by Gary T. Panell
During the 2004 presidential election, then, President George Bush was asked this question, “Is homosexuality a choice?” He answered, “I don’t know.” Well, the Bible does have an answer. Yes, I know that some people teach that a person is born with a genetic disposition toward homosexuality. And I also know that children that are raised by homosexuals are going to be influenced by that life-style, however, the Bible says that they still do have a choice, and that they are without excuse if they choose to be homosexuals.
You might say, “The Bible is old fashioned and we do not believe it anyway.” You may not believe that the law of gravity is real, but if you test it by jumping off of a cliff, you will find that it is very much a law. It is not what we say or think that is important, but what God says! When we break the laws of God, we will find that they also have consequences.
Look at what God says about this question, “Is homosexuality a choice?” “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality.” (Romans 1:26-29a)
As time goes on there will be more and more people who feel that there is nothing wrong with the homosexual life-style. It will become more acceptable to them. They will even make laws that will try to say that people who disagree with them are breaking “hate laws.” We see this happening already in several countries. Christians, who teach what the Bible teaches, that is that homosexuality is wrong, will be made fun of and persecuted.
The Bible predicts that some false religious leaders will also condone the homosexual life-style. We see this in the book of Saint Peter. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” (2 Peter 2:1-2) We are reminded of V. Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire, was the first openly homosexual prelate in the Episcopal Church. When he was “consecrated,” he received a standing ovation from a crowd of more than 3,000. When interviewed, he said, “It’s not about me; it’s about so many other people who find themselves at the margins” (TIME, 11/17/03). There are many other “Christian” leaders like Robinson who are encouraging the homosexual life-style!
Saint Jude talks about what is happening during our times. “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 3-7)
You know it is not so important what “religious leaders” teach, what you or I think, or what someone with a PhD teaches, what matters most is what God says about homosexuality. One day we will all stand before the Judgment Seat of God, and we will have to give an account of our lives and the choices we made. “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books, The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15)
Then it goes on to say that those who receive Christ as their God will not suffer this judgment, but will have eternal life. “And He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'” (Revelation 21:6-8)
Saint Paul says we have a choice of whether or not we will be homosexuals, and that our choice determines our destiny. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous nor drunkards, or revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
You see the choice is yours, you can choose Christ as your Savior from your sins and go to heaven (as millions have), or you can hold on to your sins and let them drag you down to hell. What is your choice? Will you choose your sin of homosexuality and this life-style or will you repent of your sin and choose Jesus to be your LORD and Savior?
God loves us, and He knows we have a genetic disposition to sin, because we were born this way. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) “.for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
The good news is we do not have to remain in our sins. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)
If you want to be saved from your sins and receive Jesus Christ as your LORD and Savior, you can pray a prayer like this: “God I know I am a sinner, I ask your forgiveness for my sin. I believe that Jesus Christ, your one and only Son, died on the cross for my sin, and that He came to life again the third day. Right now I ask You, Jesus Christ, to forgive me of my sin, and I receive you as my LORD and Savior. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.”
Download this article as a PDF: Is Homosexuality a Choice?
From the time that I was age four, I can remember comparing myself to other little girls. I was born with a birth mark on the calf of my leg that consists of veins and a missing layer of skin. I hated it and I thought it to be ugly. I used an ink pen one time to cover up the whole birth mark. I would rather have had a black leg than a deformity as I saw it in my own eyes. To me as a child, I was built wrong.
As I continued to age I noticed more differences with my siblings. All of my siblings had blond hair and blue eyes and looked like my mom. Not me, I had darker hair and green eyes, I took after my father’s side. I was told that I looked like my grandmother, my dad’s mom.
I continued to compare myself to my mother and other girls and what I saw to be a woman was someone who liked to cook, clean, sew and they were more feminine than I was. I was tough, I loved to wrestle with guys and sometimes I even felt that I was stronger than them. It was probably more in my head than reality but I still felt stronger than some of the men that were attracted to me. I even laughed at God’s Word where He said that women are the weaker vessel…I sure didn’t feel weak.
