God's Love and Homosexuality

Our next speaker is a man named Jim Doman. Jim has an amazing testimony of God's work in his life, and I don't want to steal his thunder. but I can say that he would end up receiving his master's degree in divinity and pastor at a church called Rose Drive Friends Church. He would pastor there for six years.

Jim is now working with pastors statewide with California Family Council promoting respect for life, family, and religious liberty. Jim is married to his wife, Amanda, whom he Regards as God's gift from heaven. Their story aired on ABC Family on June 21st of 2011, and I do believe he will be sharing with us out of his testimony. Jim is uniquely qualified to address the topic of homosexuality and so Jim, without further ado, thank you for being here with us today.

Let's welcome Jim. Thanks, Carlos. Well, it's great to be here, this afternoon and I looked at your agenda. What great topics you guys are going over and really serious too.

there's a lot of stuff going on in our world today and it's great to see the body of Christ being at least informed and, knowing what's, going on. Sounds like you're gonna have some really fun tacos too, but I don't have one of those. I might get kinda hungry. No, thank you for giving me yours.

Actually, we're getting our daughter, dedicated, tomorrow, and so my folks have flown from Texas. Amanda's from, Arizona, so we're going to be, doing that tomorrow, so we'll probably spend some time, with them. So as I get started here, I'm gonna mention, I'll talk about real quickly what I do for a living. I'm a pastor, and I work with California Family Council as Carlos shared.

We promote, in California public policy, life, family, religious liberty. Life is anything dealing with, natural conception or conception to natural death. And why is this so important? Obviously, we're a pro-life organization.

We're gonna want to promote that biblical worldview and public policy, and these issues obviously face not only our state but our nation. And one that we don't hear much of is like on death on for the elderly and disabled. And there's actually a bill right now at the governor's desk that we're hoping he vetoes, but it would allow on the life issue for someone who's been diagnosed terminally ill to take their life. No accountability.

There's no, there's no accountability with the doctors, the person, and I'm not, I don't even have time to unpack that because that's what I'm talking about today, but if you think of it Monday, call the governor's office, please and ask them to veto that bill. We want to protect the elderly, the sick, the infirm, and the disabled because to euthanize someone, it costs about $100. And if it's a medical costs continue to keep going up and up, it's pretty, why should we pay 3, 4000 a month when we're not gonna cover that but we'll cover the pills and do that.

family is It's Assembly Bill X 215.

Yes, and, but if you just call and mention physician-assisted suicide and ask him to veto, the governor's office is very aware, aware of the bill. Family, anything to deal with the family, parental rights. So we want to protect parents that you should have the right what your what your children hear, see, or taught, it's your right, not the government's and that's just an example of that and religious liberty, that's continuing to be an issue in our state and country as business owners are being targeted.

Chick fil A, for example, it's one we all know that because they uphold the biblical worldview of man-woman marriage.

So some of the stuff that I get to do is very near and dear to my heart and I think many of you. What I'm gonna do is I'm speaking, I'm gonna ask your help for something. I'm gonna pass around a petition. And this petition is called Privacy for all.

If you're unaware, the state of California has passed a law, it is legal now that any Child, K through 12, kindergarten through 12th grade, a boy can use the girls' bathroom, use the girls' changing room, use the girls' shower room. He's protected by California state law and there's no regulation. It's actually more liberal than the, than San Francisco's Unified School District cause San Francisco at least states you have to identify your gender at the beginning of the year. This law doesn't even state that.

So if I'm feeling a little, a little feminine today, sure, I can go use the girls' shower room, a locker room. And I'm protected, not our daughters, not our young ladies, not our women. This petition will at least get it on the ballot. It's literally, it's insanity really that we even have to do this, but that's state law and this would, this would help change, stop that law and allow it that even in government buildings that ladies, young ladies, our daughters would not, would be also be protected from men using the facilities.

So I'm gonna pass this around. My wife is over here, Amanda, and if it, she'll make sure the boards keep going back, but there's a couple of things I just want to educate you with. One is San Bernardino County, one is Riverside. Make sure you sign the right petition in the county in which you're registered to vote.

You have to be 18 or older to sign. If your county's not on here, you can go to the back table to my left, you're right in the corner and you can sign for your county, but I want to pass this through and if you're registered to vote, please sign it. it would put it on the ballot in November of 2016. We need to get hundreds of thousands of signatures and would really love you to be a part of that.

So it's a little bit what I get to do. In policy, baby, if you could start that, that would be great. I'm gonna make a quick little connection because I've also heard Christians tell me, but Jim, wait a minute, separation between church and state and the the government or the church has nothing to do with Should have nothing to do with policy or anything like that. Or, I just sit here and go, what Bible are you reading?

Really? What scripture? What word of God are you reading that would lead you to believe that? Has any of you ever heard of the Joseph?

