Dennis,

Thanks for writing the letter. I hope you keep sharing your story. Much healing and deliverance is needed in the area of sexuality and other things as well. Why God doesn’t deliver us from desires He disapproves of is perplexing to me. My struggle much different but I want freedom. Being honest with others and asking for prayer is imperative but I really believe we need God’s power and release from strongholds. Especially our minds. Keep seeking, keep knocking and I believe God will give us victory!

Love you in Jesus,

Linda

Bless you on your walk. may you have the strength and peace that God provides, and walk in His love.
i believe that God can and does use anything. i disagree with encouraging people to see Brokeback because of that (see Relevant mag article by Andrew Seely) not because i am homophobic, but because my friends who have spent many years struggling and walking out of the lifestyle have told me that they wouldn't see it and they view it as propaganda for gay activism.
i pray that God would give us wisdom and understanding of the knowledge of Him so we can reach our world and see clearly.

Thank you for your inspiring comments. It just shows that God can speak to us in many ways. I'm glad you have Christian friends who can stand with you in your struggles. This is a great example of what Christianity is all about.

Thanks for your compassionate view. Unfortunately, the only way that God can bring some of us to have the love of Jesus for people struggling with different issues, is to bring us into direct contact with them. I did street ministry in Atlanta for a few years and developed a deeper compassion for both active homosexuals and drug addicts/alcoholics. I felt for the first time like I kind of understood what the Bible means when it says Jesus had compassion on the people because they were "harassed and without a shepherd."

Bless you, Dennis, as you fight the good fight. May God bring more people to you who will encourage you and fight with you and for you. May God change the hearts and minds of those who would see the struggle or the sin before seeing the person.

I read your letter with great interest, because I joined the ex-gay movement more than 15 years ago. Many times I went to meetings and heard others speak of their loneliness and heartbreak, and their feeling of alienation from God because of their inability to accept their homosexuality. Week after week, I saw the same, sorrowful faces, praying fervently that God release them from their torment. I went to the group over the course of 18 months, and I saw so much pain and shame I don't think I will ever forget it. These were people whose families has rejected them, and whose religion made them feel as though their feelings of sexuality and intimacy were perverse, dysfunctional symptoms of some sort of mental illness. Personally, the pain that this movement caused in my life affected my self-esteem terribly, and the idea that God was somehow less than pleased with something so integral to my identity gave me such sadness. I was not defined by my sexuality - growing up in rural Alberta, I was lucky enough to have been given a very balanced view of myself - but the attraction I felt to men was integral to my development and my perspective.

In the time that has followed my departure from that group, I have realized that embracing myself and the love that I feel, is truly a holy, God-affirming experience, and the man that I now love has given me the humility and security I craved so that now I am closer to glorifying God, and others, in a way that I could never have been before - crippled, self-loathing, and ashamed before God. The shame was not for being gay - it was for letting others convince me it was a disappointment to God. I am stronger, healthier, and more full of love now than I have ever been, and I am very grateful that I was able to escape the terrible, poisonous world of the ex-gay movement. Good luck to you.

I also am a Christian since I was 17, and I'm 52 now. I am in a 19 year committed relationship with my Gay partner. We have an active family and are glad for this movie at this time when the church in the U.S. has become so vile and hateful. We know what it is to live Brokeback Mountain and know that God loves us and accepts us as for who we are. That's where our freedom comes from ... Not the letter of the law as written by men (some sharing their feelings, and others inspired by God and His ideals). The article as it was written still points to the way the church and its leaders want to control and possess what is God's. It's written from a view of self-hate and control.

It seems as if you have had a very difficult life to date and I'm sorry to hear that. I don't mean this as a criticism but it's disheartening to notice that your letter shows very little excitement for a non-homosexual lifestyle. If seeing the film was such a catharthis one would expect your letter would be full of joy at the idea of becoming heterosexual. Instead you make oblique references to God's love and talk only of struggle in your future. I am sorry to hear that you believe spending the rest of your life in denial is what Christ is asking of you. I hope He finds a better solution for you.

I think one of the major problems with Christianity today is that we do not teach tolerance. If we want to spread the word of the Lord, maybe we should start emulating how he lived his life.

I would like to offer Dennis a life with Jesus that embraces Dennis' love and sexual desires for other men. A life without struggling to understand what's right and what's wrong. A life of Christian ideals and morals. He simply needs to find peace and acceptance from Jesus’ words and from God's examples of loving Christian partnerships including those of the same sex.

I know many of you are going to be quick to judge me as blasphemous and doing the Devil's work. I've had to wrestle with "hate the sin, love the sinner" mentalities with many of my fellow Christian friends. It wasn't until I spoke and prayed with a minister at my local congregation that I understood God's true plan for me--and that was for me to find and accept a deep, loving partnership from another human being (be that woman or man), and to go forth as a demonstration of His tolerance.

Happiness without struggle is out there, Dennis. I know. It may not be in the gay bars and the "scene". Many of them are lost. It's hard to find, but with a lot of prayer and guidance, you can find it. In fact, I'm extremely happy and am blessed to have been in a very loving relationship with my partner Mark for the past ten years. And I thank Jesus every day for His grace in my acceptance of His plan. Controversial for some, yes. But remember when us Christians suffered persecution for following His way--I see this as no different for me.

Regarding Brokeback Mountain--I agree that Ennis suffered because he was in love with a man, and tragedy truly devastated one and all. But Jesus never said that life was to be without tragedy and pain. It's all in His plan. The sad part is where my fellow Christians are helping to propel the tragedy further by not accepting Jesus’ desire for all of us to find loving relationships--heterosexual or homosexual.

Dave