For anyone struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) or who has a family member or friend with such a struggle, the book Choices: One person's journey out of homosexuality by Christopher Keane is a definite must-read.
Chris started Sydney's first so-called "ex-gay' ministry in Sydney with his wife Truda about 21 years ago, and I personally was a beneficiary of their ministry. Choices is a good summary of all that they taught back when I knew them. It's a very short book to read, only 124 pages of material excluding notes and resources, but it's written in a succinct, down-to-earth way that's easy to digest.
Choices provides great commentary on the sources of SSA and the impact of it, based primarily on Chris' own personal walk with the issue plus his ministry to guys like me. He gets right to the heart of the issues involved, as he noted in saying on page 15,
"There is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a homosexual or a lesbian. There are only people who need healing of old rejections and deprivations."
This is an important truth to acknowledge, given how much confusion abounds these days about sexuality from non-Christians (including so-called "Gay Christians'), and even among evangelical reformed Christians, who've adopted a liberal theology. When Christians deny that gay men are broken it's very hard convincing them that they need Jesus!
Chris' honesty about his ups and downs is itself compelling. He admits that he missed some parts of the gay life, such as its self-deprecating humour, the touch that he longed for while "going straight', his first marriage that ended in divorce, and the patience that he learned while trying to fit in with his home church. At the same time he gave great insights about coming to know God:
"I didn't pursue God specifically for change and recovery [to become "straight'] " I sought God for himself, and change was something that came out of that relationship" (p. 57).
This book is not so much a list of dos and don'ts or simplistic steps that promise miracles to "fix' SSA. It's a truly wondrous account of how reaches out and saves people in the darkest of places, and the love He has for all the lost and great words of advice. Towards the end of Choices, Chris writes,
"Many Christians think that they need to talk people out of homosexuality. I don't believe that is our role. We are told to witness about Jesus, and that is what we should be doing. Share what the Lord has done in our own lives. " Tell them that their sins can be forgiven. Tell them that they can have eternal life. Share the important things with them." (p. 89).
Choices is worth a read.
