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 ...
“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. “
I will side with the parents in this matter on one point. Did that “reparative therapy” include treating Ryan for the sex abuse that got him to the point that he felt he was homosexual? If it did not then all of it was a big waste of time.
Ryan was not “born gay” someone got a hold of him and tired to make him gay by was of sex abuse. Until that is address forcing bible verses down his throat and shunning him will do no good what so ever.
“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. “
I will side with the parents in this matter on one point. Did that “reparative therapy” include treating Ryan for the sex abuse that got him to the point that he felt he was homosexual? If it did not then all of it was a big waste of time.
Ryan was not “born gay” someone got a hold of him and tired to make him gay by was of sex abuse. Until that is address forcing bible verses down his throat and shunning him will do no good what so ever.
“A 12 year old boy who says he’s gay has obviously been abused and lied to.”
More than likely by age 8 or 9. Could be younger though. This is my thoughts exactly and the only way to deal with his thoughts of being a homosexual is dealing with the abuse that caused it.
Problem is most don’t believe sex abuse causes it. They either don’t want to admit sex abuse happens because it’s the vary nature of the kind of abuse we are talking about and/or don’t want to talk about it all together. I’m not sure.
Most protestants I run in then when I tell them this just want to say “it’s just sin” or “they are just sinners’. I keep trying to tell them “well what caused it?” Kids like this did not get up one day and say “I want to be homosexual”, then go do it without someone putting those thoughts in their head or changing their moral compass.
When I hear protestants say “it’s just sin” that says to me they don’t want to deal with the problem at issue. They don’t want to get to the root because they know exactly how ugly this can get and don’t want to see or deal with it. They want people like Ryan to magically change over night and that is just not going to happen because he was abused over time and that will not be undone in one night.
What has happened in this story is not much better. Now it’s forcing christian parents to accept homosexualility in their kids but still over looking or never seeing or admitting that their child has been sexually abused. Now the child will grow up and do to others what was done to them.
It says "Peter Principle is wrong, don't listen to a thing he has to say."
“As I have said before: Within 50 years it will be the Catholic Church alone standing against same sex unions.”
I have no desire to get in a dispute with someone enamored with Roman Catholicism. We are all responsible before God in what we embrace as true.
However, when someone makes an foolish statement, it has to be countered. Your current “Pope” is already starting to raffle on this issue and shut down a conservative bishop in this country. I wished you were right that Rome would not cave on this, but I fear you are in error. The road that Roman Catholics are on is a downhill slide...and has been for years.
My own brand of Christianity (Southern Baptist evangelicals) has take a strong stand on this and we remove from fellowship those churches that embrace that “homosexuality is OK.” The only changes lately is that we recognize the sin of homosexuality is just like any other sin a person is ensnared by (fornication, adultery, drunkiness, all kinds of immorality, etc.) It cannot be cured by secular methodologies. It requires a spriritual cure that can only come by the Grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, we have our “heretics” as well, but they are policed by other churches.
Not all “evangelical protestants” are sliding down the tubes.
By the way. Had it not been for the reformer Martin Luther, your precious Rome would still be the sewer it was before the Reformation caused them to change their ways...at least after they stopped trying to eradicate “protestants” and starting focusing on fixing themselves.
I don’t usually speak out against Roman Catholic teaching on this forum because I’m not here to convert RCs. However, your unwarranted arrogance is the very height of foolishness.
Those RCs I have known that were really “Christians” (as described in scripture) were that way “in spite” of what they had been taught by your precious “church.” It is truly a work of Grace that anyone sitting under Roman Catholic teaching ever comes to a Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ. They didn’t learn it at a RC church. However, those many persons that have set under clear Biblical presentations of the Gospel (as delivered in conservative evangelical Christian churches), have failed to believe “in spite” of what they heard. Shows the hardness of people’s hearts.
May God have mercy on you. I have found this very distasteful to have been compelled to rebuke you. However, your a DEAD wrong and I fear misleading others in the same useless folly.
It is not arrogance it is truth, see my tagline.
No one likes to admit that their “protection” of a person or institution got beat. How many policy makers now would like to admit that terrorists if they want to, can bypass, do bypass, and have bypassed our security an that our nation, cities, and states are very vulnerable to attack? How many parents would like to admit that their child has access to a sexual predator at such a young age, or given the nature of a lot of pedophiles, carried out a relationship with one, then there’s admitting that one may have also “inherited “ pedophilia, which is scary in and of itself. People do not like to admit that they failed in protecting their kid, but reality paints a different picture.
The great English Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon classified your “beliefs” (you call “truth”) very well over 100 years ago:
http://www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/relrome.htm
“........People do not like to admit that they failed in protecting their kid, but reality paints a different picture.”
Thank you for you openness and honesty in that statement. I had never considered that would be the case. Was always told it’s best to admit we have failed, would have assumed even as parents we have to admit that sometimes. Parenting does not come with a instruction manual after all, it is mostly on the job training and stuff we learn (or did not learn) from our parents.
I can’t totally blame parents for “failing” in these matters. I have read an awful lot on child molesters and at times they “groom” parents,other adults around them, as well as their victims. That is what they do, “blend in” so you the parent and you the rest of society does not see them for the monster they are. By the time you do see often it’s too late, why? Because child molesters are damn good at what they do and spend time perfecting what they do.
In my opinion the only time a parent has “failed” a child is when they either did not believe the child and/or failed to get the child professional help after the child was found to be abused. This also means going to the police and making a report. Yes that may be hard for the child to testify but in the long run it means the perp did not “get away with it” and I personally believe this would help the child. Any parent that does not do these things “fails” the child.
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