At the end of the service, in which the Gospel was proclaimed and confession of sins and turning to Christ was urged, a late-thirties lady named Paula moved forward to speak to one of the ministers. “I know I have sin in my life, and I now understand that God wants to forgive me. I want to give Christ control of my life from this day forward.” “That is wonderful,” said the pastor, “let’s pray together about your decision,” and they did. They met later in the week to begin a process of discipleship. In their first meeting, Paula says to the pastor, “I want my life to be clean before God, but it is complicated. Before I was Paula, I was Paul. I married young, as a man, and fathered two children. I left my wife, had a sex-change operation, became Paula, moved to this city, and am now in a relationship with a man. My children do not know where I am nor what has happened to me, my current boyfriend is unaware of my past, and none of my current friends know I used to be a man. Where do I begin, pastor? What do I do to be clean before God?”
You are the minister. How do you think through this conundrum? Since this class is not a counseling class, try to not think so much about how you would help Paul/Paula; rather think through the issues in his/her life from an ethical standpoint so that you will be grounded in your approach to helping her. Right and wrong answers are not the point here so much as processing ethical issues related to homosexuality.