From Genesis. He, the, the, the Pharaoh sought counsel. He saved not only the Israelites and the Hebrews, but he saved the, the, the Egyptians at the time because famine came and God told them in dreams and they stored up and he literally saved the population of the world because he followed God. Now the Pharaoh wasn't godly, but he sought a godly man for counsel.

And literally saved the world at that time. Look at Esther. For such a time as this, she interceded with the king and saved the Israelites. Ever hear of Daniel?

Or you remember as a little kid, if you were in Sunday school, Shadrach, Meshack, and the Bendigo, it's all in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. The king passed decrees, you must bow down and worship me. And they said, no, we'll even die for that. They were going to die.

And God intervened. And we see story upon story that godly people influencing the culture. And so I just want to be an encouragement is where God has called me to because with my passions of not only God's kingdom, but how can we influence our culture. And do both of that.

So that's what I get to do a little bit with California Family counsel and really enjoy that. So now I'm gonna share my story that aired. Open word can bring life and death. And when Jim Doman heard someone tell him he was gay, a lifestyle that he knew little of became his identity.

My name is Jim Doman, and I lived in a homosexual lifestyle for 3 years. They started realizing in 7th grade that I really wasn't attracted to girls, I was more attracted to boys or older men. Couldn't figure out why I was never sexually abused or any had didn't have any issues like that growing up. Went to counseling, throughout high school trying to.

Understand what where this is coming from and why I was attracted to the same sex. Tried dating through high school and that really didn't fix or change me. I'm still attracted to men even though I, had a couple of girlfriends. Down deep.

I had a, a true heart desire to do what was right, and what was in the Bible, God's word, to get married, have a family, and, but never thought that would be possible. It was when I was living in Bermuda, I was fired, accused of being a homosexual at the time. I was a virgin. I'd never had sex because I was saving myself for marriage, and after being accused of something that I wasn't, I just said, what, God, I want to love and be loved, and I can't do this with your plan.

I'm gonna do what is best for me. So I came out in Portland, Oregon, came back to the United States and started visiting gay bars and trying to fit a need of brokenness in my heart that. had never really been met or been filled. It was June 8, 2002 when it all fell apart and literally God.

He took everything from me. My car was repossessed. My partner switched, sexual partner, business partner switched all of our bank accounts. I overnight had lost everything.

I laid literally on the floor with, just the clothes on my back on the tile floor looking at the ceiling and saying, God, I'm yours again. Well, the next morning I got up, no money, and I was trying to figure out, well, my gym membership hadn't been canceled, so I went to the gym to work out. And so I thought as I was walking to the car, it was $5 laying on the sidewalk, and I bent over, picked it up and the ward spoke ever so eloquent eloquently. Jim, I took care of the Israelites in the desert.

I don't take care. but then there's still, there is this battle for, I'm just, I still have these issues, same-sex attraction some call it. And I really didn't want to go back. In my mind, I said, as soon as I get back on my feet, I'm gonna go right back to being a homosexual because this is who I am and the real.

it wasn't who I am, my sin. Is not my is not going to God and Jesus Christ as God started healing me and on that spectrum and bringing me over to healthy heterosexuality, what he pointed out to me was my desire, my need to connect with men was true, that was correct, but doing it in a sexual behavior was destructive and not healthy heterosexuality. I was seeking masculinity but an unhealthy way. And hanging around helping heterosexual men really teaching me on, on, on, on what it is to be a true man, the true masculinity.

The story of how he met my wife. It's a, it's a fun story. I went to Azusa Pacific University, Harvard Graduate School of Theology to get my master. I remember the APU by mistake can mailed my diploma to the wrong address.

And I went to pick it up. I drove to APU, walked into the office, and this beautiful woman comes walking by who shouldn't have been there. She's the manager of the office and her office is in the back, but it was a divine appointment and she, I, I said, I'm here to get my diploma. So she gave it to me and she said, go ahead and take it out and read it.

So I pulled it out and read it and I said, wow, this is such a miracle. I said, I've come out of a homosexual lifestyle. now a pastor, a recorded Friends pastor. I just finished my master of divinity, my degree.

And I just bought a home. And she looked at me square and she said, it sounds like God's locust. And Jim was, I found out later touched by that because it was from, from, from Joel and I didn't really know what I was quoting at the time, but I knew that God had really changed Jim and So I just was thinking wow, here's a guy who's got his degree, he's got a house, he's got a good job, and he's cute. It just really made an impression on me.

And so when he left that afternoon, I had a sense because we girls tend to know these things that he was going to ask me out later as we kept conversing. I just saw Jesus burning in her eyes. To get to know her, so I got her number. First question he asked me was, well, are you married?

