The Black Church Must Do More Than "Just Say No" to Homosexuality, By Gwen Richardson

About 16 years ago, I was editor of a national public affairs magazine called "Headway," which was sold on newstands in major cities, including here in Houston.  Our first edition focused on the issue of gays in the military, as President Clinton was poised to sign the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" legislation.  At that time, gays had started comparing themselves to Black people in terms of the discrimination faced by both groups and this angered me.  Our first edition took issue with that comparison. 

The magazine was published monthly and, a couple of weeks after it hit the newsstands, the distributor called us and said that one of the major supermarket chains in the affluent areas of Houston had pulled it from their shelves.  Apparently, gays in the area complained to the management and our magazine was pulled, simply because we challenged the prevailing position advanced by homosexuals.  So much for free speech and freedom of the press.

 

That incident taught me three things:  

1) That gays tend to reside in high-income areas and have a lot of financial clout; 

2) That they have political/economic influence and will not hesitate to exert it to silence anyone who opposes their point of view; and 

3) That those in authority will often acquiesce to their demands.

 

I knew then that gay activists were a force to be reckoned with.  The magazine ceased publication in 1999 and I have not written publicly on homosexuality since then. However, when Carrie Prejean, Miss California, was treated so shabbily and defrocked simply because she answered a direct question honestly, stating her belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, I could no longer sit on the sidelines. I realized that if gay activists would so viciously attack a Miss U.S.A. contestant -- a blonde-haired, beauty queen who is supposed to be a symbol of wholesomeness and American values -- and get away with it, then all of us who believe in traditional marriage are subject to the same treatment (or worse) if we don't start fighting back.

In the course of wading into this debate, I have reached the following conclusions regarding gay activists and the gay rights movement. One, it is nearly impossible to have a reasonable debate with gay rights activists. The usual rules for a reasoned debate are completely thrown out the window. Most resort to name-calling and personal attacks, an intimidation tactic that has been widely successful for them in the media and elsewhere.

Since my op-eds were published, I have been called everything but a child of God by gay activists, including an anti-gay bigot, a right-wing nut, a cow, a sow, a liar, a supremacist, an opportunist, ignorant, uneducated, filled with hate, backwards, and, of course, the "b" word. One gay Web site added me to its "enemies list" and encouraged its cohorts to bombard me with negative e-mails and harassing phone calls, all for merely exercising my right to free speech.

The few gay activists who attempt to provide some semblance of rationality operate under the assumption that whatever information they present is valid and whatever information the opposition presents is invalid. If one argues anything from the Biblical perspective, the response is that the Bible is a book that is thousands of years old and has no relevance to modern times. Gay activists also claim that the Bible supports slavery, which means they must not have read the book of Exodus where God brought several plagues upon the Egyptians for holding Hebrew slaves until they were freed, and then drowned Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea after the slaves were pursued.

If one argues that there is no scientific evidence of a gay gene or a biological basis for homosexuality, those scientific claims are deemed bogus. Yet, the pseudoscience gay activists bring forth, which is too new to be reliable and is biased because the researchers are largely pro-gay, has complete validity in their eyes. Gay activists will say that every gay person they know was born that way and is homosexual for life. But if one presents an opposing view, that there are homosexuals who were molested as children or experimented with homosexuality as adolescents and have subsequently been delivered by the power of Jesus Christ, the experience of these ex-homosexuals is merely anecdotal. After a certain point, I had to conclude that, as a Christian, I was throwing "pearls before swine" and these conversations were counterproductive.

The second, and most important, thing I learned is that the dramatic increase in the amount of homosexuality in our society is really a symptom of a larger problem: Because of the dissolution of the family, the absence of a positive male role model, and the self-centered approach many parents have toward child-rearing, too many of our children are left to their own devices, unsupervised and unmonitored by adults, and have become vulnerable to sexual predators and perversions. A series of online interviews with a group of young people called the Passion For Christ Movement (www.p4cm.com) is very enlightening.

Members of this youth group were previously involved in homosexuality or bisexuality and have been delivered through the power of Jesus Christ. During the interviews, they are very open about what led them down this road, without being graphic. Some of them were raised in homes where church attendance was expected, but most were not. Many of them say they were molested as children, some as early as 5 years old. The molestation opened the door to sexuality at a time when children should have all of their innocence intact.

