A Christian who experiences same-sex attraction says he refuses to call himself ‘gay’ because he loves Jesus too much to identify as something “entirely contrary” to Him.
Matt Moore, a 25-year-old writer from Louisiana, was converted to Christ in 2010 and was previously engaged in a homosexual lifestyle.
But in a recent blog post, Moore explained why he would find it “impossible, with a good conscience, to use a term describing something sinful in essence (Gay) alongside a term describing my allegiance to the Sinless One (Christian)”.
Temptation
He clarified that to “experience the temptation to sin is not equivalent to actually sinning”, but continued “that doesn’t make the desire something good – or even something morally neutral”.
“Homosexual desires exist within people because people possess sinful natures”, he added.
Moore also talked about how calling himself gay would not help him to communicate “a gospel that transforms identity”.
Godless identity
He said that if he labelled himself as gay, he would be “uniting” himself to a “worldly, godless identity”.
He said, “it would communicate a cheap gospel that really doesn’t do all that much in changing one’s identity.
“It is entirely possible to be transparent and communicative about one’s continual struggle with same sex attraction without identifying as gay. I know, because I’ve been doing it every day for the past four years”, he noted.
Human flourishing
Moore said he loves Jesus “too much” to “proudly label” himself with a word describing a desire “contrary to God’s design for sexuality and human flourishing”.
“Jesus became a man and undoubtedly endured a life and death of suffering more intense than I will ever be able to wrap my mind around.
“He died not only for my corrupt actions, but for my natural, corrupted heart.
“I refuse, because of my love and thankfulness for who He is and what He’s done for me, to hold onto and describe myself with a term that so describes the very corruption that Christ died for.”