Ray Boltz and Homosexuality

Note: Posted by Farrah

Several years ago, we bought some albums by Ray Boltz. Though he wasn't our favorite, we thought several of his songs were really wonderful. He hasn't made any new albums in many years, and I thought perhaps the Lord had called him into other things. Perhaps touring in another country, spreading the gospel, similar to David Meece. Until I stumbled across the following article copied and pasted onto a Christian's blog:

Gospel singer Ray Boltz - who has sold about 4.5 million LPs, cassettes and CDs - has come out of the closet publicly in an interview with Washington Blade.

The formerly married singer, who has four children, came out to his family and friends several years ago. While sitting around the kitchen table at his daughter’s house in December 2004 - the same day as the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean - Boltz’s son, Philip, asked him what was wrong.

“I thought, ‘Well, I can just do what I always do and hide the truth or I can take a risk and be honest,’” Boltz says. “That day, with the tsunami, has become very symbolic in our family.”

Nobody was sure, at the time, what the ramifications of the revelation would be, least of all Ray.

“It’s hard to say I came out because I didn’t have all the answers. I just admitted what I was struggling with and what I was feeling. It’s hard to go, ‘This is the point where I accepted my sexuality and who I was,’ but I came out to them and shared with them what I’d been going through.”

Continuing to pretend, Boltz says, was no longer an option.

“I’d denied it ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, ‘Just end this.’”

His family’s reaction took time.

“I don’t want to downplay it like it was just, ‘Oh, well that’s OK.’ It was a very tough time for them too, but the bottom line was they loved me and they still love me … it’s been an amazing journey of acceptance on their part … I was offered support and love from each member of my family, including my wife.”

I was very sad to discover this, and we had to throw away his CDs. Until we know he has come back to Jesus, we will not enjoy his music. On the brighter side, there was a comment left by a lady that really touched and encouraged me:

There is no sin that is not common to our flesh. In our flesh lies no good thing. We are all potential homosexuals, murderers, etc. One drop of blood from Jesus washes away a multitude of sin. I was saved at 13. I saw and recognized the horror and depth and vileness of sin within me though I barely had committed any known “labeled” sin in my loving Christian family life…..at least not at that time in my life. When my womanizing husband left me and I was thrown into a partying lifestyle, it didn’t take long for people to no longer recognize the person I had become. So I “came out” proclaiming I was no longer a Christian. Not that I had homosexual tendencies but that I was validating that “I no longer have to live a nice Christian walk, attending Church and living celibate. That proclamation I thought gave me freedom to join the world doing the same as I was. There was pleasure in that partying lifestyle…”for a season” but I did come to an end of myself.

I would like to say that I reached out to Jesus but I didn’t. HE REACHED DOWN IN MY DESPAIR AT THE POINT OF SUICIDE, WANTING TO DIE, BELIEVING THAT I DESERVED HELL…and literally told me to be still and let HIM love me. He spoke to my heart and told me that He would take away everything that did not please Him and make it easy for me to walk with Him. He only required one thing of me and that was “that no matter how unworthy I deemed myself, that I would consider that He is a God worthy of praise, and that I would promise to “Get up anyway, go on anyway, and praise Him anyway.”

So whatever the sin, whatever the trouble, I will go on! He is constantly bringing up things in our lives causing us to recognize those fleshly “tendencies” within ourselves until we can look to Him, and say, “Ah Lord, I never want to do that again”. If the “tendencies” are stronger than we can conquer sometimes only Jesus can come into that place in our hearts and work righteousness. It is a precious repentant heart that is pure before Him.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Let us pray that Ray is brought into a “testimony”…a story of victory. This is a battle I am glad I haven’t been called to conquer. With all our prayers of love and compassion let us pray for our brother that God deliver him from these ungodly desires that he obviously so far has not found victory over.

I have a cousin that “came out” to his family, wife, and four grown daughters. After the divorce and living the lifestyle for 5 years, one day God got hold of his heart, led him to an unknown church where he walked in and saw his wife with the whole congregation praying over her and him. He says after a lifetime of believing he was gay, God gave him something he never really had experienced ...”a physical desire and attraction for the opposite sex of which his wife was the ultimate desire of his “body”." She was already a part of his soul which had never left him.

