What I eventually realized (through a lot of counseling) is that while God loves me, I could not feel it. I had a wall against feeling love, affirmation, and affection. It all stemmed from child abuse. Show me a man who struggles with SSA who has a loving relationship with his own biological father or with the significant men in his life when he was a kid, and I will show you a liar. It is no mere accident that well more than 95% of men struggling with SSA self-admit to awful relationships with their own dads. Indeed, the fathers of men struggling with SSA in turn also generally have terrible relationships with their fathers. <\/p>\n
Never once during my SSA struggles did I ever think that \u201cGod created me this way,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Metropolitan Kallistos<\/strong> may have bought<\/strong> into the biggest lie<\/strong> being perpetuated in the West \u2014 that SSA is biological, innate, and immutable. There is zero<\/strong> conclusive scientific evidence for this, but due to widespread propaganda<\/strong> and LGBT money (from the likes of Michael Huffington \u2014 the GOA should be ashamed associating with him!!), this lie is accepted as \u201cfact\u201d by a large majority of our population and even by unwitting church leaders. Then, they try to \u201cbe nice\u201d to those whom they assume were \u201cborn with immutable SSA,\u201d rather than address the real cause and really help these men.<\/p>\nNo, to unearth the real causes of SSA for many men means to come to terms with the fact that they were abused as children, often by those entrusted by God to care for them, and that hurts. It\u2019s painful and beyond painful. Lots of therapy and tears and grief and pain and more tears and grief and pain. It involves feeling the pain, which frankly is too much for many to handle I think. They certainly can\u2019t do it alone. So we\/they numb it with sexual acting out, with porn, with drugs, you name it.<\/p>\n
Christ heals. We know from Holy Week that He transforms sorrow into joy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But if you have a good therapist or priest who wants to help you feel what you need to feel and to heal \u2014 you know what happens? The pain leads to grief which leads to understanding and healing. Christ heals. We know from Holy Week that He transforms sorrow into joy. Christ gives many who struggle with SSA \u2014 who are not afraid of going down into the depths of the pit to feel their pain and meet Him there \u2014 he gives us that affection and attention that we\/they are craving. He is an endless fountain of affection, love, and joy for His children who seek Him with their whole heart. For a lot more detail on healing the deep, emotional causes of SSA, I highly recommend reading \u201cShame and Attachment Loss<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\nYou see, it\u2019s all ultimately about Christ. The young guy who was sexually abused by his uncle who is acting out sexually as a young man \u2014 he is really searching for Christ and for himself, yet he doesn\u2019t know it. He\u2019s numbing his pain but really needs to feel the pain of being alone and abused and helpless as a child, and to give that child the love he needed.<\/p>\n
Our Church is so afraid of touching this topic. And it shows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Our Church is so afraid<\/strong> of touching this topic. And it shows. We have Metropolitan Kallistos<\/strong> furthering the gay propaganda<\/strong> rather than challenging men to feel their pain, to cry, to grieve, to let themselves hurt, and then to meet Christ and to heal. Having been doing this for a while, my honest opinion is that it is too damn hard for most people and it brings up too much pain for them and they need help working through that pain yet they have no one to go there with them.<\/p>\nIn California, the state assembly is very, very close to making it ILLEGAL to proclaim that Christ can empower people not to engage in homosexual practice or not to identify as \u201cgay\u201d or \u201ctransgender\u201d because such behaviors and self-identities are morally wrong, or if you offer to engage or actually engage in efforts to persuade people of Christ\u2019s power to transform<\/strong> in this area. If any pastor does this, they will be in violation of California AB 2943, at least so long as your advertising or efforts involved in any way an exchange of money for goods or services.<\/p>\nWe have Metropolitan Kallistos furthering the gay propaganda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Consequently, selling religious or secular books (pamphlets, videos, audios, etc.), holding conferences, teaching courses in a college or seminary where tuition is paid, giving a speech at a paid venue, counseling people for a fee, or perhaps even posting online articles in a site that requires a paid subscription, in which it is asserted (in whole or part) that it is morally wrong for people to engage in homosexual practice or identify as \u201cgay\u201d or \u201ctransgender,\u201d all could be treated as a violation of California Assembly Bill 2943.<\/p>\n
We have learned on LGBTQ matters that what is exempted is not exempted for long and what is not exempted has no exemption. If you haven\u2019t figured this out by now, you haven\u2019t been paying attention. Only Promoting LGBT Behavior Is Allowed.<\/p>\n
![\"Orthodox](\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Christ_Heals_Orthodox_Man_01_573x346.jpg\")
by Anonymous Orthodox –