Can, or should, homosexuals try to change their sexual orientation?
“Balancing Truth & Grace Conference: A Christian Response to Homosexuality,” will be led by Melissa Fryrear and Jeff Johnston, nationally known speakers on the issue who are affiliated with Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo. It’s sponsored by the North Dakota Family Alliance.
The topic illustrates deep divides in American culture, including over religion and science, often evoking sharp debate.
The American Psychological Association, which four decades ago saw homosexuality as a disorder, now opposes attempts to change sexual orientation.
“To date, there has been no scientifically adequate research to show that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation (sometimes called reparative or conversion therapy) is safe or effective,” said the APA on its Web site. “Furthermore, it seems likely that the promotion of change therapies reinforces stereotypes and contributes to the negative climate for lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals who grow up in more conservative religious settings.”
Johnston argues that the APA’s statement is not based on scientific studies itself and is a kind of absolutist position that can be disproven by even one case of a homosexual who happily changes his or her sexual orientation.
He knows of many such stories, including his own, Johnston said.
Johnston is 48 and married with three children. He travels the country speaking for the “Love Won Out” ministry of Focus on the Family, the Colorado-Springs-based evangelical ministry where he does research and writes on homosexuality.
Johnston was raised in a Christian home. But by the time he was in junior high, he had become involved
in homosexual pornography and fantasy, according to a biography in a Focus on the Family magazine. In his 20s, Johnston began pursuing homosexual relationships.
“I wanted to follow God, I believed what the Bible said about God’s design for marriage and I wanted to have a family,” he said in the article. “But here I was, stuck in sin and deeply ashamed of even having these struggles.”
He found little help in the church community in which he grew up.
“I think the biggest issue was just the silence,” he said. “I was looking for Christian books and articles about homosexuality and trying to figure out why I had the feelings I had, and I couldn’t find any help. At church, people weren’t talking about change or about deep sexual issues.”
He went to a conference on people who had left homosexuality and was impressed by the personal testimonies of how God changed people’s lives, Johnston said.
He did the same, met a woman. They have been married about 16 years. Johnston says others who want to leave homosexuality can and should do it and that’s why he speaks and writes about it.
Fryrear is the gender issues analyst on legislative and cultural affairs for Focus on the Family. She has a master’s degree in divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. She lived as a lesbian as a young woman and says the love of Jesus Christ transformed her life and speaks nationally on the issue.
The conference is a first for the Family Alliance, a Fargo-based evangelical Christian nonprofit that works in lobbying and educating on social and moral issues of interest.
“This is an issue that is an important one, that’s on the minds of many people,” said Tom Freier, executive director of the alliance, a nonprofit that lobbies the Legislature on social issues. “We want to address it from a Christian perspective, in truth and grace, knowing we want to reach out in grace but also that it’s necessary to get the facts that tell the truth.”
