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Straight Talk in Vermont


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Welcome to Straight Talk in Vermont!

(This site is under construction. Please be patient while I learn the ropes. Consider this site as a bulletin board of relevant material on the issue of homosexuality. Be sure to bookmark this site, and feel free to check out all the pages [left-margin buttons] and links with an open mind for your own enlightenment. Then leave your comments or questions on the Guestbook page.)

Please note: Nothing in the information included here should ever be construed as an excuse for violent or non-violent persecution of persons who may be perceived as "homosexual." Such uncivil reactions not only punish the true victims of the homosexual agenda, but also are counterproductive in that many individuals have defaulted to this degenerative lifestyle because of rejection and/or persecution based on false or unwarranted impressions within the general community. If you feel so-minded, save your opposition to be applied in a positive and civil manner to those who promote, endorse, model, rationalize, and otherwise try to justify homosexual behavior.

BEYOND CIVILITY

A letter in the Brattleboro REFORMER from a fellow Guilfordite quoted Dr.M.L. King Jr's "We must never let up in our determination to remove every vestige of segregation and discrimination from our nation, but we shall not in the process relinquish our privilege to love." I have always been a strong advocate of Dr. King's "dream" toward which we should all be working. I am also aware that the civil rights movement is not happy with the coat-tailing maneuvers of the gay movement to present homosexuality as a civil right.

Drawing from my long acquaintance with M.L. King and his movement, I would like to suggest that his statement quoted above can still be applicable from the perspective of "our privilege to love." This, to me, is the best way to show love for our friends and neighbors who accept the homosexual identity:

First of all, they are human beings like all of us; they deserve our respect as persons, our acknowledgement of their abilities as individuals and recognition of their particular gifts. Accept them for who they are, trust them for what they can accomplish, and love them as brothers or sisters who share our common humanity.

At the same time, help them to realize that they are not predestined to be homosexual, for homosexuality is not a state of being, but a mode of behavior, a matter of conviction, and conditioned (that is, learned and reinforced) feelings. No one is "born that way." In fact, it is a life-style that threatens their very life with disease, injury, disillusionment, broken relationships, estrangement from loved ones, and such deep despair that many become suicidal --and it's not merely due to rejection by straight society.

The average gay person's lifetime is truncated by about twenty years; it is much more deadly than chain-smoking, drug abuse, or any of the other vices plaguing our society and preying especially on our younger generations. For every actively gay person who lives beyond age 40, there are several who die in their 20s, and a few more in their 30s. I personally have had the sad duty of officiating at some of their funerals --and these were persons whom I had come to know well and for whom I had admiration for their fine personal qualities.

Love dictates that we make our gay and lesbian neighbors aware that they don't have to be gay; that this deadly lifestyle can be terminated voluntarily, with support from others who love and respect them. Thousands have done so, and are now living normal lives, some of them married and with children of their own.

It is much easier to prevent falling into the gay lifestyle, for it can become addictive and totally integrated into one's own sense of identity and perception of self. But even some of the most hard-core, totally immersed individuals in the homosexual lifestyle have been able to step beyond it and gone on with their lives in much more fulfilling and happy relationships. The secret is in finding a community in which they are truly accepted for who they are; having at least one (or more) primary relationship on which they can rely unconditionally, with persons who are trusting and trustworthy; and realizing that the love shared in that whole community is blessed by the Eternal Love in whom we all "live and move and have our being."

It cannot be denied that most of those whose current lives testify to having successfully left the gay or lesbian lifestyle first experienced an epiphany of religious conviction and commitment to Christian discipleship, which proved for them the most effective means of escaping the snare of homosexual orientation. Their commitment was supported and reinforced by one or more primary relationships, and by further relationships within the Christian community which for them had replaced the homosexual community as the context of their lifestyle, which now became heterosexual. In psychological terms, this conviction and commitment enabled a restructuring of their identity --their self-concept.

To express ultimate trust and participation in a lesser love than this Eternal Love is to do a great disservice to those whom many merely resolve to tolerate.

Here are some interesting links to challenge and inspire you:

CHOICE4TRUTH --especially for youth: click on the phrase: "...to learn the truth about homosexuality."

EXODUS YOUTH

FREE TO BE ME

JUSTICE and RESPECT

STRAIGHTNEWS, Jonah: Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality

TROUBLED WITH HOMOSEXUALITY?

EX-GAY SHARES HIS STORY, INFORMATION

OVERCOMING HOMOSEXUALITY

ABIDING TRUTH MINISTRIES

BOUNDLESS Article -For the college crowd.

VERMONTERS FOR TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE