Yes, it is also behavior:Daniel2 wrote: ↑October 12th, 2017, 5:44 pm"Homosexuality" isn't a behavior... it's "sexual attraction to people of one's own sex." Sexual behavior is behavior.Thinker wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2016, 2:10 pm but really, homosexuality is behavior independent of the identity of an individual.
When you label yourself something, self-fulfilling prophecy can happen and it basically makes people stuck either in their minds or in those doing the labeling.
But behavior must be labeled for what it is - if it causes harm and proves to be a disorder (state of confusion) then it is important to not deny the truth, for the sake of well-being of those who believe whatever you say.
"homosexuality: romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender."
I agree in part. I also believe that Jesus had some wisdom in giving the higher law - that even if you lust after someone, it will increase, not decrease attraction.While we cannot and do not choose to whom we're attracted, we can choose how and when to act upon them.
Now, I strongly disagree. We are not defined by any preferences. I may prefer the mountains over the beach - but that is not who I am.How we choose to define ourselves may or may not be congruent with our inherent sexual orientation.
I was just talking to someone this morning about how I hated hearing in AA/NA meetings, "my name is... and I am an addict." That is not who you are! I'd rather people say, "My name is.... and I am a child of God who has struggled but I am overcoming." Labels are powerful lies that are based on cognitive distortion. Labeling a complex spiritual being having a human experience - as just one tiny detail of one of the many experiences they have - is a form of prejudice.
It's understandable to have developed deviated sexual preferences - and then feeling pressure to hide it. Such pressure could actually make it more difficult to really deal with the issue at hand - and why and how such disordered sexual preferences were learned/developed. This is the only potential benefit I see from this homosexual movement. Unfortunately it seems mostly just potential benefit because the movement is spreading such lies associated with it. Ideally, people who struggle with homosexual preferences don't feel excessive shame for their feelings, yet also don't indulge them. Ideally, they (as we all would benefit from doing) search their souls to heal, little by little.Many of us who have denied our innate attractions for a long time and dealt with them in unhealthy and dysfunctional ways find a sense of peace and fulfillment in acknowledging that we are, in fact, gay. Doing so isn't always defining ourselves by our sexual behavior, because many of us identify as gay whether we're acting on it or not. Our invocation of the identity as 'gay' or 'lesbian' is a relief, because we finally feel we no longer have to pretend to be or seem like someone we're not.
Even as it cautions people not to define themselves by their homosexuality, the LDS church recognizes that coming out can be valuable and healthy for at least some people and even some of it's own members.
Daniel, you are NOT your sexual preference. That is not who you are at all. The homosexual agenda has made it about who you are - for deviant reasons - mostly the lie that you have no free agency if it's "just who you are." It remind me of this girl I knew in HS who derived her self-esteem from her good voice. You try to talk to her about anything else - music, friends, church - anything - she'd always bring it back about her voice. Not only did she make it her identity - but it became her god. I see sickness in some with homosexual preferences making their sexual preference not only their identity - but also their god, their scapegoat, their excuse.
Deep down, you know that the lifestyle you're living is wrong - not just anatomically - which is painfully obvious, but also psychologically and spiritually. Research has shown (as I linked in the other thread) that homosexual preferences are learned in various ways - often by abuse (physical &/or sexual), and other issues. My grandma was a councilor in an area in CA that had a high percentage of people with homosexual preferences & her findings support such research - every person with homosexual preferences that she counciled had been sexually abused. It makes me so sad. In HS, I stood up for a guy who was being teased for acting feminine. I've also found that friends I've known who have developed homosexual preferences had been sexually abused as a child. It breaks my heart to think of children going through something so horrific like that. Still, the way to overcome and heal is NOT to repeat the abuse, nor to pretend it had no impact - but to learn a better, healthier way.
The reason I post about the medical and statistical facts of homosexual practices - is because I want to limit suffering and promote healing.
Many are telling harmful lies - pretending homosexuality is "gay happy rainbows" when in reality it often leads to sickness and premature death.
I hope you will be honest in how you think of and present homosexuality - for the good of yourself and others.