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From gay to God
The Nation Newspaper (Barbados) ^ | April 30, 2006 | Melissa Wickham

Posted on 04/30/2006 5:01:22 PM PDT by DBeers

From gay to God

"I WAS EXCLUSIVELY HOMOSEXUAL; I had never been with a woman."

That's part of the riveting testimony of the Reverend Darryl Foster, a board member of Exodus Global Alliance – a Christian organisation made up largely of former-homosexuals who promote the message that "change is possible through the power of Jesus Christ".

The Texas, United States, native was one of the featured speakers at the just concluded three-day conference: Sex, Sexuality and Homosexuality: Engaging The Truth hosted by Project PROBE Ministries, at the Sherbourne Conference Centre.

Foster, 45, is now a heterosexual who confesses that the first and only woman he has ever been with sexually is his wife of 13 years.

They have five children together but prior to that he was a practising homosexual for 11 years and declares he has been "free" of that lifestyle for the past 16 years.

"I was extreme in terms of my feelings for men. I got to the point where I literally hated women; I had no uses for them.

"But I'm a miracle of God that He can take something so messed up and turn it around. That's the power of God!" he told the SUNDAY SUN.

He grew up in the small town of Marlin, Texas, in a deeply religious household of "hard-core Pentecostals".

There was no father figure around and, as a boy, he was molested by a male in his church. The molestation started when he was 13 years old and continued until he was 17.

But from the time Foster was 11 years of age, he was attracted to other boys. He didn't have a name for the strange feelings he was experiencing, but he knew he was different from other boys.

He kept these feelings to himself, fearing he would be ostracised. So, like a good Christian, he went on attending church, "shouting, dancing and speaking in tongues".

However, his feelings toward members of the same sex grew stronger. At that time, and sadly still, homosexuality wasn't widely discussed in the church.

"The one thing I find is that they [Pentecostals] and I can only talk about Pentecostals, don't address it. Nobody told me, this is how you deal with these feelings. All I was told was if you feel that way or if you are that way you are going to hell.

"I knew I didn't want to go to hell but I didn't know how to stop or get rid of what was going on inside of me. I was having thoughts that didn't go away after I prayed," explained the reverend.

It wasn't until college that Foster fully explored his feelings.

College life was filled with others who were actively involved in homosexuality. And soon enough, he too embraced that lifestyle.

It wasn't until many years later, when he had pursued all the sexual partners he wanted to pursue, that he felt an overwhelming dissatisfaction with his life.

It reached the point where he actually started to plan his suicide during the Easter of 1990. He felt alienated from the church, God and his family and didn't think his life was worth living.

"It was during that time of utter despair that the Lord came to me via a movie about the passion of Jesus Christ. I saw this scene with Him struggling with the cross, being battered by men, suffering and humiliated.

"In my own suffering, I became engrossed in His suffering. It was at that time I heard Christ say: 'I did this for you'. Something broke inside of me; something supernatural happened that made me say: 'God how could you love me when you know all I've done?'

"And He said to me, 'But I do love you". It was at that time I asked God to forgive me for all the years that I was rebellious against Him.

"That day, He forgave me, He saved me, He filled me with His spirit and I became a new creature in Christ – all at once. I walked away that day, and I've been walking further and further away every day since then," said an excited Foster.

The transformation from homosexual to heterosexual didn't happen overnight, however. It took time to resolve all the anger and emotions and the relationship issues he was carrying on the inside.

God, he explained, began to change him until he got a picture of who he was "not just as Darryl Foster but of who I was as God's son".

"When my spiritual identity started to come in place then I could see my path as a man much more clearly – not a broken man, not a man who was sexually attracted to other men, but a man who had a destiny with God and I began to follow that destiny," he said adding:

"A lot of things you do in the gay lifestyle are habitual. I had to literally 'unlearn' it. God re-oriented me. You have sexual orientation, sexual disorientation, and sexual re-orientation where God says this is the way you should go. That's the path I follow."

The reverend, who wrote a book on his life-changing experience entitled: Touching A Dead Man, doesn't subscribe to the belief that homosexuals are genetically programmed that way.

