Little Billy Church Boy Speaks Out

William Birch

[Update 4-14-2017: The blog mentioned in this post no longer exists. The links do not work. But, because of continued interest in this post, I am not (for the time being) removing it.]

Let me draw your attention to two particularly excellent — and very personal — posts by William Birch over at his new blog, the further. William Birch has been blogging for a long time about classical Arminian theology. But, at his new blog he is addressing issues related to Christian sexual ethics. And, he has reason to: he is himself a same-gender attracted person. He writes:

Often, Christian sexual ethics is at variance with the given surrounding culture. My goal is to challenge the Church to treat the LGBTQ community with dignity, honor, and respect; yet to do so and not compromise their varied, respective, biblical beliefs.

It is especially difficult to write about these issues in the church. So much of the church is caught up in the American Culture War, that it is often hard to hear what some people are actually saying.

In the following two posts, you can learn more about his life and his faith:

What I Learned in Therapy. In this post, he writes powerfully about the process of overcoming guilt and shame — both shame about his own sexuality and shame over an incident in his life. The lesson he learned is one I wish more Christians would learn — we must move beyond guilt into forgiveness and new beginnings.

At Home With Myself. Here he talks about the process of self-acceptance. Many people have struggles with self-acceptance, of course. But, Billy writes about how this was complicated by the fact of his persistent attraction to members of his own gender — something that some people suppose is never going to happen to a Christian.

He writes:

When I trusted in Christ, in May 1995, I tried my darnedest to check my same-sex attraction at the door. I prayed and prayed and prayed that God would “turn me straight.” I was heavily involved in church, playing the piano, singing in the choir, involved in Sunday School, singing special songs before the sermon — I was “little Billy church boy.” I was also “little Billy gay-boy-trying-to-hide-and-always-lying-about-it church boy.” The deceptive ploys some gay Christians will perpetuate in order to keep others from finding out that deep dark secret is tragic.

He has come to a healthier place. He has come to a place where he has accepted himself for who he is.

So, being attracted to the same gender is not the end of the world. God knew all about me before He even created the world; He decided to love me, and save me, in spite of whatever I may do or become. By grace through faith in Jesus He chose to save me; and even though regeneration did not change my sexual orientation, still He loves me, still He seeks my best in life. His desire for me is to become conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29), and Jesus would never offend anyone; therefore I will seek to be like Him in all areas of life by His grace.

Anyway, I commend these posts to you. If you haven’t read them already, please do so. Not all of us deal with the issue of same-gender attraction in our own lives. But, all of us need freedom from guilt and shame and deception.

There is a message of hope there for all of us.