Articles and Testimonies

Born gay?
The majority of homosexuals believe they were born "gay". This belief often supplies them with comfort, relieving them of any responsibility to change. However, there is no solid scientific evidence that people are born homosexual. The overwhelming majority of gay people are completely normal genetically. They are full male or female.

What is homosexuality?
Most people assume homosexuality to be little more than a sexual act between two individuals of the same gender. This is far too simplistic a view of this multifaceted topic. Anyone interested in this subject must take four areas into account: physiological psychic response, identity, behavior, and lifestyle options.

Learned Responses
God created each of us as a complex creature. We have needs that must be met in order for us to grow and mature. When these needs are not met, we establish immature coping mechanisms that often work directly against God's original intent for us. Frank Worthen, the founder of Exodus International, explains this phenomenon this way:

Psychic response is a technical term for what many people refer to as a "homosexual orientation." Though many people claim that they have experienced visual or sexual attraction for the same sex "as long as they can remember," there is a progression in a person's life that leads to a homosexual psychic response.

A child may start out with a need to compare himself with others to see if he measures up to societal standards. When he feels he doesn't compare favorably with others, he develops admiration for those traits and physical characteristics he feels he does not possess.

Admiration, which is normal, may turn to envy. Envy leads to the desire to possess others and finally, to consume others. This strong desire becomes eroticized somewhere along the way, eventually leading to homosexual psychic response (also known as sexual thought life or fantasy).

Behavior
When these psychic responses take root, some people carry out these fantasies first through masturbation and later in actual sexual behavior with another male or female. But the physical act itself does not indicate a homosexual orientation. Many young boys who engage in homosexual behavior later end up with no vestiges of homosexuality.

Identity
The problem in today's social climate is that more and more individuals are taking on a gay identity simply because they need to find their place. Many who would rarely have experienced a struggle with homosexuality find themselves comfortable in this identity because of society's "anything goes" mentality. Other people embrace a gay identity after years of physiological psychic response. Their behaviors create an identity in which they take comfort or even pride.

Lifestyle
Homosexuality includes varying lifestyles. Some gays only engage in anonymous and relatively rare sexual encounters and tend to live in constant fear of being found out. Others "come out" and become active, politically motivated members of the gay community and associate only with those favorable to like causes.

As you can see, homosexuality is multidimensional, and individuals can land anywhere on the spectrum of these four basic components.

What does this information mean for you? Don't just take a friend or loved one's confession or proclamation of homosexuality as evidence that he or she is engaging in same-sex sexual behavior. Talk to him or her to develop a deeper understanding of what the admission means.

You can help someone struggling with homosexuality
Dr. Jeffrey Satinover has written extensively on the struggle of homosexuality and has helped countless people help others - and help themselves. The following has been adapted from his "What to Do... and Not to Do" list from his report Homosexuality Facts versus Fictions.

1. Be willing to share about your own personal struggles and temptations.

2. Don't condemn. People have not "chosen" to "have homosexual feelings" the way some choose to live in a certain city. To describe it this way is to convince them that you have no understanding at all about their experience - and no sympathy for it as well. Know that the core of the homosexual struggle is rejection.

3. Don't start citing all the problems with homosexuality. Consider how rarely exhortations convince someone to give up alcohol or smoking. But don't go to the opposite extreme either. Unquestioning acceptance of homosexuality as a legitimate "alternative" may seem at first to be the only compassionate option. But there are better and more appropriate approaches that show concern and understanding, yet deal with the reality of the situation.

4. Try to prevent the problem before it occurs. Openly discuss the subject of homosexuality with your friends or anyone you are close to who may be struggling. Familiarise yourself with the causes and address them at an early time. Help them understand the risks.

5. Share specific avenues of help that have helped thousands of people in the midst of their struggle with homosexuality. Give them hope that change is possible! Perhaps even share this booklet with them. Even if the person is defensive and resistant, a specific route of assistance that is lovingly offered may be followed some day down the road.

6. Show love, concern and gentleness as you point the way to healing.

Adapted from Straight Talk - The Myths and Facts about Homosexuality
www.lovewonout.com

