http://gladventist.org/blog/john-edwards-homosexual-politics/
My Current View
I would like to share with you my current view of homosexuality. This is based upon my life experience, education (B. S. in Psychology), hundreds of conversations with gays, and 19 years of gay sexual activity. It is also based upon my exposure to active gays who are Christian, Exodus (Christian men seeking healing from homosexual feelings), and my most recent study on the subject.
Please keep in mind that at different times in my life I have been in a monogamous gay relationship, sexually promiscuous and finally celibate. I have tried everything to make my life work. During these phases of my life I was exposed to the ideas of homosexuals from many groups with widely varying perceptions and experience. The gay lobby prefers to believe a homosexual orientation is inborn and fixed, that we are “born gay.” They love to say “God made us gay.” Others believe homosexuality is inborn, resulting from the sin condition like multiple sclerosis. People don’t have this disease because God made them that way. Rather, it exists because of the presence of sin on Earth. This second theory was my view until recently. In June, 1998 I attended an Exodus seminar and was exposed to well-presented theories focusing on environmental causes of homosexuality.
Innate or Environmental?
My thoughts on the cause of a homosexual orientation are evolving. While they are still in flux, I have come to some conclusions. I expect my thoughts to continue to change, because I have no political agenda and try to keep an open mind. I believe homosexuality is caused by a complex interaction of inborn and environmental factors which vary from individual to individual.
For some, inborn factors may be more significant than environmental ones. For others, environmental factors may be more significant. Politically, this is a crucial issue. The gay lobby strongly endorses innate factors as the cause of a homosexual orientation. Polls have shown most Americans feel more favorable toward gays when they perceive they are “born gay.” Further, the gay lobby prefers inborn causes of homosexuality because they argue no one should attempt to change an innate trait. Many gay activists argue an inborn trait is immutable and it would therefore be wrong to try to change it! You will find over and over the gay lobby and sexually active gays will generally support this view.
The Christian Right, ex-gay change ministries such as Exodus, and others with a similar political philosophy, tend to emphasize environmental factors as the cause of a homosexual orientation. One popular view is that boys who have distant, absent, controlling fathers will fail to bond and identify with men and will thereby develop a gay orientation. Because of the unfulfilled need to bond with a member of the same sex, they reject their fathers. A great need is left unsatisfied. When adolescence arrives, they reach out to members of their own sex to satisfy their craving for love and affection from a man. Their feelings become abnormally directed toward boys.
The political significance of this model and others like it is that gays can be changed. If you can identify the root environmental/relational causes, you can work through them like any other condition treatable with therapy. So, groups accepting this view believe it is not only possible but morally correct to attempt to change a gay orientation. Over and over you will find the Christian Right and ex-gay change ministries supporting environmental theories as the cause of a homosexual preference.
While I do not believe that only relational issues between father and son causes homosexuality in all men, I do believe this model fits many, if not most, gay men. I also believe inborn characteristics play a role, interacting with environmental factors in complex, varying ways from one individual to the next.
What is the significance of this background information? Men who are gay more because of innate conditions may not be able to change their orientation. For them, gay sexual relations or celibacy may be their only two options in life. On the other hand, men who are gay more because of environmental conditions may be able to experience real change through intensive, long-term therapy combined with divine power. Their gay feelings may gradually diminish while real heterosexual feelings increase. For this group, heterosexual relations may become satisfying. Like heterosexuals, they also have the option of celibacy.