I said And said something like I'm, I'm dating and, and I'm wanting to get to know people so. And just really clicked and I started to see the big values that we had in life in common that we both wanted to have a family. We both I had a love for the ministry of God and just every time we talked, I just knew that God was doing the work there. We got married and we've been married in July 2009.

subsidiary So it's, it's been an amazing journey and it's, that's my wife Amanda who's back there. Hi babe. and then our daughter Aliyah, that was, she was 8 months old and, Aliyah in Hebrew, it's pronounced Aliyah, but it's, her name means rising up or ascending to God. So, the Lord's really, blessed us and, I know I've seen that video a bunch of times, but then at the end, there, there'll be links to all of this, and you can, if you need to watch it again or you can share it with someone, that'd be helpful, that'd be great.

Yeah, God's restoration is just amazing. It's incredible and it's really just been an incredible journey and it's a little bit on the outline. I think you guys have an outline in your packet and I'm gonna try to follow that and share a little bit of our, my story, our story and Go talk a little bit about the whole ex-gay thing, some statistics, God and the Bible, what it says about homosexuality and I'll, I'll mention a little bit about lesbianism, bisexual and transgender issues, but it'll primarily be focused on same-sex attraction, homosexuality with men, though the church and Christian response and some resources.

But if you have your Bibles, if you don't, you can write this down or look on your digital devices.

I'm gonna read something from you from 2 Timothy 4 or read something to you from 2 Timothy 4 and I was sharing, oh how did I get here today? Let me tell you this, this is fun. So I met Mike Barry and I had to ask him because we met back in 2008. And I'll tell you a fun little story as you're looking up 2 Timothy 4.

So I meet Amanda, we go on a couple of dates, and on the 4th date, we got media coverage and I'm gonna come back to that in a second, but I know generally, well, I'll come back to that in a second. So how did I meet Mike? So on the, on the steps of the Los Angeles City Hall. In downtown LA and there's a huge Prop 8 rally.

If you recall, Prop 8, was, we're trying to pass and we did successfully, we changed California's constitution that defines marriage between only, it was only valid or recognized between a man and a woman. Article 1, Section 7.5 in California's Constitution. So I'm on the steps. I get up there and I share, I share my story and Chris Tomlin's song, I think Chris Tomlin sang it, God of the City.

They, they had just su that, sang that and then I go up and I've never spoken to a crowd of probably about 5000 people. Mind you, the news didn't show that. They showed a couple, yes on Prop 8 and all these people no on Prop 8 protesting. I'm like, there were thousands and thousands of people there.

In a way, it's just unbelievable. That, but that's how I met Mike. And we've kept in touch and he said he was doing this event and wanted me to come here. So that's how I got here.

Now back to my wife. So Prop 8, date number 4, I said, hey, do you want to go to the Prop 8 victory party? And she's like, sure, and I bring my roommates. They're meeting Amanda for the first time and they announced we won.

So I jump up like this, OK? And all of a sudden, what paparazzi do? Literally, Amanda was next to me, my roommate was next to me, it was Just pictures galore and then we all grabbed hands, we bowed our heads and we prayed and we just thanked the Lord for really allowing the impossible to happen specifically in California. And next day, we're in the LA Times, Orange County Register, Chicago Tribune, USA Today.

It went as far as the United Kingdom because I was getting hate mail from there. And well, not just there, all over the nation. I, my video, you can go read the kind, ungodly comments people write when I share and I've ironically, if you listen to my video, I only talk about what God and what Jesus has done to me. I don't condemn anyone.

I just shared what what transformation has happened in my life. So Amanda and I, we're all excited. We're in the media and all where I'm like, this is great, this is great. Well we start getting threats to our work.

I was on staff at a church. They found out that Amanda worked at Azusa Pacific University and they were calling in and saying, we know where you live, we know where you work, we're gonna come after you, we're gonna come and get you. And we were getting calls, hate mail, hate email. It was unbelievable I literally had to like unplug or turn off all of my social media stuff because from this people who call us intolerant, all this hate and all we did was say, hey, we're excited, we're supporting marriage.

anyway, but she never faulted. She stuck through with me the whole time which is originally was like one of the, again, one of these keepers. I'm like, Lord, I think you brought the It's an incredible woman to me. So I mentioned in my video, behavior versus identity.

So, generally what I hear from people, someone who's struggling with same-sex attraction, also known as SSA, same-sex attraction, at one point come out or whatever, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's a sibling, maybe it's your son or daughter, they say, I'm gay. Let me just share, let me unpack that a little bit that you may not, want to share this with them, but just something to tuck under you that someone's behavior isn't their identity. Now think about it. Why aren't heterosexuals running around saying I'm a heterosexual?

Hear me roar. Think about that because you, it's, it's, they're, it's almost like they're trying to believe something that isn't true but making it, this is who I am and it's all about, I'm gay. And for the church, I there's a, there's a phrase that is really not helpful. As someone, you may think, OK, well, I love you, but I hate your sin.

But someone who's struggling with their, with same-sex attraction has a really difficult time separating the the behavior and the attraction from their identity. So that line, the reason I have a line through it, that's not a good phrase to tell someone because what they hear is that you hate them. Although you may know the truth behind that or what you're trying to convey, that's not what's communicated. And what's, again, so what's really important is to understand that someone's behavior isn't their identity.

