterVarsy Prs book The Returns of Love: Letters of a Christian Homosexual mapped out a path of re and was promoted by Stott. “The homophile tends to be phed out of human life (and pecially orthodox church life) even if he do not practice homosexualy, ” lamented Schaeffer.

In a statement, the lears clared, “We repent of the cripplg ‘homophobia’ … which has loured the attus toward homosexual people of all too many of , and ll our fellow Christians to siar repentance. Stott, himself celibate, explaed: “At the heart of the homosexual ndn is a ep and natural hunger for mutual love, a search for inty and a longg for pletens.