Hi Rowland,
I enjoyed the article on homosexuality. I am not saying I agree with
it all but I am in agreement with the general tenor - that we should
be more loving, accepting, etc., of people with difference, whether it
be homosexuality or anything else.
I want to feed to you one critique, not of the article itself, but of
the homosexual position that the article has innately inside it.
But before doing so I want to make some personal comments.
Unfortunately this will be a bit long but I need to paint a picture.
I too am different.
From the age of about 13-14 I have suffered depression (I am now 55).
I have only had it medically diagnosed in the last 4 years. It is a
long term chemical depression in which the chemicals in the brain
cease to do their job properly on an emotional level. Basically the
neurons slowly shut down more and more over time. As a result one's
emotional level sinks. The sufferer learns to cope with it as it is a
slow decline but eventually something major goes wrong (usually in
one's 40s or 50s) that means one cannot cope any more and it becomes a
problem. As happened in my life!
Not that it is not a problem before this - and this is my point in
sharing this - I have refused to let depression stop me from being
involved in church to my fullest extent. So I have been in leadership
for most of the last 35 years at one level or another. I am gifted
teacher, pastor and leader, and have moved in any other gifts also. In
fact there is hardly a job in church life that I have not led for some
time period or other. In this I am unusual for a depression sufferer.
Most give up.
But it has been a problem for the pastors of churches I have been in
whose theology about depression is one or other of the following (or a
mixture of all):
(i) He must have unrepented sin in his life.
(ii) He must be carrying unconfessed anger or unforgiveness
(bitterness) in his heart.
(iii) It must be demonic.
(iv) He's been prayed for many times and not healed so he must lack
faith.
In general Christians have no theology of "brain", though many have a
theology of "Mind". The idea that the brain is a physical organ with
chemicals that can stop working never occurs to them. Of course, if
the chemicals in a parishioner's eyes slowly stop working properly and
they have to resort to wearing ever stronger reading glasses no one
ever suggests to them the four above "judgements". It is assumed to be
a purely physical problem. But the lack of understanding of the
working of the brain means the same grace is not extended to the
depression sufferer.
As a result I have been repeatedly "cut out" of leadership because it
got to the stage that the pastor (or other leaders) could not
reconcile in their thinking the "gap" between my gifting level/ability
and my emotional struggle. This has in itself caused great pain and
added, at times, to the struggle with depression (as you can probably
imagine). But still I persevere because I respond to Christ's call not
to the judgements of ignorant men and women.
As part of this struggle, because of the rejections I often
experienced, I began to feel strong Homosexual attractions to certain
men even though I was and am happily married with children (though my
wife has never known me as anything but at least mildly depressed
over our 30 year marriage - she is a saint).
This homosexual temptation became very strong almost overpowering for
quite long periods, though I never indulged in it.
I had struggled with identity problems before this, however. I was
extremely broken inside and did not have a strong sense of myself as a
man. This affected me in two ways:
(i) I found it difficult to relate to women - because I had no base of
manhood in myself.
(ii) I found it difficult to relate to men - because I had no base of
manhood in myself.
If I went to a men's meeting I would fall apart inside because all
these guys seemed so "manly" and "together". And I just wasn't that at
all.
If I met a woman I didn't know how to talk to her until I got to know
her because I was so shy.
Eventually I was directed into a program called Living Waters, run by
Desert Stream ministries in the USA. A group had just started it in my
country only a year before. I spent 6 years in the program, 5 of them
in leadership, and had the joy of seeing many men and women moving
towards healing through my efforts (and those of the other leaders
also, but I had a significant part). I say "moving towards healing"
because it is a process. In the process I have read widely on the
area, attended seminars, studied counseling and inner healing. And I
have completed a degree in theology.
In my own life I now never have homosexual temptation - God has given
me victory over that - but it took a long time. And I have a greater
sense of my own manhood, though I still struggle at times with this.
I am coming off my 5th type of antidepressant at this moment - so far
none of them have done anything for me.
My point in saying all this is to say, "I do know a little of what I
am talking about". I understand. I know how homosexuals feel. I know
what it is like to struggle with something that other people spend all
their time judging you for over which you have little or no control.
I wanted to say all this so that any reader of my post will realise
that what I am about to say is in no way intended to be judgemental of
homosexuals in their struggle.
Now let me talk about my issue with your article: It is the assumption
that homosexuality is somehow a matter of nature, i.e. genetic. This
I do not agree with.
The study that came out of the USA a few years back which initially
launched this idea has long been shown to be unscientific and drawing
false conclusions from the evidence. I am not in possession of the
data to argue this but a man called Sy Rogers is well researched in
this and can be contacted at:
http://www.syrogers.com/
Sy is a world authority on the subject of homosexuality. He will
gladly discuss this with anyone.
The point I want to raise is different. And it is as follows:
It does appear that homosexuality can be hereditary in some instances.