Now, someone's also telling you they're lesbian or gay, that's probably, it probably isn't the time to have that conversation with them. But to journey and to walk with life with them. And I'll talk about that a little bit more in detail when we get into the Christian's response. I do wanna talk about a couple of things is to again to reiterate, it's one dimensions of, it's one dimension of a person's life, your sexuality.

It's not who you are. And I didn't realize that until I, when I came out of the lifestyle, my parents invited me back home and that's a whole another long story, but I didn't want to go home. But my dad, when I moved because I lost everything, I would be homeless otherwise. After about a week or two, my dad said, all you do is talk about everything is gay.

He's gay, he's straight, she's lesbian, she's a dyke, all these kinds of stuff. All you talk about is all this language in this community. I didn't even know I was doing it. And it literally, it's like I got hit by the proverbial 2x4 and I was like, that's all I talk about.

Is everything in my mind was based on sex and sex only. And it really helped speak some truth to what was going on. So it's just something to keep in the back of your mind that's only one aspect is someone's whole being. And then the issue of causes comes up, the world says it's genetic, you were born that way.

Well, time out, wait a minute. There is no scientific proof, there's no gene, there is no genome project that has said there's a gay gene and this is who you are. Nowhere. Many times, same-sex attraction can result from abuse, emotional, specifically even sexual abuse, but just because you were sexually abused does not mean you're gonna end up being LLBT, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender.

I wasn't physically sexually abused nor emotionally, yet I still had same-sex attraction. Came from a healthy biblical worldview-based family, grew up in the church, knowing right and wrong, but I never connected with my father. And that gives, brings me to the next thing is the environment and it's, I believe it's environmental and developmental. Not only do I believe that, but psychology, healthy psychology.

proves that and shows that and that really that when I went to counseling starting at the age of 16, that helped me understand the, the root causes and my disconnect with my own father. And again, that ends in roots in early childhood, back to early childhood development. That I never, my dad was an LA County Sheriff, my mom a librarian, but my dad connected with my brother and not me. He was athletic.

He did sports. Now granted later in life, I did, I've done Ironman and I'm pretty athletic and I don't know, older in life but that took a long time to get there. actually, and part of my, this is a fun story too. I was afraid to catch a ball even as a grown man and a buddy of mine literally said, OK, we're gonna play catch without a, without a glove and I'm gonna throw the ball and have it hit you.

I had another buddy. It's funny, but I never had that. And that disconnect and how that healed with when I was trying to connect with men and things that never took place in my life, God was able to restore. I had another buddy that came alongside of me and said, Jim, I'm gonna tell you how to date.

I'm like, what? go out with the girl, get, and be told no. He'd go, pick up your skirt, hit it again a thing. And he goes, go, he said, no, go back out and do this and did you kiss her?

I'm like, what? He goes, did you kiss her? And he kinda helped coach me. And it was this healthy correction of things that never took place as a young man.

anyway, so these, these issues in early development that I did not connect with my dad or other men or young men for that matter, I had this void. And as you heard in the video, it try, you try to step out and see, fill that void physically, sexually with a member of your same sex to try to correct what was legitimately necessary but never met in a healthy way. I want to talk a little bit about statistics because I think this is mind-blowing. I know there's no Q&A but you can yell out.

Any, any thoughts on what's the percentage of the GLBT population in the United States? 3%, 2%? What else? 8% 10%, 15%, any higher 15?

OK, 10%. Someone back here wanted to say something? Anything higher than that, you what? 1%.

OK. I'm glad there's some talk and actually, I'm impressed how low your numbers are. Because Gallup did a poll, and when they polled Americans, Americans believe 25% of the US population is LLBT. That means 1 out of every 4 people.

So we start going 1234, OK, 1234. So 25%, this whole section in here is GLBT. That's what Americans believe when in reality, the total GLBT population, and I think this number is high, is 3.8%. 3.8%.

I'm gonna cite the source. UCLA School of Law, April 2011. You can google, Google it, you can find the study. That was their study of the GLBT population.

But the media and others have convinced the rest of Americans, you're a pretty equipped congregation, you can thank your leadership for or, or just you being involved in culture, really what the truth is. And with of that 3, 3.8%. The gay lesbian population is 1.7%. Bisexual, and actually, I think I, I, that's a typo, my, forgive me, it's a typo.

The gay population is 1.7%. The bisexual lesbian population is 1.8%. And the reason why that's a little bit higher is there's more lesbians that are bisexual than men. Transgender It's 0.3%.

Not even a 0.5%. Hear me? I'm gonna repeat that again, 0.3% of the US population. That means not even out of 100, there's one transgender person.

