Understand that the effort to legislate special rights for gays and lesbians has nothing to do with protecting homosexuals in the workplace or elsewhere. Homosexuals are already protected by law, just like everyone else. The push for special rights legislation is, in reality, nothing more than an effort to legitimize and respectabilize (to use Gershon Legman’s word) the homosexual lifestyle.
Wherever governments, corporations or municipalities have enacted measures that grant special rights to homosexuals, those who hold to traditional moral values and Christian beliefs have been subjected to discrimination, physical and emotional abuse, fines, sensitivity training, and in some cases even imprisonment. Make no mistake, civil rights for homosexuals is a one-way street: Freedom for me, but not for thee. And when homosexuality is promoted by society, Christians and other moral conservatives will no longer be able to express their beliefs in public.
You Are Not Born Gay
Let me be quick to say that I do not hate homosexuals. I know there are many caring and well-meaning men and women trapped in the homosexual lifestyle who would give anything to be free of it. I know there are sons and daughters who pray daily for deliverance and forgiveness but can’t break their habits and addictions. I also know there are some who actually do break with the lifestyle for a time, only to slip back; for them homosexuality has become a nightmare with no end. All these men and women have my deepest compassion and prayers, and I hope that my words, while unapologetic in portraying the sin of the homosexual agenda, will not weaken the spirits of those on the verge of transformation but will help spark a renewed commitment and even greater resolve to seek a way of escape.
Homosexuals can be redeemed from same-sex attraction, despite the myth propagated by the homosexual agenda that says same-sex attraction is inborn, hard-wired and can’t be changed. In fact, the “born gay” argument is perhaps the most pernicious deception being put forth today. Numerous activist groups claim that homosexuality is not a choice any more than having green eyes or being left-handed is a choice. But as we’ve seen repeatedly, there’s absolutely no credible scientific evidence to support that assertion, nor is there such a thing as the “gay gene.” Groups such as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, headed by my good friend Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, and Exodus International have published dozens of first-person accounts proving that homosexual addiction can be overcome.
Confronted by such evidence, and faced with the fact that his research had been discredited by scientists at a half-dozen major research centers, even homosexual researcher Dean Hamer admitted: “There is not a single master gene that makes people gay. … I don’t think we will ever be able to predict who will be gay.”
Simultaneously, Dr. Simon LeVay, the homosexual researcher who had studied the differences in the hypothalamus glands of homosexual and heterosexual men, stated: “It’s important to stress what I didn’t find. I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t show that gay men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work.” I have debated Dr. LeVay on radio and television, and I’ve spoken with him on many occasions. While he continues to defend the homosexual agenda, he can no longer do so on the basis of science.
Unfortunately, that matters little to homosexual activists bent on legitimizing their lifestyle at the expense of ruining our nation’s morality and killing millions along the way due to the serious health ramifications of homosexuality (which I don’t have room to expand on, though there are numerous that remain unaddressed by most media, beyond AIDS).
The prophet Isaiah was speaking of people like this when he wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is. 5:20). Everything in the homosexual culture has been turned upside down, and the men and women who fall into this lifestyle, for whatever reasons, are subject to every sort of evil. They are dying of terrible diseases in record numbers, and still many refuse to admit or even recognize what it is that’s killing them.
This is the crisis of our time. It’s the very face of evil. From the college campus to the media centers of New York and Hollywood, people who should know better are buying into an agenda that could destroy us, and they’re doing it in a big way. They are not concerned for the safety of others, they refuse to respect reasonable limits on their behavior, and they are targeting kids and young adults to become vocal advocates for their lifestyle.
Though victory against such an evil onslaught will never come easy, it will also never come until the church awakes from her slumber and becomes the visible expression of Jesus Christ, raised from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit, in this fallen world. The homosexual agenda will never be defeated by mere laws. This war will only be won by a church awakened and determined to stand for the righteousness of God. It is my hope and fervent prayer that, before it’s too late and the agenda of death and destruction has overcome us utterly, God’s people will rise.
Louis P. Sheldon is the founder and chairman of Traditional Values Coalition, the largest nondenominational, grassroots church lobby in America. An ordained minister for more than 45 years, Sheldon has been featured regularly on national radio and TV. For more extensive research on the topics addressed in this article, check out his book, The Agenda, and visit traditionalvalues.org.