THE TOUGHEST PART OF THE BATTLE LINE

Homosexuals Anonymous

Given the public furor and growing fear of AIDS, it is not surprising that Christians have lost their sense of obligation to homosexuals seeking to overcome their problems. Alan Medinger is an exception as he struggles to help homosexuals overcome their homosexual desires—just as he himself did a few years ago.
Medinger is director of Regeneration, a Baltimore, Maryland, support group for those struggling with homosexuality. According to him, the two gravest challenges facing our churches today are abortion and homosexuality. He sees churches making the shift from alarm and condemnation toward action on the abortion issue.
But the reaction isn’t there for homosexuality.
Most of his work is with homosexuals who are already declared Christians. “If five percent of the population is gay, then five percent of any given church probably is, too,” he says. “The best way we can break through to people is to meet them in church.”
“The stereotype of the homosexual as the child molester, as the pervert, is still strong. People cannot put a human dimension to us. That’s why we take two or three people to a church when we go to speak. So people can see that we are human and we love the Lord and are seeking to do His will,” says Medinger.
Regeneration works largely through Christian channels with speaking engagements and notices in local churches and religious media. For the most part they receive inquiries from Christians who have struggled with their homosexuality in isolation for years, many of them close to despair because the sin has overwhelmed them.
“The sin of homosexuality looms
larger than so many others,” Medinger notes. “So we offer a way

out of it using scripture and prayer counseling at regular support meetings.”

Transformed Lives
Change for the homosexual comes• in three areas: Behavior, identity and sexual attraction, and the first step is the surrender of one’s life and sexuality to God.
The desires confronting the homosexual are exceptionally strong, and in some cases these desires literally control the individual. But behavior, ultimately, can be brought under control and the sin of homosexual behavior eradicated.
Homosexuals must also change their identity. Instead of thinking of themselves as gay, they must identify as being fully male or fully female.
“Gays must see their wholeness and not their brokenness,” says Medinger. “Most of the stereotypes of gay identity are valid, but God can really heal them — we can accept our real manhood or womanhood.”
Changes in sexual attraction are the most difficult, and in most cases are not total. When an individual has been an active homosexual for many years, there will be continue to be a homosexual attraction for many more years.
However, there is a decided decrease in that attraction and a growing awareness ‘of the opposite sex to the point that a good, full marriage is possible for most people. The Homosexuals Anonymous program, used by Regeneration, is styled after the Alcoholics Anonymous method. It is a program using 14 steps—with the steps focusing on Jesus Christ. The goal is to restore the individual’s wholeness, to
change the person — not to change society to accept the person in sin.
Medinger’s own story illustrates the possibilities for active homosexuals.
“I can remember an attraction to men as early as age 8,” recalls Medinger. “But I led, as much as I could, a heterosexual life; I married, had two children, was a success in business and was a pillar of my church. I did okay for a few years, but then the attraction was too much — I was an active homosexual’ for 10 years and increasingly my life was going out of control.
“Then a friend of mine stumbled onto a prayer group and experienced a real conversion. I knew that I, too, could hhave an encounter with God and I knew that when I did, I would have to deal with my homosexuality.
“It was a classic conversion. I went to the prayer group and I said to myself, ‘God, I give up.’ The healing I received was extraordinary and miraculous. I fell in love with my wife and I regained control of my life. I knew l wanted to help others, too, but it took five years before I was ready.”
Now Medinger faces the challenge of telling his story and showing others the possibility of a renewed life in Christ, and helping those who come forward to find the success he did. He is truly fulfilling the obligation of Christian outreach to some of the most troubled people in our society.
If you know someone who needs help or if you want more information, contact Regeneration, P0 Box 10574, Baltimore, MD 21285; (301)
825-5232. Or Homosexuals Anonymous, P0 Box 7881-B, Reading, PA 19603; (800) 253-3000.

By James F. Kappus, executive dir.
American Life League Nov-Dec 1986