You need 300, every 300 people, according to the study, that there's one. Again, back to the petition I'm passing around to have you all sign is to, theoretically that was to protect the transgender population, but what about all the rest of the, our young ladies, even our, our young men and boys, if there were girls, changing, showering, using the facilities with boys, anyway, it's just, it's really crazy. Questioning, the term is primarily LGBT. Sometimes there's a queue and queue can be queer or questioning.

Now, questioning, there's no stats on who's questioning their sexuality, but they just include that as part of that acronym and the queer part, it depends really in context. If it's, you're using it in a derogatory way, there is a show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, so it really depends in context. I wouldn't recommend using the word queer, but that's also the community what they choose to call themselves. And so, but again, I also believe it's in context if you're concerned about using that word or not.

And then California domestic partnerships. this statistic is from the US Census in 2010. And that percentage is 0.7% of California's population has, is in a domestic partnership. Which would mean two homosexual men.

To lesbian women and that type of a relationship. And I just wanted, the reason why I wanted to go over that first is so you can understanding of where, where things lie. So what is the, what does God and the Bible have to say? We see in scripture that full sexual expression takes place within the context of marriage, man, woman, marriage.

That's it. There's no other, there's no other permissible way to express sexual behavior. and anything beyond that, it's celibacy outside of marriage. That is.

Just throughout scripture. God in the Bible, OK, created in the image of God, Genesis 1:27. Why did I have that? Well, a lot of times transgender and I'll ask the question, I'll let you think about it.

We've heard in the news recently with Bruce Jenner. So what do you do if someone's transgender? How do you respond to them? we go back to scripture.

God created man and woman in His image. It's good theology, biology, but in the state of California, you can also change your birth certificate. Legally, if you were born a male and you want to become female, you can legally change it that you were technically born a female, although biologically you're a male. And I'll go with records and things as such.

And my, and, and since we're on talking about creating God's image, my, and on your outline, I've got scripture verses there as well for you. Is that we want to bring people to truth and what that is, what that looks like, and we want to point them to that, but then also know how to love them where they are at. So someone's a transgender individual and they're sharing that, let's say they're born a male and they're expressing female, love them where they're at, but walk with them and point them towards truth.

But that doesn't happen in 10 minutes, 5 minutes, overnight.

Generally, that's gonna be a process. We, we see throughout scripture and I cited some regarding marriage, Genesis 2:24-25, that's on your outline and Matthew, Mark, Ephesians and Revelation, we continue to see that. Song of Solomon, the book talks about marriage, not only marriage, but courtship, dating courtship and marriage with two sex scenes. Two sex scenes are in the Bible between a man and a woman.

Romans 1:18 through 27 is very, very clear about, and I'm not gonna read that or unpack that right now, but it's very clear about what a culture and actually Viola prof, Walt Russell gave me this insight with that passage. I've known about it and it's a great passage to describe what's unnatural, when women and men give up on natural relationships and exchange it for truth for a lie and, and have unnatural relationships with their own gender is Doctor Russell helped me see that that's literally, it's like the prescription for a, a, a moral decay of a society.

And at the top of that verse, it talks about God and how his eternal attributes and qualities are declared in the heavens and the earth. And when people continue not to believe that and how they continue to become more and more debased further away from God, this is the consequences.

And we're literally seeing that happen in front of our eyes in our culture. let's see, Romans, I just talked about that. Colossians and 1 Corinthians. I tell you what I love about the Colossians 3:5 that talks about, list some of the sins, specifically in 1 Corinthians 6:9 through 10, there's a whole litany of sins, homosexuality is also listed.

You can go back and read this passage, but in verse 11, you can add there, I only went 9 through 10, but in verse 11, Paul, the apostle Paul says, but that's what some of you were. But you were cleansed, you were washed by the blood of Jesus, and it's just, I love that, that if we bring people the truth, we can set them free. Another thing that, so I'm looking at the God in the Bible, like, obviously it's the word of God and the inherent word of God and this is what we follow and believe.

But I'll have the culture and pastors and say our churches will change doctrine and allow this and go, the Bible doesn't talk about man-woman marriage or it doesn't mention homosexuality.

I had a liberal, probably unit unit universalist. I don't know. I, during Prop 8, I had, she claimed to be a pastor and she, I asked her, how can you vote or support no on Prop 8 when scriptures clear, she goes, scripture doesn't mention homosexuality. I was like, what?

OK, what Bible are you reading? But then there's a lot of debate and I've even known, godly people and have these cover they claim to be and they say, wait a minute, this really, well, did Paul really say that? Did Paul really mean what he was writing? I'm like it's clear, it's clear as day.

So then what I want to say, OK, if you have an issue with verse upon verse and line upon line and chapter upon chapter, book upon book, let's look at the whole biblical narrative. Genesis, in the beginning, God created Adam and Steve. Wait a minute, no, Adam and Eve. He birthed the population through who?

