Whatever we worship shapes our identity. It could be sexuality, vocation, family, or gender. Whatever it might be, we were made to cleave to God for identity and meaning.

exchanging the image of God for another image in anything we do (as expressed in male-male and female-female pairing, as Paul outlined in Romans 1) represents a rejection of God himself.

Very few same-sex-attracted or gay people report that when they become Christians, their desires simply disappear. Rather, as in my story, many find that God gives them a special empowering grace to be celibate.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

The reality is, Jesus’ call of discipleship is a claim on all of our lives.

To be attracted to the same sex is not a voluntary behavior, as many have incorrectly argued. Instead it is a result of the creation-wide effects of sin.

The God revealed in Jesus Christ is the definition of love.

If Jesus was celibate and the ultimate example of human flourishing for all of us, gay or straight, then isn’t it clear that celibacy is not an inhumane sentence for gay people like me but actually a legitimate, and even honorable, choice?

God, not marriage, was to be our ultimate desire.