This is not a typical hee-haw. For starters, this is a long post, coming from weeks of concerned reflection. Also, this donkey brays mostly about world events or politics. My concerns here are for my Christian friends.

The recent Revoice conference provided a safe place for believers who experience same sex attraction (SSA). They discussed issues they face, within their stated confession of Christian orthodoxy and a traditional view of marriage. As their heterosexually-attracted brother, I share their commitments to hospitality and historic Christianity.

My appeal is pastoral. In Ephesians 4, brothers and sisters in Christ are urged to have spiritual discernment and speak the truth in love. Truth without compassion is harsh; compassion without truth is sentimentality. To speak the truth in love is how we grow together in Christ. As a Christian minister with SSA friends, I humbly offer the following Pastoral Concerns.

Heterosexually-attracted believers like me need to be quick to listen and slow to speak to our same-sex attracted brothers and sisters in Christ. SSA believers face both internal struggles and external cultural pressures — from the Left and Right, which often happens if you seek to stay in line with the Gospel. Since Revoice seeks to stay faithful to Christian orthodoxy and to historic Christian teachings on marriage and sexuality, let us consider some “costs of discipleship” these believers must face:

• They must define their identity in the image of God, not in their sexuality. Gender is closely related to how all humans reflect God. That is clear from the Hebrew parallelism in Genesis 1:27. Gender reflects our God-given dignity and identity. But gender does not define human identity. Our SSA brothers and sisters hold a view that is rejected by most LGBTQ friends.

• They must deny their SSA impulses, and either seek celibate spiritual friendships in community, or marry the opposite sex. These are hard choices and self-sacrificing lifestyles.

• They face scorn when they define their identity and dignity in Christ, not in their SSA orientation. LGBTQ friends may tell our SSA brothers and sisters in Christ that they are not “true to themselves” if they reject “gender identity” to embrace God's “image-bearer identity”.

• Criticism of the PCA host church, which provided a safe forum to openly discuss challenges that SSA Christians face. If we fail to offer such forums, we drive fellow orthodox believers, who experience SSA, out from gospel-centered churches, and into unbelieving LGBTQ communities. So I commend the St. Louis PCA congregation for their courageous hospitality.

• Criticism of Revoice motives and goals. Is Revoice making worldly accommodation? Or is Revoice imitating the incarnation? Jesus was criticized as the “friend of sinners.” Revoice says its mission is to remain faithful to the truth, while engaging a broken, sin-distorted world. Jesus prayed for our spiritual unity and our protection as we reach out in mission to the world (John 17:11-19). Jesus sanctified himself, to sanctify us in truth. The Father sent Jesus into the world. Jesus sends us into the world. We need God’s truth and protection, but not for worldly accommodation or tribal isolation.

• Criticism of Revoice speakers. There may be real concerns, but we will never agree with every author’s published writings or statements. This is no reason to discredit a conference which offered space to openly discuss and debate many hard, controversial issues.

• Criticism of views of original sin, mortification, and sanctification. This is an area that merits close self-examination and evaluation. What is Revoice’s doctrine of sin? And, are our views completely biblical?

• Do we truncate our doctrine of sin and the fall? Our sinful hearts, our inherited sin natures, are the inward source of outward sinful behaviors (Mark 7:17-23). But sin’s entry into the world is manifested throughout a fallen and distorted creation. That includes our inherited genetic traits.

• Do we condemn those physically or genetically disabled when they cannot “mortify” inherited conditions? No, we offer them mercy. Most Revoice participants acknowledge SSA to be a fallen world condition, not a “born this way” gender identity. When they do this, they are criticized by the secular LGBTQ community.

• Do we truncate our doctrine of mortification? SSA is not disconnected from original sin. All of us are extensively bent toward sexual immorality. Same-sex attraction may be differently directed, but is not different in kind. Sinful lusts also distort opposite-sex attraction. Are there occasional clinical cases of hermaphroditism (ovotesticular disorder)? Do we deny SSA genetic predispositions inherited from birth? If we do that, we may prescribe moralistic, behavioral, and “reparative” therapies to “put to death your SSA.” But those discredited approaches do great harm.

• Do we truncate our doctrine of sanctification? Growth in holiness conforms us to the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29), but does not make us married heterosexuals. We should respect SSA brothers and sisters in Christ who choose a celibate lifestyle. Jesus was celibate. This is sanctification into Christ-likeness that few disciples are able to “receive” as a gift from God (Matthew 19:10-12).