Christianity Today has an article on "An Older, Wiser Ex-Gay Movement."
Some of the cited findings by psychologists Stanton Jones of Wheaton College and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University:
By most measures, the average participant experienced statistically significant change in his or her sexual identity and sexual attractions.
Such changes were generally modest, though, with decreasing homosexual attraction more significant than increasing heterosexual attraction.
Exodus can describe 38 percent of its programs' participants as successes, changing to either a "meaningful but complicated" heterosexuality (15 percent) or a stable chastity (23 percent).
Surprisingly, a "truly gay" subpopulation showed the clearest changes in sexual identity and attraction.
No evidence of increased mental distress was found.
Given society's overwhelming efforts to convince homosexuals that there's nothing wrong--either from a spiritual or health standpoint--, a success rate of 38% is pretty good. According to some figures I've seen drug rehab programs only have a success rate in the single digits...and drug use is almost universally viewed in a negative light.
When someone gives their life over to Jesus Christ and is born again, they aren't perfect (unfortunately). But for the first time in their lives, they have the God-given power to resist those sinful temptations.
For Christians, some sin problems go away fairly consistently (I haven't had a drink in 15 years), while others take longer to master (I still get angry when I shouldn't sometimes, sometimes I still curse, etc.).
Former homosexuals may sometimes "fall off the wagon" or whatever you may call it, just as I sometimes say "*&!@%." But with Christ's help, they get back up again and move onward toward the sanctification that God is working in all of us who are His.
The article concludes of ex-homosexuals who have lived outside "the life" for some time:
They live by radical ideas about sexuality—that we are not, as our culture would have it, defined by our desires, heterosexual or homosexual. Rather, we are defined by our Creator and Savior. Our attractions, always disordered to some extent, must be submitted to Christ, who alone can redeem us. For those who feel strong same-sex attractions, that task is especially difficult. But it is the same basic struggle every Christian must face.
Very true. The Bible even has a list of people who have given their lives over to Christ and were delivered out of many sins (including homosexuality):
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Redemption and change are available from God for anyone that wants it. The catch: you have to admit you need it before you can have it.
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