Many of these young people then moved on to watching pornography, either on the Internet or with friends, while in middle school. As teenagers, some went online to chat rooms and dating sites and engaged in one-time sexual encounters, threesomes and orgies. Several said that they had to consume drugs or alcohol to relax their level of resistance. The media, with its 24/7 promotion of homosexuality, bisexuality and an "anything goes" attitude toward sex, fed their idea that what they were doing was the latest thing, even though many said their conscience told them otherwise. The MTV network was singled out as a channel which aggressively promotes both homosexuality and bisexuality. By the time they were in their early 20s, most of these young people felt as though they were in bondage and unable to break free. The entire time I was watching the interviews, my thought was: Where were the parents when all of this activity occurred?

The members of P4CM say they each, individually, cried out to God to save them and give them a heart that sought God's will for their lives. They were able to get support from the P4CM organization and have been able to stay free from homosexuality for several years. The young people also provided another insight regarding the quest to get free from the lifestyle: For the most part, the church offered nothing but condemnation and there was no support other than to say that homosexuality is an abomination.

I believe there are three things the church in general, and the Black church specifically, should do to address the issue of homosexuality:

Be informed. Because there are many aspects of this issue that believers may find distasteful, some may shy away from an awareness of the current culture that is pervasive throughout our society. In my opinion, this is a mistake, particularly for leaders of youth groups within the church. We, as believers, cannot put our heads in the sand and act as though these things are not happening. Our children and youth are confronting a powerful lure in terms of sexual perversion of all types and, because of the electronic age we live in, the opportunities to get involved in this are growing exponentially. Perhaps teens can partner with each other to form pacts to stay celibate. This was something that was tried successfully in the 1990s, and needs to be rekindled. We must have some knowledge about the cultural challenges our children are facing. To paraphrase the Bible: We must not be ignorant of Satan's devices.

Be supportive. As believers, we must offer homosexuals more than simply condemnation. Young people who are looking for a way out of the homosexual and bisexual lifestyles should be able to seek refuge and support at a Christian church. Just as many churches have programs for those who are seeking deliverance from alcoholism, drug addiction, smoking and other human frailties, a program for those who no longer wish to be bound by sexual sins should be considered. Those who have been delivered from sexual sins are going to be the best spokespeople to help others because they have the life experience to relate to those seeking help.

However, be prepared to be attacked by gay groups, who seem to be adamant about their stance that every homosexual was born gay. It is certainly true that some homosexuals have a predisposition toward this behavior, for whatever reason, but it is obvious that a substantial number of practicing homosexuals were either molested as children or started experimenting and simply got "caught up." Why should victims of molestation and people who simply made a mistake by experimenting be forced to continue to do something they no longer want to do? Indeed, it is our duty as Christians to offer a way of escape for those bound by this lifestyle.

Be vigilant. Despite the statements made by most gay activists to the contrary, they are indeed targeting churches for legal challenges to gay marriage and gay partnerships. Here are a few examples: In New York, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, an orthodox Jewish institution, refused to allow same-sex couples to live in married student housing.  In 2001, the New York State Supreme Court forced them to do so.

In Massachusetts, Catholic Charities were ordered to accept homosexual couples in their adoption service or close down.  They chose to shut down this service.

To the north of us in Canada, once gay marriage was legalized, it became illegal for religious leaders to say that homosexuality is a sin. If they do so, they are fined thousands of dollars by the government. If gay marriage is legalized in America, the same thing could happen here.

A Methodist church in New Jersey was sued by a gay couple who wanted to use one of the church's facilities for a wedding ceremony. The church declined the building's use, but the couple filed a discrimination complaint with the state's civil rights division and the church lost its tax exempt status.

The challenge to the Methodist church's tax exempt status was done on the grounds that the building used was open to the public. It appears that gay organizations have found the Achilles heel of the Christian church: Since a major tenet of the Christian faith is that the church's doors are open to the public to bring people to Christ, virtually any church building or property can be deemed a "public facility."

Churches regularly have youth rallies, barbecues, picnics, carnivals, concerts, etc., on their grounds to attract non-members and non-believers. This means that all churches are vulnerable to legal challenges from gay organizations. Churches may need to go on the offensive and counter-sue when these legal challenges are brought, arguing on the basis of the separation of church and state. The state should not force religious institutions to implement practices that are against their faith's principles - period.

Christian believers, and those of other faiths, must know that this is not going to be an easy fight, but it is a necessary one. Being attacked and called names simply for standing up for one's beliefs is never pleasant. But the early Christians had a much tougher fight than we have. We are blessed in that we do have the constitutional right to free speech without fear of government persecution. The persecution directed towards us by gay activists will be worth it, once we see that millions of young people have been saved from making potentially life-altering mistakes.

Gwen Richardson