nascimento94 Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I have heard about life stories about converts to Christianity who professed to once being openly gay such as Rosaria Butterfield and Christopher Yuan, and have conflicted feelings toward their testimonies because they seem genuine. I will go through and elaborate upon each of their personal histories. Rosaria Butterfield was formerly a lesbian English professor hostile towards the Christian faith who cohabited with a significant other of the same sex, and became the wife of a Presbyterian minister and mother after her Christian conversion, which precipitated from her academic research into the Christian beliefs. She has written an autobiography, "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith," where she gives her testimony. Here is a briefer testimony by her: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html?paging=off Christopher Yuan was a dental school drop-out who dealt drugs and went to gay bars. He was eventually arrested for the possession and sale of drugs, went to prison, and diagnosed with HIV. Dejected, he turned to and found Jesus. Now he is a Christian minister. Here is short video interview with him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwmUNqrirO4 What do you guys think about Christian converts who previously lived homosexual lifestyles? Do you guys think they were ashamed of their orientation and decided to rely on the promises of Christianity to alleviate that guilt and self-loathing? Or some other possible reason? Do you think they're lying about their testimonies? If so, then why? I am aware that these two are not the only ones who have lived in the LGBT culture and subsequently prayed the sinner's prayer of repentance, they are just examples to start the debate. If you guys know of people like them, then feel free to include them in the discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 If they were repulsed by opposite sex before then they are suffering now. If they were more Bi, then I can see it. But they still lust I'm sure whether they carry through or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 . . . formerly a lesbian . . . Not going to happen. Christians try to change the meaning of gay. Sexual orientation is about what a person finds attractive (and also what they do not find repulsive). The Christian agenda is to ignore what people want because Christians call that "temptation" and consider it to be the first step of sin. Christianity will convince some people to change their behavior but gay isn't a lifestyle, it's an identity. Christian conversion therapy has generally been shown to be a fraud. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I have heard about life stories about converts to Christianity who professed to once being openly gay such as Rosaria Butterfield and Christopher Yuan, and have conflicted feelings toward their testimonies because they seem genuine. I will go through and elaborate upon each of their personal histories. Rosaria Butterfield was formerly a lesbian English professor hostile towards the Christian faith who cohabited with a significant other of the same sex, and became the wife of a Presbyterian minister and mother after her Christian conversion, which precipitated from her academic research into the Christian beliefs. She has written an autobiography, "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith," where she gives her testimony. Here is a briefer testimony by her: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html?paging=off Christopher Yuan was a dental school drop-out who dealt drugs and went to gay bars. He was eventually arrested for the possession and sale of drugs, went to prison, and diagnosed with HIV. Dejected, he turned to and found Jesus. Now he is a Christian minister. Here is short video interview with him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwmUNqrirO4 ... An unhappy woman and a drug dealer turn to a particular religion. Yawn. ... What do you guys think about Christian converts who previously lived homosexual lifestyles? ... I don't think much about them. They are free to choose as they see fit. ... Do you guys think they were ashamed of their orientation and decided to rely on the promises of Christianity to alleviate that guilt and self-loathing? ... I don't know. ... Do you think they're lying about their testimonies? If so, then why? ... Again, I don't know, and neither does anyone else (except perhaps the declarants themselves). ... I am aware that these two are not the only ones who have lived in the LGBT culture and subsequently prayed the sinner's prayer of repentance, they are just examples to start the debate. If you guys know of people like them, then feel free to include them in the discussion. What debate? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nascimento94 Posted September 3, 2015 Author Share Posted September 3, 2015 It seems that I have posted a rather frivolous topic. Christians have bombarded me with personal testimonies of supposedly powerful conversions to keep me from de-converting. And I tell myself, "if those folks found a way to be devoted to Christ wholeheartedly for the rest of their lives, then maybe I can too. I just need to try harder." There's a tug of war going on in my life right now regarding my so-called spiritual life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 It seems that I have posted a rather frivolous topic. Christians have bombarded me with personal testimonies of supposedly powerful conversions to keep me from de-converting. And I tell myself, "if those folks found a way to be devoted to Christ wholeheartedly for the rest of their lives, then maybe I can too. I just need to try harder." There's a tug of war going on in my life right now regarding my so-called spiritual life. Perhaps you should make a new topic in either the Lion's Den, Ex Christian life or Rants section so we can specifically talk about what you are going through right now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yunea Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Finding two curious anecdotal cases isn't evidence of anything generally being a real thing in people's lives. There are many people on this forum who lived with heavy guilt about their sexuality when they were Christians, and prayed on their knees, tears flowing down their face that God would wash away their sin and make them more like what pleases him - and nothing at all happened. Of course, those are anecdotal cases