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Editor of Lesbian Magazine finds God after 29 years

I saw this moving story on the TV today. It was about Charlene Cothran, an African American woman who had been a Lesbian for 29 years. She fought for gay rights, organized marches and was the editor-in-chief of gay magazine Venus. According to her she was "as vocal and in your face as they come", but she came to a turning point -

"In 2003, I was in Chicago at a gay pride event, in the middle of this beautiful park I took a panoramic view, and as far as I could see there were men with men and women with women, all just partying and having a good time. But a shame fell on me, I felt so out of place. I knew something in my spirit spoke that, 'this is that road that leads to destruction, and you're on it.'"


A few years after that a Pastor's wife rang her up and that was the beginning of a change for her. She wrote an article in Venus that shocked her gay readers called
Redeemed! 10 Ways to Get Out of the Gay Life, If You Want Out.

Of course, she had a huge backlash from the gay community but she continues to get emails and to help those who want to get out of the gay lifestyle.

The magazine now has a new mission -

The new mission of Venus Magazine is to encourage, educate and assist those who desire to leave a life of homosexuality. Our ultimate mission is to win souls for Christ, and to do so by showing love to all God’s people. We believe that homosexuality is outside of the will of God. We know that many new and longtime VENUS readers have been instilled with a belief system that is in line with this teaching but are still living ‘in the life’. Many desire change and wonder if they can be accepted into the family of God ‘just as they are’. The answer is YES! These readers will find the new Venus an anointed and refreshing tool for kingdom work.

For those ‘in the life’ who were not raised in the church [where seeds of everlasting life had been planted and watered] we desire to plant seeds of hope in your heart that you might believe and begin a journey of new discovery about the man Jesus Christ and how your life can be impacted by Him, then how your life can impact others.




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Comments

  1. Here's an excerpt of an interview with Charlene:

    So, what about you now really makes you heterosexual?

    Charlene: Nothing… My prayer was not fix me, repair me and make me straight—that was not my prayer. My prayer was God make me whole in every sense of the word….

    Are you saying that you are not heterosexual?

    Charlene: I am saying that I am celibate right now. I'm not saying there won't ever be a man in my life. You're asking me about where I am and that's all I can speak to. Today I am celibate… But… there is one thing I can say and one thing I will go on record and say—I will never be entangled with the bondage of lesbianism again…

    Are you physically attracted to men?

    Charlene: [Pauses.] I am physically attracted to the spirit of Christ right now…

    Are you still attracted to women, or is that attraction completely gone?

    Charlene: I would say after 29 years of walking in the sin of lesbianism that if the devil were going to try and tempt me that he's probably not going to send a football player, if you will, because that didn't do it for me. You follow me?

    Sounds like she's still straight as a pretzel . . .

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  2. Of course not Danyl. That is exactly what she said herself:

    So, what about you now really makes you heterosexual?

    Charlene: Nothing…

    You could have ended the quotation there. This story isn't about making a pretzel straight. It is about how this particular person had a look at her lifestyle and found it unsatisfying. It is how she has discovered others like herself that are searching for something more than what they felt they had.

    She has entered a new phase in her life. One the gay groups do not approve of, apparently. Which is perhaps another interesting facet of the story.

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  3. Danyl, good interview. Just because she has left the lifestyle doesn't mean she is instantly going to be attracted to men; as she says she is free from under the bondage - she no longer feels the shame.

    The Church doesn't say it's wrong to feel that way - there may be a multitude of reasons for it; in Charlene's case it was abuse at the hands of a boy when she was young. The Church only says it is wrong to take action on those feelings but no to discriminate against those who feel that way.

    From the Catechism -

    The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

    Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

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  4. Why should homosexuals, or anyone, be "called to chastitity?"

    What is wrong with anyone, be they straight or gay, from forming a lifelong marriage-type partnership and being faithful to each other.

    Straight or gay, I would say promiscuity is the problem with its fall-out in terms of STDs, family break-ups, etc.

    It is not something confined to K Road and Ponsonby Road but also the Loaded Hog and the Viaduct Basin as well, or wherever young trollops or 'cougars' congregate nowadays.

    DarrenG

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  5. Surely a lesbian is under "bondage" to her sexual desires to the exact same extent that the rest of us are? What is the purpose of calling it "bondage," apart from the obvious propaganda one?

    "This story isn't about making a pretzel straight. It is about how this particular person had a look at her lifestyle and found it unsatisfying. It is how she has discovered others like herself that are searching for something more than what they felt they had."

    Lesbians who've come out write very similar stories about the new life they've found, in almost exactly the same terms. Perhaps we can agree that a good outcome for the individual is what counts in the long run?

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  6. Yet again the religious wrong get all excited about what other people do or don't do with their bonking bits....strange.

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  7. Yet again the religious wrong get all excited about what other people do or don't do with their bonking bits....strange.

    Wrong James - nobody really cares what other people do with their "bonking bits".

    Its the promotion of unnatural use of the items in question as normal or even glamourous to our children that that is the real issue.

    But STDs and failed marriages are anything but glamourous and that is where this leads.

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  8. andrei, do you find gays "icky"? Read this...

    http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20070625_Carnal_Knowledge___What_fuels_the_hatred_of_homosexuality_.html

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  9. Don't disagree with your comment PM. That's why I was specific about what this meant to her. I have heard the "glad I came out" stories, because the gay groups promote them. They do not promote these stories though.

    And James, I'm not the one who has spent years of my life "in peoples faces" about my sexuality, nor founded a magazine to talk about it on a monthly basis.

    This story was interesting enough for me to comment on it because (a) it was on our blog and (b) the reaction of the politically organized parts of the gay community. Nothing more sinister than that James.

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  10. Any comments on this story? I wonder why it hasn't been posted here?

    http://richarddawkins.net/article,1340,I-have-never-been-happier-says-the-man-who-won-gold-but-lost-God,Matthew-Syed-The-Times-Online

    A few quotES:

    "It made me realise that I had taken things for granted that were taught to me as a child without subjecting them to any kind of analysis. When you think about it rationally, it does seem incredibly improbable that there is a God."

    "There is more reality in my existence than when I was full-on as a believer"

    "One thing that I can say, however, is that even if I am unable to discover some fundamental purpose to life, this will not give me a reason to return to Christianity. Just because something is unpalatable does not mean that it is not true."

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  11. Ahh the Homosexual Manifesto, I thought people had learned not to quote that since its a bitter/ironic political statement.

    Or at least that's what this site says.
    http://www.rainbowallianceopenfaith.homestead.com/GayAgenda.html
    To quote:
    But when the religious right cites this text, they always omit the vital first line, which sets the context for the piece. In other words, every other version of this found on the net and in the literature of religious right political activists is part of the radical right's great lie about gay people.

    "This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor."


    So unless anyone has an original copy of the gazette and prove the article appears as you seem to think it does then I think this is something that remains fairly unreliable evidence. It might do, but in the face of strong counter assertions and a plausible explanation it is very questionable.

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