Many young LGBTI people are drawn to social media, movies and blogs as they seek to understand the clash between their faith and sexuality. So we’ve put together some YouTube playlists to help guide you through the masses of content on the web.
To start, here’s a look at some of the ideas that are behind ex-gay thinking. (If you click the Playlist button at the top left of the embed you will see a dropdown of the other videos in the playlist.)
Warning
This content contains confronting themes that may cause distress to viewers.
Living Waters Australia – the country’s largest ex-gay ministry – has just announced that it is closing its doors. With most of Australia’s ex-gay therapies now existing underground – in churches and pastoral offices – it is even more important to understand the ex-gay theory. HERE is a copy of Living Waters’ take on it, copied from here.
Creationism and Ex-gay
If you’re feeling a little more adventurous and want to know more about where ex-gay thinking comes from, check out the following playlist. Australian creationist Ken Ham leads a large evangelical organisation called Answers in Genesis. As creationists they believe the world was created in six days and is roughly 6,000 years old. And there’s no room for Adam and Steve (or Madam and Eve) – only heterosexual relationships. A significant number of evangelical Christians, including Australians, hold this view. Of course, there are many Christians who do not.
It is the position of Inside Ex-gay that Answers in Genesis’ view of the Bible is not in line with the best current evangelical scholarship. It may be a well-intentioned attempt to reconcile science with the book of Genesis and evangelical tradition. But it does not adequately grasp the original environment and mindest of the authors and their intentions.