What if Your Child is Gay?

My denomination is dealing these days with a pastor in California who reversed his position on homosexuality. The pastor said that his shift coincided with his 15 year-old son’s announcement that he is gay. This is a situation every Christian should think through, now. As I’ve said before, at stake on the issue of a Christian sexual ethic is the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what if, sitting across from you, is your child or grandchild?

You will, without a doubt, have someone close to you in your family come out as gay or lesbian, if not already, then sometime in the future. How should a Christian parent or grandparent respond?

One of the reasons this is such a crushing experience for many is because they assume that their alternatives are affirmation or alienation. I either give up my relationship with my child or I give up the Bible. The gospel never suggests this set of alternatives, and in fact demonstrates just the opposite.   Continue at Russell D. Moore

Two Rulings on Law Banning Gay Conversion Therapy for Teens

The Story: Two federal judges in Sacramento have come to opposite conclusions on the constitutionality of a new California law that bars the use of "gay conversion therapy" on minors, reports The Sacramento Bee. 

The Background: On Monday, a U.S. District judge ruled that the reparative therapy ban "lacks content and viewpoint neutrality" in violation of the First Amendment. But on Tuesday, a different U.S. District judge ruled that the law prohibiting licensed mental health providers from steering patients under 18 away from gay and lesbian lifestyles does not infringe on the suing providers' constitutional guarantee of free speech.

Senate Bill 1172, which was signed into law by Calif. Governor Jerry Brown on Sept. 29, will make it illegal for mental health providers to use sexual orientation change efforts on patients under the age of 18. According to the law, these types of efforts "shall be considered unprofessional conduct and shall subject a mental health provider to discipline by the licensing entity for that mental health provider."

Liberty Counsel, a religious freedom advocacy organization, will file an emergency appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to block the law before it goes into effect on January 1, 2013.

Why It Matters: "The minors we represent have not and do not want to act on their same-sex attractions. They are greatly benefiting from counseling," says Matt Staver of the Liberty Counsel. "On January 1, the state of California will essentially barge into the room of each counseling session to tell the counselor what they may present, and clients what they may receive, only one viewpoint on same-sex attraction. This is outrageous and offensive."    Continue at Joe Carter

Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are

One in ten. It's the name of the group that puts on the Reel Affirmations gay and lesbian film festival in Washington, D.C., each year. It's the percent popularized by the Kinsey Report as the size of the gay male population. And it's among the most common figures pointed to in popular culture as an estimate of how many people are gay or lesbian. 

But what percentage of the population is actually gay or lesbian? With the debate over same-sex marriage again an emerging fault line in American political life, the answer comes as a surprise: A lower number than you might think -- and a much, much, much lower one than most Americans believe. 

In surveys conducted in 2002 and 2011, pollsters at Gallup found that members of the American public massively overestimated how many people are gay or lesbian. In 2002, a quarter of those surveyed guessed upwards of a quarter of Americans were gay or lesbian (or "homosexual," the third option given). By 2011, that misperception had only grown, with more than a third of those surveyed now guessing that more than 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian. Women and young adults were most likely to provide high estimates, approximating that 30 percent of the population is gay. Overall, "U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian," Gallup found. Only 4 percent of all those surveyed in 2011 and about 8 percent of those surveyed in 2002 correctly guessed that fewer than 5 percent of Americans identify as gay or lesbian.  Continue at TheAtlantic

Evangelicals and the Gay Moral Revolution

The Christian church has faced no shortage of challenges in its 2,000-year history.

But now it’s facing a challenge that is shaking its foundations: homosexuality.

To many onlookers, this seems strange or even tragic. Why can’t Christians just join the revolution?

And make no mistake, it is a moral revolution. As philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton University demonstrated in his recent book, “The Honor Code,” moral revolutions generally happen over a long period of time. But this is hardly the case with the shift we’ve witnessed on the question of homosexuality.    Keep Reading...

United Methodist Church Hops In Bed With Buddha

It’s Getting Dangerous Out There — A Preacher Is Arrested in Britain

From The Telegraph:

During the exchange, he says he quietly listed homosexuality among a number of sins referred to in 1 Corinthians, including blasphemy, fornication, adultery and drunkenness. After the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO [Police Community Support Officer] who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to Mr. McAlpine and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language. The street preacher said he told the PCSO: “I am not homophobic but sometimes I do say that the Bible says homosexuality is a crime against the Creator”.

The police officer, identified in the news report as a homosexual and as the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender liason officer” for the local police department, then identified himself to Dale McAlpine. The preacher responded, “It’s still a sin.”

He then preached a sermon on a range of issues that did not include homosexuality. The paper reports, “Three regular uniformed police officers arrived during the address, arrested Mr. McAlpine and put him in the back of a police van.” read it all HERE

The Atheistic Logic of LGBT Sexuality