Can people change their sexual orientations? Should the church require gay and lesbian Christians to try to change their orientations in order to be ordained?
Nancy J. Ramsay
In The Spirit and the Forms of Love, Daniel Day Williams suggested that “love has communion in freedom as its goal.” Sexual orientation refers to the way women and men self-identify in our sexual attraction to others. But it is more than a matter of preferred sexual partners. Sexual orientation is part of persons’ core identity. It shapes the ways we seek to satisfy deep God-given needs for communion and intimacy – sexual, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Sexual orientation is not simply sexual behavior. Persons who self-identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual in their sexual orientation are not simply naming preferences for sexual partners. Rather, many would say sexual orientation refers to a more encompassing aspect of a person’s being in the world...
