Ex-Gay Warns of the "Gay Gospel"

The Christian Post had a somewhat balanced report on the dueling conferences going on in California this week, the Exodus International Freedom Conference and "The Ex-Gay Survivor Conference: Undoing the Damage and Affirming Our Lives Together."


The reason I post that here is that there were a couple of remarks made by Joe Dallas, a featured speaker at the Exodus conference, that I wanted to address.


"I believe that the pro-gay theology ... is a symptom of the problem of people wanting to believe something and then imposing that desire on the Bible. Rather than reading the Bible for what it says, they interpret it for what they want it to mean," Dallas explained.


Here's another thought. Anyone who has studied the Gospels knows that Satan used scripture when he tempted Jesus out in the desert. I strongly believe that Satan uses the "clobber passages" to shame people like Joe Dallas into not only denying part of the very essence of how God made them but to try and lead others to do the same.


"We are all in this life wrestling with a struggle between the flesh and the spirit," said Dallas. "I think that what God requires of all of us is to live a disciple's life where we recognize that our primary goal in life is not our own satisfaction but rather what we can do to please our Master. And the great irony is in doing that, we find the greatest satisfaction."


There is truth in that, but from the contact of Dallas' statement, he implies that wanting to live as a homosexual is some kind of selfish, fleshly desire. Of course, one can adopt a lifestyle where they give in to the temptations of the flesh and both heterosexuals and homosexuals are pretty good at doing just that. Living life in a committed same-sex relationship is not any more selfish than using a beautiful voice to sing or using an analytical mind to design the next technological wonder.


All of those situations are examples of people using gifts that God blessed us with, not denying them like Joe Dallas and the folks at Exodus International want you to do.


Few things please God more than using the gifts He gave us to serve him, and I'm proud to stand beside GLBT people who have devoted their lives to do that.