One of the criticisms sometimes aimed at True Freedom Trust is that it brings together people who are all same-sex tempted and places them into a pressure cooker of mutual temptation! Maybe a glib response would be to say that the world is full of attractive people, so there’s plenty of same-sex temptation out there already! Same-sex attracted people are arguably exposed to greater temptation than ‘straight’ people in everyday life – one example is when they have to use single-sex changing rooms.
I could see that people were different at church compared to primary school. My church friends were true, loyal and kind. However, school friends liked you one week and not the next, or a fellow classmate would call you names if you beat them in PE.
It seems that we are currently ‘living through history’. I realise that, in one sense, we are always ‘living through history’, but this feels like one of those periods that people will refer to in the years to come; one of those ‘big’ events where not only individuals but the whole world has been affected.
I began using my red flag system back in the late 1980s. I converted to Christ in 1985 and, in response to the Bible’s teaching that all sexual activity was to be within the boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman, I walked away from the active gay life that I had been living. However, although I stopped the activity, this decision had no bearing on my emotional response towards various women.
Same-sex attracted Christians who are committed to celibacy often live alone, and this can be lonely. Some really want to find a way to share life with others. This article looks at the principles and practicalities of sharing life with other people at a deeper level than the typical church/work relationships.
Sam Allberry has written a short book explaining the meaning of God’s boundaries for sexual morality. In a culture increasingly at odds with the Bible’s teaching on this subject, we need more than just to know what the Bible’s rules are. Rather, we need to be aligned with God’s heart on this matter.
At first glance, the Bible seems to say very little about going on holiday. But the word ‘holiday’ comes from the joining of two words: “holy” and “day”. It is a day (or days) set aside from the regular day to day work or labour. Of course, this dates right back to the seventh day of creation in Genesis.
I grew up in a family that sometimes attended the village church, although sometimes only at Christmas and Easter. At the age of 8, I started boarding at all-boys schools. I remember, aged 12, anxiously saying to myself, “There’s something wrong with me. I’m made to love boys, not girls.”
Abby and I have been sharing a house for about 14 years now. People often ask us about how living together works, and what advice we’d give to other same-sex attracted Christians looking to live communally. In this article, we explain what it means for us to be deeply involved in each other’s lives.