This is probably undeniable in the light of present evidence. But that
is not the same as saying that it is genetic. There is another
completely plausible explanation. Let me explain:
During the time I was involved in Living Waters I also got involved in
the ministry of a man called Dr. Harold Dewberry.
Dewberry is a Christian minister and counselor with over 45 years
experience in Christian counselling. An Australian, now living in the
USA. His website is:
http://www.freedom-ministries.com/index.php?action=dr_harold_dewberry
One area of ministry Dewberry has pioneered has been in the area of
setting free from the sins of the forefathers (Exod 20:5). I do not
want to go into the theology here of this but simply to share
Dewberry's findings.
Dewberry and his teams have found - over several tens of thousands of
counseling cases - that there are patterns in the development of the
reaping of the sins of the forefathers. Over a period of time
stretching over 4 generations (as Exod 20:4,5 says) the consequences
of certain sins (called in the Bible "iniquities") get worse, reaching
their peak in the 3rd or 4th generation. Dewberry has drawn up several
such cycles of development which he teaches in his seminars, which I
have used in counseling with success in bringing healing to several
people from various afflictions. What he says is a reasonable
explanation of scripture and it works - and for me this the bottom
line. I can explain it all theologically but this is not the time.
The particular cycle that is of interest to us in the discussion about
homosexuality that Dewberry has discovered works as follows (and this
he has seen thousands of times and used to bring healing to thousands
of homosexuals, male and female):
Generation 1: The start of the cycle. Commits a sexual sin. It does
not seem to matter what the sexual sin is, only that it is sexual
activity that is not in the context of heterosexual marriage. This sin
leaves iniquity in the heart of the sinner and this iniquity is then
passed on to subsequent generations.
The word "iniquity" means literally "to twist, distort, pervert".
The act of sin that causes an iniquity in the heart is a perversion,
twisting of God's natural order of things.
The result of such an action is a twisting, perversion of the inner
nature of the sinner.
And it is this "twisting, perversion" of the inner nature that is
passed on to the descendants. Not the guilt of the sin - we are all
responsible for the guilt of our own sin and we are not "guilty" for
the sins of our forefathers, but the iniquities of our forefathers
have been transmitted to us in a twisted inner nature.
Generation 2: The children of the above. This generation will be weak
in the face of sexual temptation. In this generation there will be a
very high, almost inexplicable level of couples who get pregnant
before marriage and also whose marriages end in divorce. There seems
to be an inability to be faithful to marriage vows and there is
general immorality. In other words there is marital instability and
rife sexual immorality. Thus the iniquity of the first generation is
repeated and compounded and passed on to the third generation.
Generation 3: The children of Generation 2. In this generation there
is an abnormally high percentage of sexual perversion (or what used to
be called sexual perversion before we became PC). In other words, in
this generation there will be an abnormally high number of
homosexuals, lesbians, sexual offenders, prostitutes, sexual abusers,
rapists, workers of incest, voyerism and so on. (It is sad to have to
put homosexuals and lesbians in with this other company but this is
Dewberry's findings. Homosexuals and lesbians are often not wildly
immoral or gross in the way some of these others are, but Dewberry had
found that this is where homosexuality enters the chain of events.).
Again the sins of the previous two generations are repeated, the
iniquity is thus compounded and passed on to the next generation. But
because this twisting of the inner nature is something that is
"inside" the person, it is easy to see how it could be concluded that
it is "natural/innate/genetic" when it is, in fact, the result of
spiritual brokenness due to the sins of the forefathers.
Generation 4: This is where it really gets bad (but there is one more
step after this). At this level Dewberry has found the brokenness is
expressed in non sexual ways - actually as mental problems. ADHD, ADD,
Autism (in all its forms), Mental diseases of all types - all rooted
back in the sexual sins of the previous generations. He has seen
literally thousands of people set free from the sorts of complaints I
have just listed by having them repent of and renounce the sexual sins
of their forefathers.
Generation 5: Insanity. (this is the 4th generation after the
generation who started it all.).
Now I am not going to attempt to prove what Dewberry claims he has
seen in thousands of cases. How could I? Only Dewberry can prove it.
If you want to take it up with him his website is listed earlier in
this post. I can only say that in my limited experience as a Christian
counselor I have used Dewberry's patterns (not just this sexual sin
one but others I also know about) and found them to be accurate and
also found them to be the key to freedom for many people, Myself
included.
But in closing I want to make the point that I set out to make:
Homosexuality is not a natural activity of the human being. It is
called a perversion (an iniquity) in scripture. Thus those who indulge
in it are sinning against God and building into themselves greater
iniquity. I have no difficulty in understanding how and why it could
look like it could be hereditary in some cases - I have just explained
how this could work. But the explanation is that it is rooted in the
sins of the forefathers and is a perversion, an iniquity, passed on
down the family line. This is not the same as being genetic, because
to be "genetic" is to be "natural".
Homosexuality is no natural.
In this I am not being judgemental - just scriptural - and my own
struggle with homosexuality and my ministry to other people struggling
with homosexuality should be enough to silence anyone who thinks I am
being judgemental.
John B.
