Title: Holy Homosexuals - The Truth About Being Gay or Lesbian and Christian Author: Michael S. Piazza Published by: Sources of Hope Publishing House, 1994 ISBN: 1-885591-02-0 [trade paperback, 196 pages]
In 1979 I was just beginning to honestly deal with the fact that, though I was an ordained United Methodist minister, I was also a homosexual man. Almost by accident, I picked up a book by Tim LaHaye entitled The Unhappy Gays. The book described the pathetic and wretched condition under which he believed homosexuals lived their lives. The book, without any scientific documentation, made such outlandish claims as that "half of the suicides in America are due to homosexuality," and that "moral fidelity among homosexuals is almost unknown." LaHaye even stated categorically that "a Christian cannot be a committed homosexual."Now, many years later, I know that at best Tim LaHaye was seriously mistaken and much of what he wrote was ludicrously misinformed and twisted. What he represented about lesbian and gay people bears little if any resemblance to the thousands of women and men in the community with whom I minister today. Whether misrepresentations like his are deliberate, or just a series of misunderstandings, is something only Mr. LaHaye's conscience can say for sure. Although I cannot evaluate the intention of writers and preachers like LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, James Kennedy, Phyllis Schlafly, and Pat Robertson, I can bear personal testimony to the damage that this kind of disinformation has done in my life and the lives of thousands of others. These right-winged fundamentalists have wounded, and in many cases destroyed, the happiness, health, and holiness of thousands of innocent people, people whose only "fault" was to have been born with an attraction to people of their own gender.
In my case, his book and others like it, kept me ensnared in a lifestyle that was dishonest and filled with painful conflicts. It did not change who I was, but it did keep me living a lie. I prayed, fasted, worked three jobs to pay for therapy, attended Oral Roberts University, went to faith healers, deliverers, and in general tried everything I could think of to persuade God to change my orientation. None of it worked and each time I was left feeling more depressed and hopeless.
Fortunately for me, God had other ideas. I found the Metropolitan Community Church through a classmate in seminary. He was the first openly gay man I had ever met. He too had been a United Methodist and felt called to ministry. As he told me his story, I became increasingly aware that he was telling me my story. The liberation my soul felt at that moment was so great that it felt like being born again, again. What a miracle to discover that not only did God know about my sexuality, but that God's love for me was not affected by it.
There are wonderful alternatives to the "unhappy gay" described by people like LaHaye. There are hundreds of lesbian and gay people who have discovered how to become the happy, healthy, and holy people God created them to be. My prayer is that you won't settle for anything less.
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