A man and a woman. Abraham and Sarah, he birthed the nation of Israel through two lesbians who went and got IVF? Individual in fertilization? No, it was a man and a woman.

I already mentioned Fong and Solomon. Dating, courtship, marriage, sex scenes. And then we even see a story of a godly man, a prophet, Hosea. And Gomer, a prostitute.

And God says, go redeem this woman. And he marries her and she even goes and cheats on him. You see this adulterous relationship, and yet God shows his heart of redemption between a man and a woman marriage. Again, we, I mentioned earlier, Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Bengo, some great, heroes of faith that stood up.

Well, John the Baptist, oh, but Jim, we can't have anything to do with the culture. John the Baptist called out King Herod and said the woman you're sleeping with is not your wife. You're committing adultery. And what, it cost him his head.

Literally, he was beheaded. But he wasn't afraid to speak the truth. And that was again, a man and woman marriage issue. And then what happens in Revelation?

Well, even, let me back up before Revelation, the picture of the bride, the church is the bride and Christ is the groom. The Bible starts with the man-woman marriage and ends with a a man-woman marriage or that picture, that analogy of Christ being the groom and the church being the bride. Nowhere in scripture, anywhere does it deviate from that. So the church responses.

When I'm talking about church, I'm talking about more of the organization, the Like your church, more of church with a capital C, not necessarily the individuals, and my encouragement is to keep a biblical worldview of marriage and with gender identity. What does that mean? You go by what God's word said. Now, in our culture, the Bible doesn't mean anything.

In law, and, it's kinda, I've learned on this along the way in policy with law, it doesn't matter what the Bible says, you have to have a policy that states this is what we believe. And I've given some information to your pastors here about that. we work with Alliance Defending Freedom. Oh, on a side note, I forgot to mention we're also work with, we're in association with Focus on the Family.

I'm sure you're all familiar with that organization. We're their policy group for the state of California and, Family Research Council, which is in Washington DC and they deal with national policy issues as we deal with at the state level. Church, corporate, the truth, but love to homosexuals, LLBTQ community. what does that mean?

Jesus was a great role model of this. And what did Jesus do? He loved the sinners, but also called them out on their sin, but he did it in grace and truth. And I think that's important if we do that to those struggling with same-sex attraction, but also as Carlos said, although I'm focusing on homosexuality today, I don't know what all your sin issues are, but I hope you're all treated equally with that.

And I do say, I have some people say, well why is it so different? Well, scripture talks about that. It's not biologically natural for two men to unite or two women to unite. And sometimes people feel a little uncomfortable and say, oh, the sin issue might be treated a little bit differently.

Yeah, not even talking from a biblical worldview, just from science, which science was created by God, but just if you look at it from science or other areas of academic academia, it's not a natural, even anatomically, you're not created that way. So how can the in more ways the church can help. With me personally, men's group, it was important for me to get connected to a men's group, to participate in men's retreat. I needed healthy, healthy heterosexual male friendships and relationships.

But also it's like, well, OK, you put someone struggling with same-sex attraction with another man in a room if you're in a hotel or wherever, what? You do a rule of three. You put 3 people in a room or you, and you, and, and you help teach and instruct and walk with, those dealing with same-sex attraction and then bring them into activities. that little baseball thing I told her, earlier.

Oh, I must have, I don't know what's happening. I'm not touching anything. Maybe I, let's see, let's go back. Here we go.

OK. So I mentioned a little bit about bisexual, transgender, bisexual issues. If someone's dealing with that, I always encourage the church to focus on their How they were born Male or female, and help bring them into the right relationship with What would be the opposite gender? And transgender, I've already mentioned that a little bit.

at the end of this, I've got some refer, you can refer to organizations and counseling very much. I'd really encourage that because these issues I think are a little bit more complicated than some other sin issues. And the most important thing I think is possible to keep in your mind that change is possible. And this is, our, we just celebrated 6 years of marriage.

that was back in July. I'm like, I'm almost wearing the same thing but not quite. And then, my shirt's different. Anyway.

and then that's a lie a couple of weeks ago. Amanda's a semi-professional musician. She's playing oboe and, daddy had to get her ready for church. So anyway, I was like all proud of myself.

I'm like, OK, the pigtails are a little screwed up, but anyway, I did my best. I'm like, babe, how do you do this stuff? Anyway, that's why she's a mommy and I'm the daddy. Christian response, what can we do?

How can we be like Jesus in grace and truth? I mentioned that already as a church, but the woman caught at the well, the woman at the well. Got called out. She's adultery like 5 times, and Jesus said, Go and sin no more.

The woman that was in the act of adultery and got thrown out. In front of the religious leaders. And Jesus goes and starts writing in the sand. why she got thrown to the ground that she's gonna get stoned.

That was a sto an offense punishable by stoning. And I bet you she might have even been naked cause they got her in the act and threw her out there. And Jesus started writing in the sand. Now scripture, the text doesn't say what he was writing.