Years later he tried to convey to his own nephew his testimony. That nephew told me that he wanted to believe him and prayed so hard, and tried so hard to just not live the lifestyle but the attraction for men instead of women was always there. After several years of “praying…trying” he gave in and began living with this older man. Within 2 years this handsome, precious, loving, nephew died a horrible, lonely, death of aids he got from that man.

Let us pray for Ray Boltz and his family.

Jesus, Our King

While leaving a comment on GGM's blog, I was reminded of something I received from the Lord, a couple years ago. I had it posted on our original website, so instead of typing it all over again, I'm presenting it here, with some edits. Enjoy!

Since before He created man, God has desired to be our king. But in the waning years of Samuel, Israel's last judge, the people demanded that he appoint them an earthly king. They saw how nations around them were governed, and so they wanted the same for themselves. They wanted to be more like other nations! (Does this sound familiar?)

This greatly displeased God. Not only did He want them to set themselves apart from their neighboring idolators, but He Himself wanted to be their King. He warned them, through Samuel, that in desiring a man for king, they were rejecting God, and that their new king would lead them to suffering, ruin, and disaster. But the people did not listen.

Even though it was God who chose Saul for their king, from that day forward, the nation of Israel was essentially divided. No longer did the people have One Leader, but two. There were those who continued to trust in God, to whom it probably did not matter who wore the earthly crown; and there were those who rebelled against the Lord and chose to put their trust in their new king, and him alone.

The Bible chronicles the ups and downs that the nation of Israel went through, under their various rulers. There were some kings that truly loved God, but most of them turned their backs to Him, inviting God's wrath and a nearly uninterrupted string of invasions by Israel's enemies.

But God never gave up on His people. He had promised them that an heir would arise, from the lineage of King David (Israel's 2nd king, and arguably their greatest, though not without flaws), who would establish an eternal Kingdom and rule over it forever. Now clearly, that would be impossible for a mere man to do, since men are mortal. But God had a different plan. A perfect plan.

He eventually sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our King. Born of a virgin, Jesus was at the same time, fully God and fully man, of the lineage of King David. Because of His unique nature, Jesus re-unified God's people under a single King. The two kingdoms became one, because Jesus is heir to both!

Jesus, the Son of God and the heir to the throne of David, came to re-unite God with His own people. Through Jesus, God brought the long rebellious line of kings back under Himself and re-established Himself as the One and Only King of His people. All we have to do is individually accept Jesus as our personal Lord, Savior, and King.

Two thousand years later, we live in a country that was unquestionably founded on God's Word. Most of our nation's founders were devout believers, who relied heavily on God's principles, in creating the government and laws of our land. But as God blessed us with bounty, success, and power, people relied less and less on Him, and more and more on themselves and their elected leaders. Morality became subject to the fad du jour. Acts and beliefs that were once reprehensible (by God and man) are now condoned and even encouraged. Our justice system now relies more on the letter of the Constitution than the intent of its designers. We're even looking at other countries, to assist in court rulings! We are barrelling headlong down a slippery slope of no return!

The only way back is to return to the Lord, individually and as a nation. We each need to repent of our sins and surrender our will to Jesus Christ, Our Savior and King. We need to rely on the unwavering truth of God's Word: the Bible. Only then will He again bless our nation and defeat our enemies, both outside and within.

In the News

U.S. Elections

Yes, we all know how that turned out. I was reading an article on CNN today, that tried to explain why the win seemed so lop-sided. While the statistics are not yet fully analyzed, the percent turnout was much higher among Democrats than Republicans. This means that while Obama's supporters were energized to vote, many more of his detractors (not all of them actually supported McCain) stayed home.

But here's something very interesting, that should give us all hope. As you can see from the map above, both Florida and California sided with Obama. However, both states also voted to ban gay "marriage". In California, voters were almost 2:1 for Obama, yet a decisive majority were for the ban! Furthermore, while Floridians narrowly favored Obama, around a 2:1 majority were for banning gay "marriage"! In fact, all four gay "marriage" bans passed, which is encouraging news to me that there is still a strong air of conservative values, across our country.

For the past couple elections, I noted a very interesting statistic that most (if not all) of the urban centers lean Left (some overwhelmingly so), while less populated areas lean to the Right. This split is particularly obvious in our own Washington state. It seems something happens when you cross the Cascades! Maybe it's the thinner air or reduced humidity. Someone should totally do a study on that!