I remember the first time that my boyfriend cried I thought he was weak and I just didn’t understand those types of feelings because I just wouldn’t cry in front of others. It was like that part had been closed off in me. I was often teased when I was younger for being so sensitive so I tried to kill that sensitivity in me and as I killed it off, I judged others to be weak that cried in front of me. I wondered why I couldn’t have the same feelings for guys that my friends seemed to have for their boyfriends. They seemed to be like crazy about them but for me it was just different. It was like I really liked them but something was missing and I just couldn’t understand what it was.
Boys seemed to like me a lot but it really appeared as though they liked me because I was a challenge. I was always told that I was beautiful and a tough cookie to crack. I didn’t fall all over guys, it was fun having a boyfriend but I just didn’t know what real love was, nor did I know what it looked like. I was looking for that feeling that just came over me that made me want to be with my boyfriend all of the time, but what I found was when we first started to date it was great I liked my boyfriend a lot, but then as time went on my feelings changed so I thought that it wasn’t true love, so I moved on to the next one.
I was 12 when I got my first boyfriend, this was also the age that I got molested by someone that I was related to. I seemed to shut everything down emotionally after that, because I pushed down what had happened to me and just wanted to forget it ever happened. To me, it was a gross act and I had horrible shame that came on me and as you have read I was already dealing with shame about my leg and feeling like I wasn’t a whole person. This just made it worse.
I blocked the act in my mind and escaped into fantasy in hopes to make things my fault, so that I could live with what happened to me. In my pride I always believed that I could protect myself because I was tough. This is not what happened. So, in my pride I tried to change things to make it my fault.
The next few things caused me to hate men because at 15 I was pushed into sex through manipulation and at 17 I was raped by 2 men. I never got help because my pride just wanted to make it go away and not relive it.
So to make a long story short , I married, got divorced and continued to go through many failed relationships, so then I began to wonder if maybe my failed relationships were because I wasn’t meant to be a girl, maybe that was why I fantasized about having sex with women while I was with a guy. Maybe that was why I loved sports and hated all the other things girls did…Maybe that’s why I was so tough, maybe that’s why I couldn’t make these relationships work. Maybe that’s why my feelings died? But I knew the Bible told me that homosexuality was a sin and I didn’t seem to be attracted physically to a particular woman, when I fantasized in my head it was just with dark figures but still when I thought about men in the bedroom, I couldn’t have an orgasm. I felt trapped in a dead-end situation and the hurt was so deep because I wanted to be loved so bad and I wanted to love someone back. I wanted to feel that closeness that others had in their relationships but I wasn’t finding it. All I was finding was hurt and disappointment and broken relationships.
So at the age of 26 when I became suicidal God got ahold of me and I made a vow that if he could do anything with my life I would give him all of the glory so I began to study the Word again.
First, he had me deal with my unforgiveness in my heart towards men, my mother and my father.
Then he began to unravel my judgements that Satan had been using to get me to believe his lies so that he could twist my spirit and make me out to be something that I was not meant to be and that was a man. I was created to be a woman and I have a purpose he taught me through his Word.
These are the judgements that I had to repent of:
First, that I had called God a liar when I laughed at him where in his Word he said that women are the weaker vessels.
Second, judgement that God created me wrong.
Third, judgement that my failed relationships were because I was the wrong gender, it was because a bitter root grew up in my heart through unforgiveness and created a prideful me.
Fourth, judgment that all men were going to use me for my beauty and my body, and that they were all alike.
Fifth, judgement that I could fantasize in my head about something while either touching myself or having sex with someone else and that it would never be exposed. My heart became hardened as that bitter root grew up and you cannot love and hate in the same heart.
I had to repent of all of these things and as he showed me through the Holy Spirit about my judgements. I prayed that he would forgive me for each one. What happened next did not come over night, but as I continued to study and ask the Holy Spirit about my guilt, my shame and I have watched and felt as he has realigned my spirit and I feel feminine just like a woman does, but I still do not like to cook or sew….but I am healed and though I still have not found my MR. Wonderful …I am ready to love and to let someone love me…it just isn’t time yet….but I have learned how my incorrect judgments of myself and my image of myself created an angry person because I was never satisfied and always full of shame, guilt and fear. I don’t have any of those feelings anymore….Praise to Jehovah [God]. By K.J.