I tend to believe he was right in the sins of the accusers that were gonna start throwing rocks. And what happened? They all dropped their rocks, and they left, and Jesus told her, where are your accusers? Go and say no more.

And it's like, how do we have that heart like that to continue to, to be grace and truth just like Jesus. truth and love to homosexuals, it's the second time I mentioned that because it's that important. Love needs to be there. It's not all about love.

You've got to have truth with that and there's consequences to sin and other issues, but we as individuals really need to be truth bearers. And that also means if you are on a board, if you're in a leadership position in the pub public sector or private sector or church, nonprofit, be bold and courageous, have moral courage and stand up for what's right. A Christian friend of mine is on a board on a national board, and she goes, well, this topic came up and I didn't say anything.

And I just, I was shocked.

I was really shocked and I need to actually, I'm confessing this to you. I need to go back to and and talk to her about that because I believe we have to hold one another accountable. That I think that's really the wrong approach to sit and be silent, but that we do need to take a stand. continue to keep and develop relationships.

those in the community need to know the love of Christ, and if you don't develop or, or, or friends with them, then how are they ever gonna know the truth? When I was in the lifestyle, I had friends that would not come visit me. Two friends that lived in Oregon, drove down and visited me. That was the only Christ I saw when I was in the lifestyle during those three years.

The only two. I had a friend say, you're not welcome to stay in our home. I was by myself. You can't stay with us.

You can't do this. We can't have anything to do with you. I'm like, OK, wow. And these are Christians But my two Christian friends that were in Oregon, they visited me and what, when I came back to the Lord, guess who I called?

The person that said that they wanted nothing to do with me? No. I called my friends in Oregon and said, Hey, look, I'm still a homosexual. But what I was doing is I was crying out to them, you better start praying for me because God's doing a moving work and I told them what had happened.

And look where I am today, praise the Lord. Healthy masculinity. I'm focusing on that. Girls, this is to you and you can probably do the converse with, women, but we'll look at it from my perspective.

You, you may have a gay friend that loves to shop and it can, great clothing advice and all that, but you wanna know what? That doesn't help his brokenness. It feeds into it and supports it. Be a truth bearer.

It might be fun to have a gay friend and do all this, and he can give you great clothing advice and all that, but that doesn't, it'd be better to say, maybe you have some guy friends you could share that you've got a gay friend that they need to, would you be willing to come love on this guy, invite him and incorporate him and teach him the love of Christ, what healthy masculinity looks like. Christian response, same-sex attraction in the lifestyle, they're dramatically different and I share that is ask someone, are you just struggling with your sexual?

Is this a temptation or are you actively participating in that and don't be afraid to ask that. Are you struggling with what, with your sexual attraction or are you in the lifestyle because you're gonna want to respond differently.

Also that someone at the church and or someone in leadership, it's, you wanna see where their heart's at and determine that and seek counsel where to go next. I, Actually, I, because of time, I might, I don't know if I got time to show this little video promo, but I think I can do it pretty quickly. Yeah, I can do it. I'm gonna show you this video.

I'll show, it's a free app. I'll put that screen up in a minute. It was a promo we did, but this app has other stories. It's got a brief, talk of myself, two other men, a young man, a millennial that is dealing with same-sex attraction, one that is, I've been struggling for almost his entire life, came to know the Lord, and he's part of my story as well.

God sent him when I had no money, and remember that $5 that first day I found on the sidewalk and I went to Denny's. that's where I went to Denny's. The next day, he, this, the guy, the older man, the, the hair stylist in here, he showed up the next day and I'm like, again, I have no money. What am I gonna do?

He shows up and took me and paid, bought, and bought my breakfast for the next morning and how God kept doing miracles, but this is just a couple of stories and the app has more stories like this, you have stories of a former lesbian and talking points in greater detail if you choose to want to get some more secular talking points as well as biblical. But we call this ripple effects. Many different Who we think we are. No one told me.

I woke up. No Never thought I could be vulnerable. And yet so we see a lot. You've done it for so long now.

What I want The world says that you, if you have these attractions that you have to pursue them and make it your lifestyle, make it your identity, but your identity is first and foremost in Christ and not in the world and not in your what you feel, but in who God has made you to be and he's made you. It's been about 14 years you told me. I just encourage all the broken men out there that are broken. I got his knees broken.

But now alive. I'm still alive. Amen. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be not only a real man, but a husband and a father to my wife and my child.

And the world says that's not possible. Me and my family, we're here to say it is for anyone. So there's a bunch of us out there and Richard, I'm just gonna say he shouldn't be alive today. You'll have to watch his story if you want to see that online, but God does incredible work, so I was really wanted to have a former lesbian on there, but the timing didn't work.

