Ex-Homosexual Speaker's Campus Visit Draws Hecklers, Critical Press
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
October 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - A former homosexual turned Baptist minister recently spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. There, he told students that although having same-sex attractions is not a choice, acting on those feelings by engaging in homosexual behavior is; but freedom from homosexuality is available through Jesus Christ.
Ex-homosexual Tim Wilkins was invited by the Apologetics Association to speak on the campus of UW-Milwaukee to offer a Christian response to the issue of homosexuality. His speech was repeatedly interrupted by cell phone noise and audience comments as well as a fight, which he believes was intentionally staged.
Wilkins, who heads North Carolina-based Cross Ministry told students that, when he was in junior high school, the thought of heterosexuality was physically nauseating to him. "I did not choose to be attracted to the same sex," he noted. "One of life's mysteries is we don't get to choose what we're tempted by. But I did consciously choose at some point in time to give in to those same-sex attractions."
That, according to the Christian speaker, is "where the differentiation must be made" between homosexual orientation and behavior. While same-sex attraction may be involuntary, he insists that homosexual behavior can be resisted -- and that same-sex attraction can be overcome through obedience to biblical commands and steadfast pursuit of a relationship with Jesus.
However, Wilkins does not claim all those struggling with homosexual sin who give their hearts to Christ will necessarily find freedom overnight. Although he became a Christian at age nine, he says homosexual activity continued into his early twenties, up until he reached a turning point.
At that time, Wilkins says, "I decided that although I honestly did not know how to become heterosexual, I did know how to be obedient."
A Gradual Process of Re-Orientation
Cross Ministry's founder says his own same-sex attractions continued, though to a lesser degree, throughout his young adult, college and seminary years, but he remained steadfast in refusing to give in and committed himself to prayer, scriptural study, and pursuing the heart of Christ. He advises homosexuals who find themselves unable to make the conversion to heterosexuality to do what he did -- that is, to remain celibate and seek a relationship with Jesus.
After a number of years, the former homosexual minister says he found healing and deliverance, experiencing what he called "dramatic, ecstatic and romantic" heterosexual attraction for the first time in his life. Today he is happily married to a supportive Christian woman, and he and his wife have three children.
Wilkins says although some students displayed disrespect and rudeness during his talk at UW-Milwaukee, the vast majority in attendance responded to his presentation in a positive manner. However, he is somewhat upset with what he feels was biased coverage of the event by a campus student newspaper.
An article in the UWM Post accused the Christian speaker of being "unable to produce much that could be verified" other than "second-hand accounts of stories involving homosexuals." But he contends that he made some 2 to 15 specific citations to back up statements in his speech.
"I've learned long ago that if you're speaking on a university campus, it is insufficient to simply say 'Someone said' or 'This periodical said,'" Wilkins points out. "So, specifically, at this event I stated the title of the book or the magazine, stated the date that it was published, the author of the publication, the page number of the publication."
Also, Wilkins asserts that the title of the UWM Post article attacking his presentation appears to have been plagiarized from the Arizona Daily Star.
