wfn.org | Hope to ex-gays

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2878 notes).

Note 2876 by SUSAN PEEK on April 19, 1996 at 15:01 Eastern (2690 characters).

SEARCH: homosexuals, United Methodist, General Conference,
transforming

013 {2877}                                          April 18, 1996

General Conference '96

Transforming Congregations 
offers hope to homosexuals

     DENVER (UMNS) -- God can change lives. God offers hope. God
can transform people from the homosexual lifestyle.
     
     That was the message of an April 18 press conference held by
Transforming Congregations during the United Methodist General
Conference here.
     
     Transforming Congregations, an unofficial United Methodist
organization, is a ministry that supports homosexuals who want to
come out of a "gay lifestyle," according to the Rev. Robert
Kuyper, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church, Bakersfield,
Calif. 
     
     Founded in 1988, the group affirms that homosexuality is a
sin, but believes that through God and the power of the Holy
Spirit, people involved in the lifestyle can be transformed. 
     
     Kuyper said he began Transforming Congregations because he
was concerned about the polarization of homosexuals within the
church and society. Once he became familiar with a ministry that
supported "ex-gays," he realized the ex-gay concept was something
"we needed to support as a United Methodist Church," he said. 
     
     According to Kuyper, the primary reason for the press
conference was "to challenge the possibility that people believe
change (from a gay lifestyle) is impossible."

     Using the parable of the Prodigal Son, Kuyper said the choice
for the United Methodist Church and society "is to be the loving
father or the condemning older brother."
     
     Two former homosexuals, a mother whose son died of AIDS and
the director of an ex-gay support ministry, addressed the audience
to talk about the realities of transformation.
     
     Twenty years ago, at the age of 34, Ron Dennis, a United
Methodist from Las Vegas, was a practicing homosexual. He said he
came to Christ at a homosexual church and began reading the
Scriptures.
     
      "As I read the Word, I realized that my lifestyle was not
pleasing to God," he said. Relying on God, he began to experience
a transformation from within.
      
     Calling herself no stranger to rejection, discrimination,
abandonment, abuse and a need to belong, Donna Renae Hopkins left
the lesbian lifestyle eight years ago.

     It was during a suicide attempt, "in a moment of utter
hopelessness and despair, that Jesus reached out to me," she said. 
For the last four years, she has been involved in full-time
ministry.
                               # # #
                                                  -- Linda Green
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