Transsexual
The situation
A man rejects his original gender and identity as a result of a deep and severe split from negative childhood experiences. Physical development is normal but psychologically, he develops an intense conviction that he is a member of the opposite sex, thus desiring to have his sex changed. One major difficulty in determining this condition, known as transsexualism, is the inability to conclusively sift out true transsexualism from delusional thinking.
How is gender determined?
In humans, there are only two definite expressions of gender: male and female. This is clearly different from the animal and plant kingdoms wfere a creature can be asexual (no sex organs) such as the single-cell amoeba, or bi-sexual (having both) such as some papaya trees.
To determine your own gender (just in case you don't know), consider how sex is expressed:
- Societal. Society designates symbols and roles for men and women. For example, blue is for boy while pink is for girl. In most societies, the man is the main breadwinner while the woman, the homemaker. At work, a man does certain jobs (construction worker) while a woman, others (receptionist). These stereotypes change from time to time and are different from culture to culture. However, do symbols and roles define your gender?
- Psychological. Emotions when expressed in the form of behaviours can take on gender attributes defined by people and culture. Feelings like anger, libido, sympathy, can have conclusions like these: men talk loudly and ogle a lot. Women cry more, hug a lot. But do feelings have sexual differentiation? Do your emotions determine your gender?
- Physical. This refers to your external physical characteristics such as facial and body structure, shape and form. Does having hairy legs make you a man? Or smooth fair skin, a woman? What if you have both? Don't fret. It's just the level of your hormones which determine these characteristics. Nothing is wrong with your sex.
- Genetics. Every normal cell contains two sex chromosomes: the male, XY, while the female, xx. Very, very rarely, mix ups occur, resulting in physical abnormalities and ambiguous genitalia known as "Intersex". Usually, your chromosomal sex, also known as genetic sex, matches with what you see in the full-length mirror when undressed.
- Genitals. The primary sexual characteristics for males are the testes, and the female, ovaries (not breasts). Therefore, the saying that "a man's two are located downstairs, while the woman's two are upstairs" does not correspond scientifically. Everyone knows (at least the doctor and midwife at your birth) how to identify a boy and girl. So if you still don't know your gender by now, ask your doctor, father mother or helpful neighbours.

基督教对同性恋的立场
圣经清楚地指出，同性性行为并不合乎神的心意，是一种性罪（sexual sin）。
一夫一妻制属於创世秩序一部分（创一26－28），在婚姻以外的性行为都不符合神的心意，当然同性性行为也不例外。

圣经多处指出同性性行为违反神的律法（利十八22；林前六9；提前一10）
是逆性的行为（罗一26－27），圣经记载的一些事件显视同性的淫乱行为是严重的罪行。（创十九4－11；士十九22－26）

圣经对同性性行为列为众多罪行之一，异性恋者也同样有犯罪倾向，如婚外情。（所多玛和俄摩拉的罪行，圣经要指出的反而是社会的不公义）

同性恋倾向与同性恋行为之区别，前者是後天性，非同性恋者刻意去选择的。该行为并不符合上帝创造秩序，为同性恋倾向者带来同性情欲的试探，但同性恋倾向者坚拒诱惑不进行同性性行为，他仍然可避免陷於罪中，追求过圣洁的生活。

圣经的讯息包含律法和审判，但其核心却是信望爱。

信：
基督徒是因信称义，不是因行为称义。同性恋者只要真心悔改和相信福音，救恩的大门也为他们而开。在成圣的路上，靠着圣灵的大能，原则上同性恋倾向者是可以克服的。有不少人已经经历深刻或彻底的释放和改变，不再受其捆绑。另有些人虽暂不能得到完全释放，但可依赖主的恩典，守着贞洁，不至跌倒。

望：
我们活在一个堕落的世界，信徒也会叹息劳苦（罗八22），同性恋者面对持续的挣扎，也是可以预期的。但信仰还有救赎与盼望：挣扎是会完结的，有一天我们会身体得赎，面对面见主时，他
会医治我们的痛苦和挣扎。

爱：
同性恋者同样是照着上帝的形象被造，仍然是他所珍爱的，所以一些信徒提倡「神憎恨同性恋者」的讯息，其实是违反圣经的核心教训：神就是爱！
基督在我们还做罪人时为我们死，这无分异性恋者或同性恋者。教会应正面宣告，神爱同性恋者，基督也为他们牺牲。

Q & A
同性恋是先天的吗？
到现在为止仍然未有科学研究证实同性倾向是天生的，且有不少研究和前同性恋者的经验显示後天的成因，在没有足够理据下随意宣称「同性恋是天生」只会误导大众。

同性恋是不可改变的吗？
事实上已有科学报告证实同性恋倾向是可以改变的，亦有同性恋过来人公开表述他们性倾向改变的故事。

同性恋已普遍被视为完全正常的吗？
全球对同性恋於心理学、医学及道德上仍充满争议，只是主流传媒偏爱同志运动的言论，压抑反对同性恋的观点和资料，事实上各大宗教及中国传统文化亦视同性恋为不道德的行为，不少社会人士反对同性恋，并非出於无知和偏见。
再者，不少研究显示同性恋的生活方式会带来很多心理及生理健康的问题，所以社会不应以立法方式鼓吹同性恋。

精神病学不都认为同性恋并非病态吗？
美国精神病学会的确自1973年不再视同性恋为病态，但这结论受到多方质疑，指出这立场的改变是基於政治压力多於科学根据。再者，纵使同性恋并非精神病（如婚外情也不是），也不能引伸出「它在道德上没有问题」的结论。

只有立法禁制性倾向歧视，和接纳同性婚姻，才体现多元社会对同性恋者的宽容？
香港同性恋非刑事化之後，已实现了多元社会对同性恋行为的宽容，同性恋者已可自由与同性性交和长相厮守，这些都不违法，他们与常人一样拥有各种人权。但社会不应立法正面鼓吹同性恋行为，难道对婚外情宽容就意味着制定「反婚外情歧视法」和「包二奶」合法化吗？