Educating to the Conversion from Homosexual Lifestyles

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Education effects behavior, and behavior effects education, and in this context we are observing a homosexual revolution in America, as our progressive culture is moving not only from accepting homosexuality to applauding it. Students are being educated to homosexuality. Celebrities are applauded as they acclaim are “coming out of the closet” and proudly proclaiming their homosexuality. Educators, counselors, and even ministers are instructed by the powers that be to not to speak negatively of homosexuality either as a preacher, counselor or instructor.

There is an escalating shift in the content and focus in teaching about homosexuality in regards to the curriculum, pattern, and focus that teaches and even cultivates homosexual lifestyles as being positive, instead of promoting conversion from them.  Back when I taught sex education in a self-esteem class in middle school and later in college psychology, I did not hesitate to teach the negative factors about homosexual behavior, but the establishment might not allow this now.

The progressives in education applaud the shift that has developed from the old traditional morality to the new, while most who are conservative Christians or were trained as educators or therapists back when homosexuality was regarded as a mental disorder in the seventies when homosexuality was considered a mental illness in need to treatment are appalled. However,   groups like the American Psychiatric Association took it off the list of being a mental sickness, although many counselors who were Christian still felt it was a mental illness and a form of sin sickness!

Romans 1:26, 27 says in regard to cultural or individual promotion of homosexuality:  “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”  The Living Bible translates the last part of this verse, “…as a result, getting paid within their own souls with the penalty they so richly deserved.”  The negative effects of homosexual living effects not only individuals but cultures as well, which history has well shown.

The condemnation the Bible gives about homosexuality is from destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 through Jude 7 that says: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”   “Strange flesh” refers to the unnaturalness of the homosexuality. Lev. 18:22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination,” and Lev. 20:13 again calls it an “abomination.” Strong words of condemnation!

The Bible calls for deliverance from the sins of homosexuality as well as the deliverance from all other types of iniquity. Acts 3:19 says to, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”  Conversion is the message from the Bible regarding homosexual behavior.

Secular conversion therapy once had mental health professionals using extreme measures such as institutionalization, castration, or electroconvulsive shock therapy to try to stop people from being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). But thankfully this is no longer accepted. Yet, some therapists still use physical treatments like aversive conditioning,  a variety of behavioral, cognitive, psychoanalytic methods, and other practices that try to change or reduce same-sex attraction or alter a person’s gender identity, which the progressive administration also would reject, as well as spiritual conversions on the religious side.

Islam strictly prohibits homosexual behavior, with penalties in some Middle Eastern countries ranging from imprisonment to death. Muslims who follow the Koran understand its words as being literal, straight from Allah. The Koran states that those who act on same-sex attraction and behavior make a “god of their own lusts,” reject Allah’s will, and practice “wickedness” (Koran 26.165-166; 27.055; 29.028-29), and according to Islamic sharia law, the sodomizer and the sodomized both deserve death. So even Islam, which many progressives applaud, condemns homosexuality.

However President Barack Obama, a progressive leader on the world stage, is calling for an end to psychiatric therapy treatments, secular or Christian, aimed at converting or changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of gay, lesbian and transgender youth. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, welcomed Obama’s words. (Obama Calls for End to Gay ‘Conversion’ Therapy for Youth, Newsmax, April 8, 2015)

Keisling said, “Having President Obama and the weight of the White House behind efforts to ban conversion therapy is so critical in the fight for transgender and LGB young people,” and she went to say that, “My hope is that when a transgender person’s struggle is acknowledged by one of the most recognizable figures in the world, it positively changes the way they view themselves. The pseudo-science that propels conversion therapy cannot match the self-acceptance that comes with this kind of change.” (Ibid)

Progressives see efforts to change sexual orientation through religious ministries are futile and negative. They reject any approach that sexual orientation can be changed through repentance and faith. They especially oppose efforts that promote change sexual orientation associated with religious perspectives which take a negative attitude toward homosexuality.

