TITLE: Hope to ex-gays
013 {2877} April 18, 1996
General Conference '96
DENVER (UMNS) -- God can change lives. God offers hope. God can transform people from the homosexual lifestyle.
That was the message of an April 18 press conference held by Transforming Congregations during the United Methodist General Conference here.
Transforming Congregations, an unofficial United Methodist organization, is a ministry that supports homosexuals who want to come out of a "gay lifestyle," according to the Rev. Robert Kuyper, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church, Bakersfield, Calif.
Founded in 1988, the group affirms that homosexuality is a sin, but believes that through God and the power of the Holy Spirit, people involved in the lifestyle can be transformed.
Kuyper said he began Transforming Congregations because he was concerned about the polarization of homosexuals within the church and society. Once he became familiar with a ministry that supported "ex-gays," he realized the ex-gay concept was something "we needed to support as a United Methodist Church," he said.
According to Kuyper, the primary reason for the press
conference was "to challenge the possibility that people believe change (from a gay lifestyle) is impossible."Using the parable of the Prodigal Son, Kuyper said the choice for the United Methodist Church and society "is to be the loving father or the condemning older brother."
Two former homosexuals, a mother whose son died of AIDS and the director of an ex-gay support ministry, addressed the audience to talk about the realities of transformation.
Twenty years ago, at the age of 34, Ron Dennis, a United Methodist from Las Vegas, was a practicing homosexual. He said he came to Christ at a homosexual church and began reading the Scriptures.
"As I read the Word, I realized that my lifestyle was not pleasing to God," he said. Relying on God, he began to experience a transformation from within.
Calling herself no stranger to rejection, discrimination, abandonment, abuse and a need to belong, Donna Renae Hopkins left the lesbian lifestyle eight years ago.
It was during a suicide attempt, "in a moment of utter hopelessness and despair, that Jesus reached out to me," she said. For the last four years, she has been involved in full- time ministry.
-- Linda Green
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