From the Christian Post -
America is in the throes of a mental health disaster that requires a holistic solution grounded in a biblical worldview and starting in the family, according to Tim Clinton, president of the American ...
www.christianpost.com
This article is about the American Association of Christian Counselors(AACC), and for a Christian family dealing with homosexuality in their midst, I'd strongly suggest steering clear of this outfit.
From two articles about the AACC approach to this subject -
From Wikipedia:
"In 2014 AACC amended its code of ethics to eliminate the promotion of conversion therapy for same-sex attracted individuals, encouraging those individuals to practice a celibate sexual life instead."
From the Tyler Clementi Foundation, about the AACC statement on homosexuality:
"'The 2014 Code of Ethics also states: “Counselors may agree to and support the desire to work through issues of homosexual and transgendered identity and attractions, but will not describe or reduce human identity and nature to sexual orientation or reference, and will encourage sexual celibacy or biblically-prescribed sexual behavior while such issues are being addressed.'
Childers said his organization must question what a Christian counselor might consider 'biblically- prescribed sexual behavior' for the young gay or lesbian individual. “Is the young person going to be told that developing an intimate relationship with a person [of the same sex] is considered sinful behavior?"
From the Merriam-Webster on "sodomite":
"often offensive: someone who practices sodomy --> used as a term of abuse and disparagement for a gay person"
The homosexual male is not
necessarily a sodomite.
The two words are not synonymous. The idea of homosexuality being the translation of
arsenokoites in 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10 never came about until the mid-20th century. Previously, in our traditional English translations, the word was considered "sodomite" as a male who
"sodomizes" another male, as seen in the Tyndale, Bishops, Geneva, KJV, 1885 RV, 1898 Young's Literal Translation and the 1901 ASV. (Using
1828 Webster's definitions for the dynamic translations)
To insist that the realistic and biblical answer to the gay male is "celibacy" is false and harmful to the Christian who is gay. The apostle Paul teaches that celibacy is
a gift of God that not all men have, 1 Cor. 7:7-9.
*The words of Jesus also refute that idea in two places:
"For some are
incapable of marriage from birth, some are made incapable by the action of men, and some have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let the man who can accept what I have said accept it." (Matt. 19:12 Philips)
*Yes, it is literally "eunuchs", but if one can be physically a eunuch from birth, is there evidence that one cannot also be a eunuch mentally from birth?
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt 5:27-28 RSV)
*To be gay is to desire gay sex, so if gay sex is sin, the gay is a sinner merely by being gay. The solution of "celibacy" for the gay is unbiblical as well as unrealistic.
A sodomite truly is one who commits the 'sin of Sodom', which was an attempt to "sodomize" the two male/angel visitors to Lot.
The American Heritage Dictionary of English:
"sodomize, To subject to an act of sodomy, especially forcibly."
I post this from the perspective of one who has had to deal with this question within the Christian family, so I have spent time in study of this situation biblically as well as psychologically. This topic must NOT be dealt with emotionally, but from objective facts from Scripture.