Posted on 12/27/2009 5:18:25 AM PST by Zender500
While devoted activists from both sides of the gay marriage debate plot strategy for their next moves, Michael Glatze mostly watches from the sidelines. That's surprising to some: Just four years ago, Glatze was a practicing homosexual, a prominent gay activist, and editor of a national magazine for gay youth. Two years ago, he publicly renounced homosexuality and asserted a belief in Christianity.
Glatze soon disappeared from the public eye, resisting a well-worn path: instant hero status for a new cause. In October, he re-emerged, granting a few interviews and writing a column for the conservative site WorldNetDaily about remaining straight and insisting that others "can and must" leave "the sin and practices of the lifestyle of homosexuality."
From his home in rural Colorado, Glatze says he still isn't looking to become a poster boy for the ex-gay movement, though he faces criticism that his recent musings are a ploy for attention. Instead, Glatze says he wants to tell his story, even as he continues to try to figure it out for himself.
Glatze's story as a gay man began in college, soon after his mother's death when Glatze was 20 years old. (His father died when Glatze was 13). "After that I remember thinking I could do anything and everything I ever thought was bad," he said. "And I did."
For Glatze, that meant homosexual activity and activism. He became leader of a gay student group at Dartmouth College. After college he and his partner founded a national magazine for gay youth. Time magazine interviewed him for a 2005 cover story called "The Battle Over Gay Teens" that pitted Glatze and other gay activists against Christian groups that warned youth about homosexuality.
"To me it felt like a whole new world, and I was the star," he said. "Because I stood for something. My life now meant something."
But as Glatze reached more people with his message, he grew increasingly uneasy. "I was ministering a gospel to them, and I began feeling like what I was telling them wasn't good," he said. "It was extremely horrifying."
As Glatze began doubting his own "gospel," he began reading the New Testament and asking the question: "What's wrong with my life?" He says he soon realized: "The most obvious answer was the one I had been avoiding." He typed on the computer in front of him: "Homosexuality is death. I choose life."
Glatze didn't know exactly what that meant, though he knew it meant leaving homosexuality. After he wrote a column about his new beliefs, "the gay community exploded," he says. Some expressed pity. Others expressed disdain. Christians expressed delight: Glatze says he received nearly 900 emails, mostly from Christians encouraging him and giving him advice, a process he found overwhelming. He considered going on the speaking circuit but decided to accept different counsel: Get his footing first. He remembers an email from someone who suggested that he work on his sanctification. "I realized I didn't know what sanctification was, and maybe I should find out," he says.
That search has led the man with a nominal Christian background down an unusual path: two months in the Mormon Church (he liked their conservative stance on homosexuality and abortion but not their doctrine), then one year at a Buddhist retreat center, retaining his Christian beliefs, he says, and reading writers like John Calvin, Martin Luther, and R.C. Sproul. This summer he began attending a local evangelical church, and he says: "I don't know why I didn't do this sooner." He recently moved in with a couple from the church and says he meets regularly with the pastor.
(He also occasionally writes or gives interviews. Critics recently seized on an unsavory blog post he wrote in October after former President Jimmy Carter said that racism played a part in people's objections to President Barack Obama. Glatze's blog post said Obama was "disgusting," adding: "And, yes, it's because he's black." Glatze says he's not a racist, and that the post was satire aimed at lampooning Carter's suggestion that disagreement with Obama is rooted in racism. Still, some have questioned his explanation, and his blog is no longer active.)
After a year of retreating from the world, Glatze says he's ready to "re-enter the land of the living" and looks forward to his involvement with the church, though he doesn't have definite plans. He may write a book but says he wants to be careful: "I've done a lot of that in the past—that 'I'm going to take over the world . . .'"—he says. "I don't have that kind of goal now."
As Glatze began doubting his own "gospel," he began reading the New Testament and asking the question: "What's wrong with my life?" He says he soon realized: "The most obvious answer was the one I had been avoiding." He typed on the computer in front of him: "Homosexuality is death. I choose life."
I pray that he continues to run hard after the Lord. No one else under Heaven or Earth has the power to save & transform.
He should work out his own relationship with God before engaging on the speaking circuit or developing his own ministry. He sounds like he could be a bit confused doctrinally. Glad to see he’s living with believers and has access to a pastor.
May he be used as an instrument of salvation for those who are lost in the gay community.
I pray that he finds a deeper foothold in the Word of God. He will need it. God bless him and all other homosexuals struggling to find their way out of this destructive lifestyle.
The ability to come out of the homosexual lifestyle approx equals the ability to leave alchoholism, between 30 and 70%. See our article
http://www.faithfacts.org/christ-and-the-culture/gay-rights.
Pro-life bump!
David Wilkerson also has had a ministry to gays as well as to druggies [sometimes they’re both and the same person] in NYC and has been successful. He to suggest a couple years away from the spotlight for people to study and learn similar to St Paul going into the ‘desert’ to study before he started his ministry.
Mylon LeFevre was a Rock Star who became a Christian and then worked as a church janitor for a couple years before getting back into the Christian Music scene.
There are a number of other people who have had similar experiences. The ones who spent a few years reading and studying the Bible and Bible Scholars became grounded and were able to fend off temptation after they reemerged as Christians.
And believe me, if a person once served “the devil” and now serves God, “the devil” is going to throw huge temptations at that person trying to take him back. After all, “the devil” has Saul Alinsky in hell training Community Organizer demons in preparation for sending them to Earth.
Why do you put “devil” in quotes? Do you not think he exists as a distinct personality and an entity at odds with God? Just asking.
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