Dana Wilson who asked a bible misquoting zealot if he had any idea what agape love really meant saying: Do you know what that means (agape)? I have spent my life feeling condemned by people who attack, condemn, and try to biblically pummel anyone who doesn't agree with their view. If you would spend your time sharing real agape love, the world you exist in would be a better place.

I can tell I wouldn't be able to approach you about me. You would spout off your so called understanding of the Bible, tell me to pray, have faith, stop sinning, be celibate, go to a straight doctor, and go to a retreat for learning how to be straight, or have demons cast out of me.

Well, I've tried all those things in my life and you know what? I'm still gay, I have been my whole life. Yet I am a born again Christian saved by the Blood of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am in a full time ministry, and I have lead dozens of people to Jesus every year. I share with them the real agape love of Jesus, see them accept Him into their lives. Then I get them into God's wonderful Word, and I let the Holy Spirit do His job.

Have any of you ever actually met a gay person? You run around with your little Pat Robertson ideas and rant and rave about how supposedly gay people have sex with five hundred partners in their life. You put initiatives on ballots in states limiting my rights and making second class citizens of people you've never even met.

I am gay. I don't consider myself a pervert. I don't have sex with children, and I don't do half the "acts" that Christians love talking about more than us, as gays. I've just spent three years unlearning to hate myself for what I am. I was so ashamed because I grew up in a society where it was taught that gays are just evil sick twisted child molesters.

I did not ask for this. And if two years ago you offered to take this away from me so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore, I would've so quickly accepted. I hated what I was so much, and I thought a about killing myself so may times. But now, this is who I am. My sexuality is something that helps to define who I am, and it a valid facet of my life, as your sexuality is of yours. You people have husbands and wives, and that is a part of who you are.

My sexuality -which was God-given- is as much a part of me as my eye color. If you hate that, then you hate me. You need to realize that, and stop deceiving yourself that gay people will buy into the silly distinction that so-called good Christians like to make in order to appease their own consciences.

As long as simply being gay is considered a sin, then we are bashed. Why do you group my sexual orientation along with adultery? I have been in a monogamous, loving relationship with my partner for then years. No, we cannot have children, but neither cam most couples past a certain age, or marriages in which one partner is infertile.

I used to work with the homosexuals in my church through a recovery program. Of course, I was not alone, but no matter who presided over this ministry, the results were the same: 0% success. Our sister church had the same results. We were in contact with numerous other churches, all with a 0% rate of success.

Having said that, I must admit that we had partial victories...One of our most promising individuals went for nearly 7 months without a "temptation". And we do have several individuals who have agreed to remain celibate and not act our their feelings. But we do not consider these true conversions (only guilt ridden), for they are still attracted to their own sex.

And unfortunately, there are those who cannot handle their extreme guilt and take their own lives. This is why I left that particular ministry, for I did not want to be responsible for the immense guilt that is laid upon these poor people by the Church.

I am a single, 43 year-old, committed Christian, and work full time for a Christian institution of mercy. And I am gay. I have no "gay agenda" except what the desires of my heart have always been: to find God's will for my life, to make sure I'm in the dead center of it, and to follow Jesus, no matter what. There are needs and desires I have. I have prayed, fasted, take frequent communion and confession but I still have the desire to be loved by another man.

Whether homosexuality is a genetic determination I don't know. But I can assure you it is not a choice. Who would choose this and bear the scorn and hatred of the rest of the world? Just consider the mathematical impracticality of homosexuality being a choice. Taking the Kinsey statistic of 10% homosexuality in the population, this means that if you're straight, you have a 45% of the population available to choose a mate from. If you're gay, only 5% is available. Who wants odds like that?

One day in Church the preacher began gay-bashing. "And these homosexuals coming out of the closet - that's not right." I whispered to my neighbor, "You mean that living in shame and fear and misery and secrecy and self-hatred is better, instead of bringing these issues out into the light where they can be honestly discussed?"

A couple of months ago a lady came to where I work and talked about gays having to give up their lifestyle. I thought, "Let me tell you about my gay lifestyle. I get up in the morning, I say my prayers, I eat breakfast. I lead a prayer service for the residents. I work on typesetting Christian materials. I preach, speak at retreats, and act as singer for special services at different churches. And I'm celibate. And sometimes 3:00 AM finds me awake and weeping from loneliness. What part of my gay lifestyle do you want me to give up?

Being gay does not have that much to do with sex. It has to do not with just who turns your head, but who turns your heart. You can stimulate yourself sexually, but there is no way to stimulate a hug.

Mary Griffith believed that if her teen son Bobby prayed hard enough he would become a heterosexual. Bobby prayed for years, fearing he would be punished by God for his homosexuality. He wrote in his diary: "Why did you do this to me God - am I going to hell?" At the age of 20 Bobby jumped off a highway overpass and into the path of a 18 wheeler.

In a letter to other gay people in the San Francisco Examiner, Mary Griffith wrote "I firmly believe that Bobby's suicide is the end result of homophobia and ignorance within most Protestant and Catholic churches and consequently within society, our public schools and our own family. Bobby was not drunk nor did he use drugs. Its just that we could never accept him for who he was - a gay person. We hoped God would heal him of being gay. According to God's word as we were led to understand it, Bobby had to repent or God would damn him to hell and eternal punishment. Blindly I accepted the idea that it is God's nature to torment and intimidate us. That I every accepted such depravity of God toward my son or any human being has caused me much remorse and shame. What a travesty of God's love for children to grow up believing themselves to be evil, with only a slight inclination toward goodness and that they will remain undeserving of God's love from birth to death. Looking back I realize how depraved it was to instill false guilt in an innocent child's conscience, causing a distorted image of life, God and self, leaving little if any feeling of personal worth. Had I viewed my son's life with a pure heart I would have recognized him as a tender spirit of God's." The above is quoted in an excellent book "Is it Choice?" by Eric Marcus. I'd encourage anyone to read this book before pointing the finger to judge homosexual behavior.