He believes it is a choice one makes and just as drug addicts and alcoholics can overcome their addictions, so can homosexuals, with the help of God.

In 1996 he co-founded with his wife an outreach ministry called 'WITNESS' particularly geared towards helping men and women of colour who find themselves in "unwanted" homosexuality.

It is not for the homosexual who wants to remain a homosexual, but it is for those who have decided: "God, I need help. I don't want to be this way".

He says he has seen the lives of hundreds of people – most of whom have grown up in the church" transformed through this ministry.

And whereas the church had an excuse in the past for not dealing with the issue of homosexuality, Foster said it didn't have one anymore.

"There is a lot more openness now. I don't blame the church for my choices. But now God has given them more revelation, I don't think the church has an excuse to say: 'We don't know'.

"We (Exodus Global Alliance) are here to say to people: 'Here is what God wants you to know about all of these people who are in your churches serving, sometimes in high positions, but who are torn up. What we are doing here is planting a seed and, hopefully, there will be someone to water it," he said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bornagain; exgay; exgays; exodusinternational; homosexualagenda; ministry; redemption
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To: DBeers
This guy and his "church" are anything but "a Christian organization" Note they can't even spell it right! (organiZation dufus!").

nuff said.

Do they really believe that saying this enough will get them to God? They can't possibly! Maybe they believe other Christians will warm up to their ideals, but I can't imagine they don't know the truth!

Jesus is the only way to God. NOT mocking him.
21 posted on 04/30/2006 8:25:31 PM PDT by gidget7 (PC is the huge rock, behind which lies hide!)
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To: gidget7
Oh my, strike that last post! I did something I never do, neglected to read the whole article. My most heartfelt apologies!
22 posted on 04/30/2006 8:28:31 PM PDT by gidget7 (PC is the huge rock, behind which lies hide!)
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To: SeƱor Zorro

I think the pastor and everyone else should preach/teach/speak the truth about homosexuality, that it is condemned by God. It's the hypersensitivity to all the various emotions of those caught up in the sin that I see as unnecessary. And the obsession over professing "love" for homosexuals (ungodly love that helps hide and protect sin), which actually gets in the way of proclaiming the truth. Love them with the gospel and the truth about their sin. There is a trend these days to condemn those who speak the truth and exalt those who go soft on sin, overly identifying with the emotional excuses the sinner gives. That's not love. It's what you call being an accomplice. Or to please the psychobabblers, an enabler.


23 posted on 04/30/2006 8:38:26 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: DBeers

Praise the Lord...


24 posted on 04/30/2006 8:41:41 PM PDT by dmanLA
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To: SoulMan

In case you haven't seen this.


25 posted on 04/30/2006 8:45:23 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Tolerating evil IS evil.)
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To: I got the rope; scripter

Here are three articles with some info, at least one of the FR links (and maybe both) have more info down the thread as well. Scripter is the man when it comes to knowing all, I haven't seen him lately as he is very busy. Maybe he'll notice this and toss something our way!

http://www.narth.com/docs/pieces.html
How Might Homosexuality Develop?
Putting the Pieces Together


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420619/posts
Root Causes, Homosexual Consequences


http://www.drthrockmorton.com/idoexist.asp

You are right, a large majority of homosexuals were molested when either pre-pubescent children or young adolescents.


26 posted on 04/30/2006 9:03:06 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Tolerating evil IS evil.)
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To: little jeremiah
lj,

Thanks for the ping. Great article, but once again the comments are disturbing to me, because so many people miss the point on this issue. Below is one thing the author wrote that is EXACTLY on target and should be read a thousand times over by anyone with an interest in Homosexual recovery. Read it a thousand times over, people! Science and faith meet at last!

Soul man

"A lot of things you do in the gay lifestyle are habitual. I had to literally 'unlearn' it. God re-oriented me. You have sexual orientation, sexual disorientation, and sexual re-orientation where God says this is the way you should go. That's the path I follow."
27 posted on 04/30/2006 10:25:03 PM PDT by SoulMan
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To: SoulMan

Thanks for picking that statement out. I noticed it and thought about its relevance in other areas of life as well.

