Profile August 12, 1991 Issue

"My struggle was primarily about my identity as God's child"

Homosexuality is a topic some may find difficult to talk about. But increasingly people of many faiths are searching for a compassionate and Biblically based response to the questions involved. In this interview, a woman shares some of the experiences that led her to seek healing through Christian Science. She offered to talk frankly about her experience because she felt that it might help others who are looking for spiritual strength and answers.

As a young girl, I was taught spiritual values early in the Christian Science Sunday School and was also taught by my parents to adhere to strict moral standards. However, as a young adult I became attracted to explicit novels and pictures in an almost addictive kind of way. I was also influenced by arguments that portray morality as old-fashioned and that excuse immoral acts, saying that various sexual practices merely represent "alternative lifestyles." Since I wasn't involved with anyone at that time, and expected to wait until marriage for a sexual relationship, I thought there was nothing wrong with this preoccupation with sensuality. I didn't realize my thought was being terribly dragged down.

How do you mean "dragged down"? Sensuality can have a hypnotic effect. What happens when you give in—when you keep indulging in it—is that you're letting your thought get into such a foggy state that the boundaries between right and wrong seem blurred. In this kind of mental state, people are misled into doing things that they'd never consent to when mentally clear.

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