Family response. Parents, I think it's very dramatic and difficult to hear if your son or daughter tells you they're LLBT. it's really dramatic. and I, I, I'll, I've, I'll have a, a, at the end also, places you can go for help, as well.

siblings, you wanna come along. I actually think my parents knew from when I was struggling with it in, in high school. I had told them, my youth pastor recommended that I share it with them. It was pretty, that was a difficult conversation.

My sister freaked out and cried on the phone. I was in, she was in a, I was in another state, I think at the time or another area. extended family, it has an, it, it really impacts the whole family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and holidays and partners and it's really, I don't, I'll talk about that if you've got a GLBT family member and they're saying, hey, that's a per case by per case basis, there's no easy answer, but I would recommend seeking counsel from your pastor, from others, and, what I will say, cause I don't like to tell people what to do.

that you really need to seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit, read the word with your, with your spouse and, but with what I loved about my parents, they maintained very strict boundaries and they told me that my partner was not allowed to come to events and things because, that was what, that was the boundary.

Now I ranted and raved. I said, how dare you call yourself Christians and how, and I, I would just literally had to walk on eggshells around me cause I was so volatile. And part of that was looking back, I'm so grateful that they had those boundaries. So when I did come back to the Lord, when God called me back, I had a safe home and a family environment to go to and I knew what was right and wrong.

Where I've had other families that haven't done that and I'm, and I'm not saying that's gonna make your LLBT individual come back like where I have or get married or all that. I'm not prescribing that, but I just think healthy boundaries of what's right and, and, and wrong is really appropriate. So I asked this this real-life question, trend on the transgender issue. is it Bruce or Caitlyn?

because it's become such a, I'd say national thing, any response? do we call him Bruce or do we call her Caitlyn? OK, you're maybe one or two Caitlyn's recipe, Bruce, absolutely Bruce. Now, if he's, if you're like in a relationship and they can't get past that, love them where they're at.

But because it's such a national thing, it's just I'm I'm gonna speak truth to the culture because it's a macro issue and we're not dealing with the individual, but on the micro, it's OK if that's what they believe, you want to help them realize what their healthy natural identity is. So what I also wanted to, have this other real life question. I know we won't have a lot of time for Q and A, but oh, I went too far. So let me do this again.

So if you owned a printing company, would you print porn? I heard one no. So what a printing company does? You print magazines, you do that.

If you owned a printing company, if someone came to you and said, you own this company, I want you to print porn. And you said as a business owner, I refuse to print porn. Not only is it immoral, it's debauchery, it's wrong, it contributes to human trafficking and I am morally, completely opposed to that. That's a whole another great talk.

Sean McGow does some pornography and the connections and things with human trafficking. And how that industry supports that. So you're gonna stand up what's morally right and say, no, we won't print it. So should you get sued?

And to be fined because there's companies around the United States that say I won't, as a pastor, I will not perform a gay wedding. But that's not who they're coming after right now. They're coming after photographers, bakers, florists, individuals, companies, and targeting. Chick fil A can't even go into Denver International Airport.

Why? Because their CEO said We, we believe in men and women marriage. So now wait a minute, what's the difference? It's, there's sin issues, but yet it's accepted in the culture and here's another thing if you haven't thought about, would you attend a gay wedding?

And this makes for great, great fodder and discussion. I'm not gonna give you an answer on that. But I'm gonna share what I've heard people share, what they would do. Some say yes.

OK, do you want to support, this is what we call a holy matrimony, that's really between God and them and the two becoming one flesh. I'm not sure how you can connect with that, but OK. Then, some say I won't go to the wedding, but I'll go to the reception. as a potential option to do that.

I'm running out of time, so I'm gonna wrap up with some resources for you. DesertStream Ministries.org. I went through their program. It's global.

They're in almost probably I'd say at least in all the counties here in Southern California. So if you are struggling with same-sex attraction or know someone that wants to change, you can, check out their ministry. They have a ministry called Cross Current. It's a 2-month program and Living Waters, which is 30 weeks.

Coming Outgain.com is out of Calvary Chapel. Costa Mesa, if you, that's for same-sex attraction. Livingston's Ministry.org is a ministry primarily for parents but family members or loved ones who are in the lifestyle and they'd like a support group. They're based in, here in Southern California.

A great, material also to go through is Steps to Freedom in Christ, which is at FICM.org ministries. some of my information. you can, my video and audio testimonies and some different more in-depth, if you want to hear that are available on my website, Jim Doman.com. California Family.org is the organization that I work for.

I wanted to share as I'm wrapping up here on the back table in the back, I said we're in association with Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family puts out a magazine called Citizen. You're welcome to grab that. I raised my own support.

So if you feel called or you would like to support my ministry or be a part of that, there's a card you can fill out. You can give that to me or my wife. We have a little prayer magnet if you wanna think of us and pray, for what's going on in the culture and things, you can, come to the back table and do that and hopefully the, petition made its way around and. thank you for having me here today, and I think I'm gonna let you close in prayer, but my name is Jim Doman, and I want the world to know I live for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Thank you.