The mainstream understanding is that sexuality is totally fixed and can not change, and any attempt to change it is dangerous and causes misery. I can't go with a narrative if I'm not living that narrative anymore.
Could this be an act of God? Or is it more about me turning away from sin and having my priorities in life be more God-orientated? Perhaps it is both! I think it is interesting to theorize.
Over the centuries, there have been many BIG lies told to the public which they have uncritically embraced. All that's usually required is a constant "beating of the drum" of whatever lie it is and a fierce censure of anyone who dares to question the lie. Sound familiar? One of the biggest lies told to the public in recent memory is that homosexuality is an irresistible feature of human physiology, like one's height, or eye color. It's a congenital aberration, we're told, dictated by one's genetics, and so the person engaging in homosexual behaviour is simply following the direction of their biology. What, then, is there to condemn? Do we condemn a person for having a long nose, or brown eyes, or big ears? No. Likewise, we can't criticize homosexuality when it is of a kind with a person's physical features. This is the BIG LIE western culture has swallowed quite thoroughly.
Is it true, though? No, it's not. And your story,
PrimFinallyFoundGod!, is suggestive of this fact. Is truth always necessarily what a person lives, what is indicated by their experience? Not in God's spiritual economy of things; and not in the mundane character of everyday life, either. God says there are a good number of things that become true of any person who is truly born-again, spiritual things that He intends should replace the "truth" (i.e. lived experience) we have taken up about ourselves and which, as they do, transform our living. We are "joint-heirs with Christ," we are "dead to sin and alive unto God," we are "new creatures in Christ," we are "hid with Christ in God," we are "temples of the Holy Spirit," and so on (
Romans 8:17; Romans 6:1-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 6:19-20). These are all spiritual realities that are always true of the born-again person though they may live in total ignorance of them and so never benefit from them. "The me I see, is the me I'll be," right?
When, however, a Christian begins to stand
by faith on the facts of who they are in Jesus Christ, declaring to themselves the truth of their new, spiritual nature, then it is they begin to experience a transformation that conforms them more and more to the spiritual realities that have been true of them since they were first born-again. This is why we are told in the New Testament that the Christian must "walk by faith, not by sight," and that the "just shall live by faith," and that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (
2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Hebrews 11:6). Only when the Christian counts it so that they are who God says they are as His children, as those "in Christ," do they begin to experience the truth of their spiritual identity in how they live.
Anyway, it's possible for the unsaved person to live in a lie in the mundane, un-spiritual condition of their lives, too. Homosexuality is a "good" example. First, there is the simple fact of physical anatomy that defies what the homosexual feels. Sexual organs are clearly made for
procreation, not merely to express one's sexual "orientation." All sorts of damaging physical effects arise from the inappropriate use of these organs, and more and more so as a person (males particularly) persists in homosexual acts, which signals that, whatever a homosexual urges a person might feel, their biological reality is disconfirming of their sexual urges.
As well, human societies depend upon the production of succeeding generations of human beings, which homosexuality confounds. If one is considering homosexuality from a purely evolutionary angle, it is immediately obvious that such behavior cannot arise from genetics, since the behavior is clearly deleterious to the species and is, in fact, self-selecting for removal from the gene pool. If a thousand homosexual men (or lesbian women) lived on an island in complete isolation from the rest of the world, within a generation the island would be empty of human beings, even if they had all they needed to sustain their lives (food, shelter, clothing, medicine, etc.). How, then, is it genetics that are the source of this behavior?
Research into homosexuality, as far as I'm aware, has been inconclusive in showing a genetic basis for the behavior. Twin studies, brain studies, and hormonal studies have all failed to concretely establish that genes have anything to do with homosexual behavior. Increasingly, the evidence of research points to psycho-social factors (personality, family, friends, culture), not biology, as the root of homosexual activity. In spite of all that is in evidence against the idea of homosexuality being congenital, a physiological trait like hair color or height, western societies have largely adopted as a foregone conclusion that a person can't help but follow any persistent, strong homosexual impulse that grips them.
It seems,
PrimFinallyFoundGod!, that you are beginning to live in the truth, both spiritually and practically, and thus discovering that the idea of same-sex attraction being biological in origin and thus inevitable and enduring is what it has always been: a lie.
God warns that any departure from His will and way leads to destruction and death. But when we live in His way, God promises blessing, the goodness of His excellence and power. Whatever pleasures and satisfaction may be found in sexual perversity, they do not lead - they cannot lead - to the fullness, richness and contentment of life lived God's way. I hope and pray that, as you align yourself more and more under the will and way of your Holy Maker, you will discover all the goodness, all the love, joy and peace, that He has always intended should be yours.
Deuteronomy 30:15-19
15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
17 "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
19 "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
Matthew 11:28-30
28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Galatians 5:22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
the church should reaffirm traditional Christian morality about marriage…I do think there’s a biological basis for an inclination towards homosexuality. On the other hand
shows a correlation between homosexuality and narcissism. Eek
is headed in the same direction because of deregulation shredding the safety net…
government programs have their place…
and more social programs for the masses would be a humane step forward…
