The testimony of a redeemed lesbian (oh, and drug addict)

Last week at church, we had a guest speaker come up and give her “testimony” about how God changed her life. It was relevant to the group they have called “Celebrating Recovery” that helps people break their depilating addictions: drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever. This girl looked about in her mid twenties and talked about how, since she was 13, she became involved in alcohol, drugs, and sexual promiscuity with both guys and girls. She continued to say how these things tore her life apart, she was homeless, a junkie, a miscreant, hated her life, etc. She went on a roller coaster with having God in and out of her life, until finally something clicked and her relationship with God helped her overcome her addictions and become “a fully redeemed woman through the blood of Jesus Christ.” And good for her, because she’s obviously not lying in a gutter somewhere dead, or an empty shell of a person trudging through addiction, but she’s living her life and happy and fulfilled.

However I was confused mainly about her dealings with lesbianism. She continued to relate her same-sex relationships with her falls back into her degenerate lifestyle. I agree that excessive anything can ruin your life, especially drugs of course, and even sex. But I honestly don’t think homosexuality is inherently a doorway to degeneracy. I personally don’t think they’re related at all, and I think there are equal proportions of healthy and toxic relationships among hetero- and homosexuals everywhere. Nor do I think promiscuity itself is wrong either – if people are single and consenting, go for it and enjoy yourself. It’s the addiction and abuse that are the additives for disaster.

Now of course her opinions are very biased because of her religious perspective, since the bible admonishes homosexuality and promiscuity in so many ways. She openly renounced her promiscuity along with the substance abuses, however she was rather vague on the lesbian part. She never openly renounced her homosexuality, and several questions started running through my head. She knows her own self more than anyone, so perhaps she’s accepted that she is naturally a lesbian and can’t change that. If that’s the case, then I think if she wants to adhere to Christian morality, she has two choices, both of which I feel are ultimately disastrous:

1) She can attempt to pursue a normal relationship with a man, get married, have kids, etc. But you can’t stay married to someone you’re not in love with or attracted to, and it just sounds like the breeding grounds for a fabulously dysfunctional and abusive family  – a scenario probably all too typical among closeted homosexuals trying to lead a “normal” life.

2) She can attempt to maintain a life of celibacy, which I think goes against the grains of general human nature. We are physical creatures bent on one purpose: to reproduce. Hence our inherent sexual nature that only kindles when intentionally suppressed. It’s this kind of deliberate suppression of a desire that leads to a destructive binge.

I’ve asked this question before, and always seem to get different interpretations, but I wonder if homosexuality is really supposed to be admonished by the Christian faith, any more than eating shellfish or wearing two different materials of fabric. If all sins are the same in the eyes of God, then every Christian alive today is going to hell. Unless some of those old laws don’t apply anymore, which of course is up to an individual’s own interpretation of the book they came from. I honestly think this girl should listen to her heart, embrace the fact that she wants to be in love with a woman and not a man, and find a solid relationship with a woman who empowers her. I think she can still love a woman and love Jesus at the same time, since he did, after all, make her this way right?