Thursday, April 27 is the second annual Day of Truth at schools around the nation. Day of Truth is sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective. Last year, more than 1,100 students at more than 350 schools participated. This year, at least twice as many students will take part in the Day of Truth.

Participating students will wear Day of Truth t-shirts and pass out cards with the following message:

I am speaking the Truth to break the silence. Silence isn’t freedom. It’s a constraint. Truth tolerates open discussion, because the truth emerges when healthy discourse is allowed. By proclaiming the Truth in love, hurts will be halted, hearts will be healed, and lives will be saved.

In the past, students who have attempted to speak against the promotion of the homosexual agenda have been censored or, in some cases, punished for their beliefs. It is important that students stand up for their First Amendment right to hear and speak the Truth about human sexuality in order to protect that freedom for future generations. The Day of Truth provides an opportunity to publicly exercise free speech rights. ADF defends the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding and litigation.

The Day of Silence is a national program of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educational Network (GLSEN), which asks students to remain silent for an entire day to express their support for the promotion of the homosexual agenda in the public schools. Unlike the Day of Silence, the Day of Truth does not encourage students to engage in activities that are likely to disrupt the school’s academic mission.

The Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, reports that an Illinois parent who helped students organize last year said that the small group of eight students “looked like deer in headlights” when she first shared the idea of Day of Truth. The high school is located in a very liberal area and none of the participating students were strong leaders.

This parent visited the school on the Day of Truth last year, to check on the students.

A group of 5 kids came toward me with the biggest smiles. The joy that comes from obedience could be seen on their faces. They said they were okay. Later in the day, one boy was shoved and another girl was bumped on the stairs. Their posters were defaced and torn down but the kids were not discouraged. They had broken through a huge barrier and God honored their courage.

Last Thursday, these students participated again (they Day of Truth was held earlier at this school, as was the Day of Silence). As the Day of Truth drew near, the principal mandated that the teachers meet in small groups to discuss diversity and prepare for Day of Truth. Christian parents wrote letters to the editor in the local newspaper about the school promoting homosexuality in the curriculum. Needless to say, tensions were high.

An ADF staff member traveled to Illinois to record her impressions of the day. Following is her account:

I had to share something with all of you that I hope will give you a glimpse of what can happen when students in public schools hear and speak the Truth.

This week I have been covering the events of an early Day of Truth event in a Chicago suburb. This is the second year a small but mighty band of students and their courageous parents have participated in the Day of Truth. The numbers are not final but it looks like almost 100 students wore their t-shirts, passed out Truth cards and spoke the Truth in love to some of their fellow students involved in homosexual behavior.

What is also truly remarkable is that, despite the climate of fear and animosity that had proceeded the event, the perception of all of the students I interviewed after the event (homosexual and heterosexual) was that the day was characterized by civility and acted as a catalyst for opening a meaningful dialogue about the Biblical view of homosexuality. Many of the homosexual students even adopted some of the Day of Truth messaging.

At the end of the school day, more than 100 students and facility gathered to hear Stephen Bennett speak. Approximately 40 students who are members of the high school's Straight and Gay Association not only attended their school-sponsored secular version of Stephen Bennett's presentation on his exit from the homosexual lifestyle but also returned to hear his Christian witness at a public library a mere three hours later. Some of them told me that they knew something important was missing in the secular account and wanted to know what had moved Stephen away from homosexuality. They listened intently, asked important questions, and most stayed after the presentation was over to collect Stephen's tracts. And one 17-year-old girl who professes to be bisexual accepted an invitation to attend the Day of Truth Celebration Party.

They Day of Truth students were given the confidence to speak the Truth in love at their school today because they have loving families that encourage them to be bold in their faith -- and because ADF “has their backs.” They asked me to tell you thanks for all you do.

The Day of Truth did encounter some ugly reactions last year, however, and participating students need to be encouraged and commended for standing on truth. Students participating have been harassed and physically abused. Some students had their legal rights denied. If a principal, teacher, or someone else in authority challenges students, they are instructed to graciously request that the school employee check with a supervisor first. If they continue to insist that students stop, students are to stop immediately and encouraged to call 1-800-TELL-ADF so that ADF’s attorneys can help resolve the situation quickly. Or students can e-mail ADF at info@dayoftruth.org.

The Truth about Homosexuality

ADF has posted on the Internet the following facts about homosexuality:

1. Are people born homosexual?

There is much controversy whether biology plays any role in our sexual orientation. The claim that there is a homosexual gene, however, is false. Several studies have been done by people trying to find a genetic or biological cause for homosexual behavior, but none of them has been conclusive.

Simon LeVay did one of the most famous studies. He hypothesized that the hypothalamus—a part of the brain which is typically smaller in women than in men—would be smaller in homosexual men than in straight men. While he found that this was sometimes the case, he did not find that it was always true. There’s also a strong possibility that changes in brain structure might have happened because of repetitive homosexual behavior and weren’t the cause of it. His control group—who were all supposedly heterosexuals—is also in question because most of them had died of AIDS.

The Bailey-Pillard study on homosexual twins showed that when one identical twin was homosexual, the other was also homosexual only 52 percent of the time. If homosexuality was genetic, then identical twins would both be homosexual or straight, never mixed.

They also found that other non-identical twins also had a high rate of shared homosexuality. This points not to a biological factor (which non-identical twins would not share), but to environmental factors which are often very similar for any pair of twins growing up.

