{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.017879948914431672, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.222222222222222, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 1, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
‘Love Does Not Delight in Evil, but Rejoices With the Truth.’ A Theological and Pastoral Reflection On My Journey Away From A Homosexual Identity

Abstract This article offers theological reflection on the author’s experience, initially as a celibate gay person and subsequently as someone who has chosen not to be defined as gay and who has married. It argues that faithfulness to the classic Christian teaching about sex and marriage is liberating rather than homophobic, and that the contemporary cultural tendency to conflate sexual desire with identity bears at least some of the blame for the gay experience of marginalisation. This conflation must be questioned. The article concludes by relating this to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s critique of anthropocentric construals of ‘love’.