When you hear good news, you want to share that news with others. Allow me, then, to share some good news with you.
We received an email this week from a young man who, until recently, believed he could practice homosexuality and follow Jesus. He has now experienced a dramatic, life-changing conversion, and he shares his story here.
I believe you’ll be encouraged as you read it, especially if you or someone close to you struggles with same-sex attraction. At the request of the writer, we are not sharing his identity.
Dr. Brown,
I really hope you see this letter personally. I wanted to share my testimony on how your ministry was used by God to bless me and bring to Himself.
In 2014, we had a short interaction on Twitter about the issue of homosexuality, which I shared on Facebook to mock you—go figure! Your ministry graciously sent me your book, Can You Be Gay and Christian? I read it prayerfully and carefully, but I came away from it (after also reading God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines) believing that my homosexuality was blessed by God. I believed that Vines and others had done a good job of responding to (or refuting) theologians such as yourself.
So, as much as I appreciated the book, I went on with my life and continued in the LGBTQ lifestyle. At the same time, I attended a Christian university while hiding my sexuality from them. I graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in church ministries.
Dr. Brown, you know as well as I do that college graduations are supposed to be celebrations of our hard work and academic accomplishments. However, it was one of the worst days of my life.
In 2014-2015, I started to have a lot of doubts and became deeply depressed. My relationship with my boyfriend at the time started to fall apart. From 2014-2016, I was unemployed because I was so paralyzed by fear. It’s ironic…my degree is in church ministries, but as I walked across the platform at my graduation, I wasn’t actively attending a church. Most people run to church when they’re depressed and dealing with bad circumstances. I did the opposite. I stopped attending my local church.
I realized that I wasn’t saved. I thought going to church, reading my Bible, attending a Christian university, and loving my neighbor (as best I could) meant I was saved. But I didn’t have a relationship with Christ, and I didn’t see the Spirit’s work in my life.
In January 2017, I started attending seminary simply because I was tired of people asking me what I was doing with my undergrad degree. I figured I could say “I’m continuing my education” to stall for time. During spring break, I read your book again. This time, it was different. The lies and deceptions from Vines and other “gay Christian” theologians were exposed. God showed me that homosexual practice was sin. Unfortunately, I still didn’t stop engaging in that sin…yet.
I hit rock bottom when my relationship with my boyfriend of four years ended after my spring semester ended. It was during this time period, I kept thinking about your book.
I asked God to save me over the course of an entire month. I drove myself nuts when I didn’t feel like He had answered my prayer. But in my desperation, I kept going back to His Word and the gospel until I knew one day God saved me, as I cried out to Him on my bedroom floor. The genuine conversion experience was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I knew this was different from the “Christianity” that I had believed before as a gay man.
Right now, I’m still getting used to my lifestyle change, and I do feel a lot of temptation. But God has been so gracious to me! Your book, even three years after you sent it to me, was a tool that He used to show me the truth about homosexuality, and lead me to the truth. I’m so thankful for you, Dr. Brown. Words can’t express how much I truly love you and your ministry for helping to point me to Christ. I pray for you daily.
I hope you’ll pray for me as well. I’m asking and believing on God to use me to reach those far from Him. I have a burden for the lost, especially the Latter-day Saints and LGBTQ individuals. I’m hoping, when the Lord wills it and after I grow in Him some more, to put my Christian education in ministry. I’m still trying to figure that out, while trusting His timing and that He’ll guide me to where I need to be.
Anyways, there is so much more I want to say to you. But I know you’re very busy. I hope my testimony has blessed you. Please pray for me. God bless you, Dr. Brown.
We have reached out again to this young man, and we will be standing with him in prayer as he takes one step at a time moving forward in God. Would you join us in prayer for him as well?
And for all those who have friends and loved ones caught up in the deception of “gay Christianity,” don’t despair. There is always hope in the Lord. What He did for this young man, He can do for them—and for you.
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