too. But just their existence in such big numbers refutes the claim of a honest sinner's prayer magically changing people's sexuality. Like Jeff, I would think that those people who have stories about God "fixing their homosexuality" were probably more or less bi to begin with. If not, they are choosing suppressing and denying themselves for the sake of promises we don't know hold any water. A druggie in prison has nothing left to lose, and they have the addictive lifestyle to begin with so it's easy to change it into an addictive religion. Plus it makes them look "good", and people will be more ready to accept them when they're out of prison. I too think you posted in the wrong section, but as mymistake said, perhaps tell a little more about yourself in a different section? Welcome to the forum, by the way! I'm glad you found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amateur Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 My opinion on stories like these is that every person is an individual with their own personal lifetime background, their own opinions and quirks and personal reasons for making the decisions they do. If one individual person decides they are no longer gay and convert to xianity, that's fine, it's their life, and it's not up to me to tell them that they are still gay, because I do not know their entire life story and how they made their decisions. It's the same with everybody. It's ok to read about other people and come to some conclusions about your own life, but they should be thoughtful conclusions, not just "I need to do what they did because of no good reason other than they did it." Very often xians like to think that everybody is the same: god made man and woman and the only logical thing after that is one man and one woman should marry and have children. People in churches torture themselves over that if they don't fit that perfect xian mold. But it's just one option. Really, as an adult you can do what you want, within legal limits. And you can even do illegal things and take the chance on getting away with it or getting caught and suffering the consequences. Each individual is completely free to be and do whatever they choose. If you are happy with your life and choices, then you are doing fine. If Rosaria and Christopher are happy with their lives and choices, then they are doing fine. If anybody isn't happy with their life and choices, then it's up to each individual adult to sit down and think about what would make them happy, then do their best to do that. It's not up to any group (a church group, an atheist group, an LGBT group, your family) to tell you what to do and insist that you do it and that you must be happy doing what they say. It's up to you to run your own life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 This topic has been on my mind for about a week due to a pastor who is a part of the church I attend has come out as formerly gay and she has now been healed of this and is a true heterosexual woman now because of the "life-changing power of Jesus"TM I work professionally as a therapist and I have come to the realization that we as humans often tend to look at things in a black or white, or all or none fashion, but the reality is that its not like that. Everyone's beliefs and ideals are different and if you look at them on a scale that goes from -10 to 10 with zero being the absolute neutral, everyone fits in different spots on that scale. -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Max Neutral Max Some people who are gay may only be gay up to say 2 or 3, so it takes less effort for them to move from that point to -2 or -3 and become "not gay". The same principle applies to pretty much anything you can think of. For me, I anticipated that I would be a Christian for the rest of my life. I was so sure of it, I would have labeled myself as a 10, (reality was more like a 7) but then things started to fall apart and I have since turned from what I "knew" I would never leave, to now I have left. Now I would label myself as a -2 or -3 because I am still relatively new to this whole atheism thing. But I think that often, humans generally think that everyone is either a 10 or -10, not something in the middle. So saying that someone went from one thing to another may or may not be a big deal. If that person was on the low end near neutral (like -2) and they swung to the other low end near neutral (like 2), it wasn't really all that big of a change. It was still a change, but not as significant as it might seem. The other truth is that no one knows exactly where they fit on the scale for any given belief or ideal. Our own biases generally influence us to think we are higher on the scale than we really are. That way when we tell the story of how we changed, we perceive that it was a huge ordeal when the truth is closer to it being a modest change. But our worldview changing is a big deal to us. Change is change and just simply believing something different, even if it isn't real, can still be a powerful motivator. Think placebo effect. This is just my opinion now. Definitely subject to revision or change. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nascimento94 Posted September 12, 2015 Author Share Posted September 12, 2015 Thanks for the welcomes everyone. It would have been more fitting of me to post a testimonial first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geezer Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 I had a friend, and fellow elder in a very conservative fundy sect of Christianity, that transgendered from male to female. He went all the way including having his genitals changed too. His wife divorced him & he is now married to a man. His former wife told us they had not had sex in years. She realized he wasn't attracted to a woman. She also acknowledged he had been cross dressing for years & had more jewelry & dresses than she did. He was clearly attracted to men. Genetics determines who we are as humans. I don't think genetics per se makes anyone gay. I would tend to think it is more like a birth defect. Common sense indicates gays are attracted to the same sex for a reason & I'm convinced it isn't a choice, It is simply who they are, and I don't believe they can change that. They are who they are, why should they try to be someone they aren't? My friend seems perfectly happy as a woman. I don't believe a gay person can become a straight person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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