Posted on 11/27/2014 12:19:37 PM PST by Olog-hai
Rob and Linda Robertson did what they believed was expected of them as good Christians.
When their 12-year-old son Ryan said he was gay, they told him they loved him, but he had to change. He entered “reparative therapy,” met regularly with his pastor and immersed himself in Bible study and his church youth group. After six years, nothing changed. A despondent Ryan cut off from his parents and his faith, started taking drugs and in 2009, died of an overdose.
“Now we realize we were so wrongly taught,” said Rob Robertson, a firefighter for more than 30 years who lives in Redmond, Washington. “It’s a horrible, horrible mistake the church has made.”
The tragedy could have easily driven the Robertsons from the church. But instead of breaking with evangelicalism—as many parents in similar circumstances have done—the couple is taking a different approach, and they’re inspiring other Christians with gay children to do the same. They are staying in the church and, in protesting what they see as the demonization of their sons and daughters, presenting a new challenge to Christian leaders trying to hold off growing acceptance of same-sex relationships. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I am sorry for your loss. However your son made the choices that caused his death not the Church.
(“Now we realize we were so wrongly taught,” said Rob Robertson, a firefighter for more than 30 years who lives in Redmond, Washington. “It’s a horrible, horrible mistake the church has made.”)
What you are saying is God made a mistake. be honest.. The wages of sin is death. That does not come from the God.
I think they approached this wrong. Very few "gay" people are actually gay. The reason gay activists say gender is a spectrum is that most "gay" men are attracted to both men and women - often more attracted to women but more 'successful' with men. Still, close to 90% of the 2% of the population who are non-heterosexuals are not entirely gay either and thus have a real choice other than celibacy.
Rather than telling him to change, they could and perhaps should (after eliminating the possibility of molestation, perhaps with a shoot-shovel-shut up ceremony to say goodbye to the predator) have told him that feelings of attraction often come and go at that age, and that he has the power to choose. Just as a married person may be attracted to people other than their spouse but they are forbidden by God to act on that attraction, some people are attracted to both men and women but are forbidden by God to act on the homosexual attraction. Once it's pointed out that God is (1) the creator of the universe and thus has the right to tell us how to live our lives, and (2) all knowing and thus the best imaginable source for guidance on how to live our lives, it should be easy to guide the confused boy to an appropriate conclusion on how he should live his life. And if he is exclusively gay? Then it's still possible to live a fulfilling and happy life in which he would both follow God's guidance and contribute to society.
So if my kid winds up murdering someone, I should say murder is ok, just because I love my kid?
And if their child had killed and eaten his neighbor would they be trying to get their church to change it’s stance on cannibalism?
A 12 year old boy who says he’s gay has obviously been abused and lied to.
.
Translation God has to change, I don't.
James Brownson, a New Testament scholar at Western Theological Seminary, a Michigan school affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, last year published the book "Bible, Gender, Sexuality," advocating a re-examination of what Scripture says about same-sex relationships. His son came out at age 18.
Because God was just so unclear about it being Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.
And for those unclear:Linda Robertson, who with Rob attends a nondenominational evangelical church.<
Is code for Baptist leaning.
As I have said before: Within 50 years it will be the Catholic Church alone standing against same sex unions.
There already is one, Unitarian Universalist.
Are you sure it’s not Scientology?
Well supposedly they condemn Homosexuality, which is why they’ve got Cruise and Travolta by the nads. If they denounce the “Church”, all their secrets come out.
Comment of the day!
Yes - and it was probably some gay man who told him.
Children that age-at or near puberty-are highly suggestible, curious, influenced by pleasure and are easy targets for sexual predators of both genders-they do not come up with being “gay” all by themselves.
Most of the people I know or worked with who were homosexual/lesbian admitted that they were sexually abused at that age by an older relative or friend of the same gender.
Those who were heterosexual and compulsively promiscuous-also called sexual addiction- had been abused/raped by someone of the opposite gender, and equated sex with love and acceptance. Kids at that stage in life are adrift in a hormonal ocean, and their interactions with those who may have ulterior motives should be monitored-you don’t let your 11-13 year old spend time alone with that 17-18 year old who flatters them and watches them in what seems to be an inappropriate way.
You can’t trust to prayers and teaching alone to keep a kid from harm-parents have to be helicopters at the time a kid is vulnerable...
Bingo-you get it!
Everything you say is correct.
On a lighter note, I wish we could return to the days of Bye, Bye Birdie when one of the characters exclaims: “I didn’t know what puberty was until I was past it!”
I wager 4 to 6 years for the Catholic church.
Based on all the conversations between my mom, aunts and their friends I eavesdropped on and letters/cards belonging to my mom and grandmother as a kid, it is clear that type of innocence was just for one’s public persona-my generation and later are just more open about what really goes on-and that is fine with me-what you know can be dealt with...
I was a kid in the 50s and early 60s. We were kept sheltered (as was the entire society) from a degraded culture that emphasized sexuality above all else. It was pure heaven.
They probably let someone get to their kid which made him gay.
Bias? From the media? I’ve never heard of such a thing. /s
The drama queens love to peddle their pet sin to the gullible churches hoping to mark their favorites off the historical, biblical list. As if people have the authority to do that. God is Ruler and King and what he says goes. In this case you do not even need to look to the Bible for the answer (not that you shouldn’t, you needn’t). The answer is obvious in the way we are made (emotions aside, which can be easily manipulated).
“Hath God indeed said” has been the evil start of rebellion against God from the beginning.
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