Stop inflammatory rhetoric about gays, theologian urges

Posted: 12/01/06

Stop inflammatory rhetoric
about gays, theologian urges

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—An evangelical theologian told her colleagues recently they must “cease and desist” publishing materials with “inflammatory language” about homosexuals.

Linda Belleville made the comments in an address to fellow members of the Evangelical Theological Society during the group’s annual conference in Washington.

The gay-rights community “delightfully exploits” such statements, which betray a lack of knowledge, Belleville said. She is a professor of New Testament at Bethel College in Indiana.

She also is the director of the Chicago chapter of Exodus International, a group that believes homosexuals can change their sexual impulses through prayer and therapy and begin living a heterosexual lifestyle. Gay-rights groups and many mainstream psychological groups, however, have condemned such attempts at changing sexual orientation.

Exodus fielded 400,000 phone calls about homosexuality last year, but those calls should be going to churches, Belleville said. She continued that churches often make the mistake of treating homosexuality like alcoholism or an act that can simply be stopped.

One myth among evangelicals is “homosexual today, heterosexual tomorrow,” she said. According to her, too many people call homosexuality a sin and write the sinner off as someone who is struggling.

“The last thing they need is to go into a church service and hear homosexuality preached on and the ‘sin’ word over and over again or to hear people say ‘just stop it,’” Belleville said. “There is a need to transition from a victim to a victor. There is the need to detox from years of repressed anger and pain … and to affirm healthy, strong relationships.”

The Christian community should extend unconditional love and forgiveness to gays when “mistakes are made. And they will be made,” she said.

Girls often pick up on clues on femininity from their fathers, Belleville asserted. If the father regards feminine things as negative, she said, the girl likely will think acting feminine is weak or undesirable.

“What’s necessary is … to help that person through therapy to understand what’s going on,” Belleville advised church leaders. “For lesbians, they have to … literally get their anger out. Once there is recognition (of childhood issues), then they start to work on building relationships. Sometimes if the father’s still living, they start to work on that relationship there.”

Evangelical leaders involved in counseling gays can help resolve past hurt by providing support groups, a Christian community and therapy, Belleville said. But the church should understand that people wanting to leave the homosexual lifestyle operate on a continuum of progress rather than a target of instant success.

“There is a long-term growth process,” she said. “Homosexuality is not a problem but a symptom of unresolved issues.”

Women especially struggle to leave homosexuality for a heterosexual life, she said. Once a woman leaving the lesbian lifestyle enters a church, Belleville said, she should get involved with activities that affirm strong images of womanhood—such as joining a women’s softball team.

“For a gal to get to a point where she feels safe with a male, that’s very, very hard,” she said. “There needs to be a church that stands along, a group that stands along, through this.”

Of course, Belleville continued, the ultimate decision to switch lifestyles comes from the individual.

“I have to say that the key factor, the absolutely key factor, is the person’s will,” she said. “They have to want to change. And they need to have a supportive community and those who can reflect healthy masculinity and healthy feminity to them. Progress will take place.”

Homosexuality as the definitive part of one’s identity reduces people to sex, she said.

“That’s why ministries like ours go back to telling people, ‘No, you are a child created in God’s image … and are someone of value.’”