By repetition, habits are formed. Desires are reinforced, tastes are developed. How many people who smoke cigarettes really liked the first one (or first pack)? How about alcohol? Many vices (I consider smoking and drinking vices, pick your own habits here) have to be learned and you almost have to "force" yourself in the beginning.

Habits create subtle (and maybe not so subtle) "grooves" in the brain. Brains actually change depending on what we do. We remember past pleasures, shames, guilts, fears, emotional reactions, and they mold future choices.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; but if we want a cure badly enough, we'll be willing to do what it takes to make the cure. I've been around the block (more than once) and have unlearned a great many vices and bad habits. We can become new. Our hearts and minds can change, and we can become the servants God wants us to be. It's not that we become something different, it's becoming more who we really are.


28 posted on 04/30/2006 10:37:48 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Tolerating evil IS evil.)
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To: I got the rope

Psalms 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Galatians 3:24 Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.


29 posted on 04/30/2006 10:38:07 PM PDT by Search4Truth (Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God - Thomas Jefferson.)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Search4Truth

Excellent!

Very appropriate verses. This is why I love FR. The knowledge here is some much greater than even my own Sunday school class. Sometimes when I speak about the law (Exodus 20:1-17)to others they give me a stupid blank look.

What kind of Christian's are we if we don't even know God's commandments?


31 posted on 04/30/2006 10:48:13 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: little jeremiah

BTTT.


32 posted on 04/30/2006 10:50:40 PM PDT by I got the rope
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To: I got the rope
Hell's Best Kept Secret

This teaching was a revelation to me. It is the single most important teaching of my Christian life. Watch it. I beg of you.

33 posted on 04/30/2006 11:16:21 PM PDT by Search4Truth (Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God - Thomas Jefferson.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
I'm not convinced it was a man (i.e. an adult). From the article: (bold emphasis mine)

There was no father figure around and, as a boy, he was molested by a male in his church. The molestation started when he was 13 years old and continued until he was 17.

But from the time Foster was 11 years of age, he was attracted to other boys. He didn't have a name for the strange feelings he was experiencing, but he knew he was different from other boys.


Sounds like it was consensual (as much as it can be, at least) activity with another teen probably around his age, especially since he claims the attraction predated the supposed molestation. It happens.
34 posted on 04/30/2006 11:49:09 PM PDT by mjwise
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To: I got the rope

My evidence is purely anecdotal but extensive. I worked in the airline industry(a very gay heavy industry) for some years and early molestation was the one common thread between all the gay men I got to know in my time there.


35 posted on 05/01/2006 1:25:46 AM PDT by Uriah_lost (http://www.wingercomics.com/d/20051205.html)
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To: DBeers

This is beautiful sanity appearing on a confused and sick scene.


36 posted on 05/01/2006 4:40:19 AM PDT by RoadTest (The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light!)
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To: little jeremiah
Our hearts and minds can change, and we can become the servants God wants us to be. It's not that we become something different, it's becoming more who we really are.

lj,

Here is my well-thought-out analysis and commentary on your post.

You are ONE COOL DUDE!

SoulMan
37 posted on 05/01/2006 5:11:58 AM PDT by SoulMan
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To: SoulMan

I am a tiny soul who would be entirely lost and wretched without the mercy of God that is available to every one of us. The Prodigal Son is my favorite story in the Bible. It is a story of my life, only I was worse.


38 posted on 05/01/2006 6:36:30 AM PDT by little jeremiah (Tolerating evil IS evil.)
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To: Search4Truth

bump for later


39 posted on 05/01/2006 6:41:09 AM PDT by Skooz (Chastity prays for me, piety sings............Modesty hides my thighs in her wings......)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

On the other hand there is something to be said about judging by FRUITS. If the rock ribs like you are managing to get almost nobody out of gayness but the "softies" are leading a true "exodus," then something has to be rethought about the way the rock ribs are parsing the Bible.


40 posted on 05/01/2006 6:49:06 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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