I've mentioned that some celebrate gay pride month to remember the mistreatment of gay people and publicly promise, "I won't let this happen again." Stop history from repeating itself by learning from the past.

Over the past 50 years 700,000+ Americans participated in sexual orientation change efforts. The results? 96% of people experienced no change in sexual orientation while risk of suicidality doubled.

These efforts have gone by many names: the ex-gay movement, pray-the-gay away ministries, reparative therapy, conversion therapy, etc.

Unfortunately, these practices still continue in our churches:
1️⃣ false hope for change
2️⃣ neo-Puritan theologies that merely experiencing same-sex attraction is a sin
3️⃣ policing sexual identity language as a sign of true repentance
4️⃣ barring faithful gay Christians from ministry
5️⃣ passing off gay Christians to therapists and parachurch ministries

Greg Johnson identifies as a same-sex attracted Christian and is the pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church (PCA). He recently went on Preston Sprinkle's Theology in the Raw Podcast to talk about his new book "Still Time to Care."

It details the history of the ex-gay movement and suggests how Christians can return to the compassionate and biblical vision of leaders like C.S. Lewis, John Stott, and Billy Graham.

Pastor Greg was also asked about attacks from leaders (with ex-gay leanings) in his own denomination after he publicly shared his testimony.

It seems history is repeating itself.

We can protect gay people by learning about the historical mistreatment of gay people and calling out modern manifestations of these old lies.

To learn more, listen to Pastor Greg's podcast with Preston Sprinkle and pre-order "Still Time to Care."

Want more? Check out my review of "Boy Erased" (a movie about ex-gay camp) and read about my own destructive experiences with ex-gay theology: http://equipyourcommunity.org/blog/boy-erased-review