2. What causes homosexuality?

A person can develop a homosexual orientation from any number of factors. It is important to recognize that the orientation (that is, the feelings and attractions) is not a choice. But in our years of ministry and research, Exodus International – a ministry which helps people seek healing from the entrapment of homosexual behavior - has seen some common threads in the lives of men and women who struggle with same-sex desires.

First and foremost is the deficiency of same-sex love in the person’s background. Many who practice homosexual behaviors will tell you how they ‘felt different’ from their same-sex peers from a very young age. When they experience homosexual attractions later, they naturally re-interpret the past to mean that they had always been homosexual. We believe, however, that homosexual attraction is the result of a leftover, unmet need to bond with one’s same-sex parent and peers continuing into adulthood. Boys and girls who experience these needs being met in their pre-pubescent years do not develop homosexual feelings, but those who do often recall a constant longing for attention and affection from the same sex since they were very small.

3. Is 10 percent of the population really homosexual?

No. This false statistic is a misrepresentation of one of the claims of Alfred Kinsey. It’s not even what Kinsey claimed. He actually said in his report: “10 percent of males are more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55”. What they don’t tell you is that Kinsey reported only 4 percent of men were exclusively homosexual throughout their lives.

Furthermore, Kinsey’s sample was not accurately representative of the American public. 25 percent of the men in his sample were convicted criminals who, at the time, made up less than 1 percent of the population as a whole.

A more recent study known as the National Health and Social Life Survey conducted by the University of Chicago and the State University of New York at Stony Brook found that only 2.8 percent of men and 1.4 percent of women in their sample considered themselves either homosexual or bisexual.

4. Can homosexuals change?

Yes. Advocates of homosexual behaviors will often tout the fact that the APA removed homosexuality from its list of disorders. But Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, who was part of that decision, has done some research that has changed his mind. “Contrary to conventional wisdom,” Spitzer said, “some highly motivated individuals, using a variety of change efforts, can make substantial change in multiple indicators of sexual orientation and achieve good heterosexual functioning.”

Dr. Jeffrey Satinover reported a 52 percent success rate in the treatment of unwanted homosexual attraction. Masters and Johnson, famous sex researchers, reported a 65 percent success rate after a five-year follow up. Dr. Ruben Fine, director for the New York Center for Psychoanalytic Training, says, “It is paradoxical that even though politically active homosexual groups deny the possibility of change, all studies from Schrenck-Notzing have found positive effects . . . a considerable percentage of overt homosexuals became heterosexual.”

5. How can homosexuals change?

Exodus ministries work with individuals through counseling and also group support. The main focus is, of course, building a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and making him Lord over our lives. Healing of the wounds of the past is also a very important element in this journey.

When a person embraces a homosexual identity, they are basically being defined (however unconsciously) by the wounds of their past (absent/abusive parent, teasing and isolation from peers, etc.) We believe a more healthy approach is to confront those lies that we have believed since childhood and basically undo them by believing the truth. It is important for the struggler to dig deep and discover what it was in their past that convinced them they were defective as male or female.

It is also important for people leaving the homosexual lifestyle to address their legitimate, unmet needs for same-sex affection in a healthy manner. Whereas they are used to meeting their needs through sexual relations, they learn to have real relationships the way God intended. Surprisingly, same-sex affection is what they need most, though attaining it through the practice of homosexual behavior only adds to their pain and confusion by deviating from the intended design for our sexuality.

You can read personal stories by people who have found real change and freedom from homosexual behavior at our website, www.exodus.to.

6. Why shouldn’t we support same-sex “marriage” and
adoption?

Some believe that it would be okay to allow same-sex “marriage,” and this is based on the belief that homosexual relationships are equal to heterosexual ones. This is not true, and there are moral, social, and medical reasons why homosexual behavior should not be affirmed by the allowance of same-sex “marriage.”

In the Journal of Sex Research, more than 2,500 older homosexual males were surveyed and only 2.7 percent of them even claimed to have had sex with only one partner. The study also showed that 43 percent of the men had had more than 500 partners in their lifetime, and 28 percent had over 1,000. In Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in past and Present Times, M. Pollak found that “few homosexual relationships last longer than two years, with many men reporting hundreds of lifetime partners.”

The Centers for Disease Control have found that 60 percent of new cases of HIV infection are men who have had sex with men, and also that the number of homosexual men who admittedly neglect to use condoms is rising. Homosexual victims of AIDS, they found, had an average 1,100 sexual partners in their lifetimes. They estimated that 30 percent of 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead before they reach their thirtieth birthday.

In an article entitled “Intimate Violence in Lesbian Relationships,” Guat Yong Lie and Sabrina Gentlewarrier reported that out of 1099 lesbians who they surveyed, “more than half of the women reported that they had been abused by a female lover/partner.”

The Archives of General Psychiatry found that men and women practicing homosexual behavior were at much higher risk than heterosexuals for having emotional problems including suicidal thoughts, clinical depression and anxiety disorder, conduct disorder and nicotine dependence. A New Zealand study which followed over a thousand people from birth found that the 28 of these individuals who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual were significantly more likely to have had mental health problems than those who were heterosexual.

The simple truth is, homosexual relationships are not the same as heterosexual ones, and there is a mountain of evidence pointing to the fact that homosexual behavior is unhealthy. To support those practicing this behavior by granting them legal marriage status is not doing them a favor.