Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A great article on battling same sex attraction



Prodigal Magazine offers one of the more helpful articles on battling same gender attraction. The article, “On Homosexuality: it’s OK to Fight,” written by the person experiencing the battle, Christy McFerren, is filled with integrity, truthfulness and good moral models. Even the comment section, which is very long, is helpful. McFerren starts her article:

It was 1994. I was 15 years old when the epiphany hit me that times were changing and I was eventually going to have a socially acceptable problem.
This sudden awareness started the clock on a grueling battle for my sexuality. I was conscious of the fact that I was different from the other girls at the age of five, and I had lived silently through ten years of gender confusion and attraction to women by age fifteen. I wanted desperately to be “over it” by the time it was going to be acceptable, even normal, to be gay. 
Further into the article, under the sub-title “Homosexuality is not a tender enemy,” McFerren writes of the help she experienced from the Christian community:

But, I’m thankful for the affliction because it made a warrior and a lover of me.For my entire twenty-three year search, I was never alone. When I made the decision to reach for help, people loved me. They prayed, listened, cried, and held me. They believed the best was coming and waited tirelessly for the seeds of life to bear fruit in my soul. By patient love they demonstrated my Father’s heart. The best of them never violated my will, created forceful situations, made rules for me to follow, rushed me to conclusions, or prescribed remedies. They gave me no reason to mistrust God by their own leadership styles. They didn't make my sin any bigger than theirs. They didn't freak out when I fell. They just spoke truth, and waited with me until I could see God. Because that’s the promise for the pure in heart. They see God.

McFerren writes of the process that God and the Christian community worked in her heart, and it is a good lesson for all of us sinners:
 There was never a pinnacle moment when I knew, “I’m not gay anymore. I feel different.” My liberation was unceremonious. Freedom matured in me through a process, from the seeds of truth that God planted and people watered along the way. It wasn't one decision I made not to be gay, there were many. Like Proverbs 4:18 says, “… the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.”
This is so very good—please read it all, even the comments: On Homosexuality: it’s OK to Fight

3 comments:

Jeff Winter said...

Thanks for posting this Viola. I am blessed when I meet and read about folks who struggle with SSA but they stand on God's Word and through the power of God's Spirit move out of homosexual expression. The greatest offense the Christian church has in its ongoing battle with those who support homosexuality are changed lives. Many men and women have come out of homosexuality. The gay community hates these testimonies of transformation.

Anonymous said...

"I don't wish to take the role of convicting people of sin, because the Bible expressly says that is the job of the Holy Spirit". - Christy McFerren

Viola Larson said...

Anonymous, Do not post here again without leaving your name, and city.