Leelah Alcorn, an Ohio teen whose death spurred the White House petition to which Obama was responding, had gained an online following through Tumblr posts. He wrote about depression and isolation, lamented that his life would only get worse, and expressed frustration that his parents wanted him to be “their perfect little straight Christian boy.” He said he was taken to “Christian therapists” who were “very biased.”  He saw himself as a female and was affronted by being regarded as a male. (Newsmax, April 8, 2015)

According to the pro-homosexual agenda schools need to stand up against behavior that discriminates in any way against homosexuals, claiming it results from ignorance, prejudice, and the hatred of homosexual classmates. They clam the only answer is to teach everyone in the K-12 school system–administrators, teachers, and students that homosexual behavior is normal, healthy, and natural. They believe the so-called “change attitudes” will stop the so-called “prejudice against homosexuality before it begins” and will produce respect for, and encourage tolerance of, the perceived diversity that exists among the public school population.

The disapproval of homosexuality is often termed ‘homophobic,’ ‘bigoted’ or ‘hatemongering.’  The progressive thinking claims this robs students of the opportunity to hear all points of view and make informed choices in conjunction with their own moral or religious code. But this is clearly the antithesis of the freedom of speech, and the Supreme Court has already ruled that students do not shed that freedom at the schoolhouse door. Neither should educators.

Studies show GLBT youth attempt suicide over three times more often than their heterosexual counterparts. A Canadian study estimated the risk of suicide among LGB youth is fourteen times higher than for heterosexual youth. Among youth who attempted suicide, almost twice as many GLBT youth said they really hoped to die. Between thirty to forty-five percent of transgender people reported having attempted suicide. GBT men have a higher risk of suicide than women although women attempt suicide more frequently. (Gay Suicide Rates—The Healthy Place, America Mental Health Channel, Written by Natasha Tracy, January 14, 2014)

One particular study among many that confirm the sickness is a government-sponsored look at 5,998 adults in the Netherlands ages eighteen to sixty-four and that was published in the January 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) “The findings support the assumption that people with same-sex sexual behavior are at greater risk for psychiatric disorders.”  Specifically, the study found that – compared to heterosexual men, males who engage in homosexual behavior are: 727 percent more likely to have suffered bipolar disorders,  718 percent more likely to have suffered obsessive-compulsive disorders, 632 percent more likely to have suffered agoraphobia (fear of falling or in crowds), 421 percent more likely to have suffered panic disorder with 229 percent of these having suffered “social phobia,” 375 percent more like to have suffered just simple phobia, 311 percent more likely to have suffered mood disorders, 261 percent anxiety disorders, 270 percent to have suffered two or more psychiatric disorders, and 235 percent to have suffered major depression.

Compared to the heterosexual women, females who engage in homosexual behavior were: 405 percent more likely to have suffered a substance abuse disorder, 241 percent more likely to have suffered mood disorders, and 209 percent more likely to have suffered two or more mental disorders during their lifetime. Homosexuality is not healthy for male or female and should not be promoted!

Progressives argue homosexuality is genetic and can’t be changed. But many have been delivered from it. Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and potential Republican presidential candidate, in an interview about homosexuality said “a lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay.”  Environment and individual will are great influences. The remarks were made on CNN’s “New Day” in response to a question from host Chris Cuomo, who asked if Carson thought being gay was a “choice.” And Carson replied, “Absolutely.”

Scientifically it is evident that individuals can have a more genetic tendency to become alcoholics, but this does not mean they become alcoholics. Neither does it mean they cannot be delivered and converted from alcoholism to sober lives. The same is true in homosexuality, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is a method that has delivered countless numbers from this enslavement. The Bible calls it sin and there were and good scientific reasons why the American Psychiatric Association from early times up to the 1970s classified it as a mental disorder—back before the so-called enlightenment of contemporary progressive thinking.

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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