Uk: God Is Working In The LGBT Community

Staff writer 

CHRISTIAN POST

27 January 2025

Christians recently gathered in London to find out how they can better support people struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction. (Photo: Getty/iStock)

They heard from James Parker, an ex-gay Christian from Australia who regularly speaks to churches and faith groups about how they can engage with these issues as a church and in wider society.

Parker told stories of hope about people who have been helped by therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, including people who were formerly drug dependent and caught up in prostitution, and people who have become happily heterosexual or are experiencing greatly diminished same-sex attraction.

Despite these positive experiences of change, several Australian states have introduced draconian conversion therapy bans that threaten to impose huge fines and imprisonment for breaches, which potentially include suggesting chastity or offering prayer. Some supporters of a conversion therapy ban in the UK see the Australian states as a model for what could be introduced here.

"Even if you want therapy and even if it's proven to be beneficial and even if you've got people supporting you and you're saying 'please, please, please', nope, that's criminal," said Parker of the situation in Australia.

He called the bans "totalitarian" and said he feared a "slippery slope".

"Will this bring about ultimately ... the eradication of the Lord's Prayer from the state of Victoria? Highly likely, yes," he said.

Meeting church and faith leaders around the world, Parker said that many of them are "scared" to speak up on the issue and that it is up to the grassroots to work for change.

"We are in World War Three, it's just that it's an invisible war and it is literally [trying] to decimate an entire generation in our land," he said.

Despite the challenges across many countries, especially in the West, he said that people continue to be set free.

"The hunger is out there (for help) and the work is happening," he said.

"There are literally hundreds of thousands of stories out there that we need people to start sharing on social media ... We need others to know that change is possible and it's not about even being gay or straight.

"It's about the fact that we all need to move towards a place of holiness and we all need to move away from those layers of maturing sin towards maturing dignity and righteousness as well."

He urged churches to be places of welcome for LGBT people and to speak the truth in love, recognising that it is about a person's soul and that "souls need to understand mercy". Seen in this light, he said it was important not to be "preachy" or "imposing" but to do it in such a way as to open up discussions.

"God is calling people to Himself, God's doing it but we the church for the most part aren't ready to receive them or to understand them or to walk with them," he said.

"I hope there is respect, compassion and sensitivity in the way I speak. There comes a point in all our lives when ultimately the truth needs to be spoken but it's a great injustice to pour truth upon somebody when they have no understanding of mercy and forgiveness."

He continued, "When you give people an environment in which to be able to discuss these things and they feel that they're not going to be judged, then what happens is people are often really quite quick to tell you what some of the hurdles are that they've never got over and need to get over."

He added, "If we're not careful, we still see it as a 'them' and an 'us' ... The more that we see this as a collective of all of us and not an 'us' and 'them', the sooner we will also see an advancement of the Kingdom and the healing power of the Lord able to be at work."

Anglican Mainstream and the MSC recently hosted ex-gay leader, James Parker, live/zoom/recording, on the 6th January 2025, in London.  His journey, from angry gay activist to ex gay heterosexually married father, is very encouraging! You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wajG-KPPz_0

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An ex-gay on how Christians can engage effectively with the LBGT question

By Lisa Nolland 

CHRISTIAN TODAY

January 21, 2025

"When it comes to children and sexuality, we're in World War 3." James Parker brought this warning to a hybrid (in person and online) conference based in a London church on Monday January 6.

Gay conversion therapy bans

Himself a former gay activist, James warned that the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act passed in Victoria State in Australia in 2021 would be used as a foundation for introducing similar laws around the world.

In a crackdown more akin to a Marxist approach of silencing any dissenting view, the legislation makes it a criminal offence to help anyone move towards heterosexuality or suggest it is 'normal' or affirm their biological sex; to suggest embracing chastity or offer Biblical insight on sexual mores.

James noted that many institutions around the world have been influenced by a very few people with very loud voices arguing that it is a human right to express and practice same-sex orientation and behaviour, and a crime to suppress it.

Loving the lost into the Kingdom

Our self-perceived sexuality is formed through our emotional responses to our environment. To those who have embraced a gay identity, James stresses that the question to pose is 'Do you want/need more loving?', and to lead them thus to Jesus, the Great Lover, and his mercy, grace and forgiveness.

For James, people who have felt unloved need to feel loved. Christians are called to cooperate with God's Spirit here, and realise they cannot walk alongside such individuals unless they realise they too have missed the mark - i.e. sinned - and are broken. Don't we all need a Saviour and on a daily basis?

Local church leaders were encouraged to welcome and care for the LGBTQ while not approving their behaviour. In this context, the excellent work of Living Waters, which equips and resources the church, was promoted.

Bridge-building is key. James presently speaks to (and prays with) lesbian activists, for instance, and partners with Gays Against Groomers to protect children. James appreciates process, sees the person first and appreciates how many are victims of all sorts, including of child sexual abuse (as was he).

Those 'committed SS relationships'

James goes where few will go, and says the unsayable about 'committed SS relationships'. While with his perfect boyfriend, Steve, he had 200 or so other sexual partners. Steve is now dead, as are almost all his other gay mates from his past. Though there are perhaps many happy exceptions, 'faithfulness' is not automatically exclusive (i.e. monogamous), yet most heterosexuals have little idea such is the case.

War on children

James showed the alarming clip from the San Francisco Gay Men's Choir: 'We'll Convert Your Children': think Blitzkrieg. The track goes on to say, 'We'll convert your children, happens bit by bit, quietly and subtly, and you will barely notice it ... We'll make them tolerant and fair'.

Many Christian entities appear blissfully ignorant, apathetic or complacent about the pan sexual revolution impacting youngsters marinated in all things LGBTQ. Sometimes it is a case of DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell). Sadly, the church is often loathe to engage in these minefields, and prefers to invest in 'safe', politically-correct topics when not 'preaching the Gospel'.

However, in this case, silence is not golden but culpable.

Aslan on the move

James gave encouraging example after example of ex-LGBTQ groups and networks around the globe. They are comprised of individuals who have changed and are continuing to change for the better. Some are able to marry and have their own children, such as James.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing James said was how God is speaking directly to gay individuals and working in their lives, quite apart from any human involvement. HE is seeking and saving the lost, moving them out of often tragic, dark lifestyles and into far happier, holier, healthier ones. Aslan is on the move!

Wake up call

Parents were urged to examine school sex education programmes, which frequently groom youngsters to engage in high risk sex 'when they feel ready'. Those promoting the gay agenda seek to influence children to believe that all forms of sexual behaviour are equal in value. This is part of an attack on the basic identity of humanity, the image of God in two genders brought together in marriage, in preparation for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Questions from participants were raised and addressed throughout the four-hour conference which has been recorded. Participants were urged to encourage Christian leaders to recognise the fundamental clash with a biblical view of life posed by the gay activists, but that they also had, in the love and mercy of God in the gospel and the community of the local church, the means to bring healing from the effects of unhealthy factors during people's childhood and adolescence.

Dangerous place

Albert Einstein's insight comes to mind in terms of both the GCT bans and children's welfare: 'The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.'

Dr Lisa Nolland is CEO of the Marriage, Sex and Culture Group, London.