One thing that bothers me about the homosexual lifestyle that no one talks about these days because it's not politically correct, and may soon be a crime, is the mental health aspect of it. I have friends who are licensed counselors who have told me that the removal of homosexuality from the DSM as a mental illness/disorder was done for purely political reasons. Everything I have read and observed about homosexuality causes me to agree although psychology is not my field of work. The Bible's prohibition against homosexual behavior is because of God's love for us. Again, it's not a popular opinion these days, but I have personally never encountered an incidence of homosexuality that did not arise from trauma caused by sexual, physical, mental, or emotional abuse. Never. If you start looking at the life of a homosexual, the pattern is that the brokenness of a trusted adult or authority figure in one's life resulted in trauma, producing further brokenness that leads to homosexual behavior in a certain percentage of the population. I think the term "conversion" therapy is inaccurate; instead, what counseling actually does for the individual who experiences unwanted homosexual ideation or behavior is healing for a wounded soul. A soul wounded by sin. Underneath all the pride (shame) is a heart hurt by innumerable and severe grievances. This is why God hates sin and explains why we also cannot tolerate sin. Sin always damages; sin is contrary to God's natural order (which man corrupted and introduced to the human race back in the Garden of Eden).

Some may yet come to find healing in Jesus Christ when even "marriage" does not satisfy the longing in the homosexual's heart. I think it would help us in our prayer lives to understand that much of the push for societal acceptance (beyond the spiritual/demonic reasons for the push to accept sin as normal) is because of the rate of mental illness in the homosexual community. Many people think the incidence of mental illness in homosexuals is because society doesn't accept them enough and so it stands to follow, according to their logic, that acceptance of same-sex marriage will decrease incidences of suicide, alcoholism, promiscuity, etc. In reality, because the prevailing/majority religion of our day, secular humanism, says there's no such thing as sin, it never occurs to them that these behaviors and illnesses exist because the homosexual lifestyle is sinful and is one produced out of sin and is therefore under the curse of sin (I want to make it clear that it's not God who brings this curse...it is solely because of evil...but God does not rescue us from our consequences, that is, we reap what we sow). Same-sex marriage will not heal the emotional wounds in the homosexual's heart because covering up one sin with another does nothing to quell the damage dealt to the heart inside. Sin cannot, will not, and has never healed sin. Only the blood of Jesus can do that.

Since sin leads to suffering, I wonder if we won't see just the opposite effect - an increase in the co-morbidity of mental illnesses associated with homosexuality. When that occurs, the heart of man will continue to ignore the real factor - SIN - and instead will go after those who preach and teach - TRUTH. For all of their outward pride, the inward shame still eats them alive, not to mention the sadness they experience caused by past hurts and "old" wounds that have never really healed and, therefore, are still fresh in their hearts and minds, wounds that have not scarred over, wounds that still bleed. We need to pray for these hurting people, speaking the truth in love; and, in this way, we have compassion on the LGBT crowd more than the apostate church who seeks to approve their sin (which is not up to them but rather is up to God who, by the way, never changes. Never believe the lie of the world and the apostate church that we are "homophobes" or hateful people. We know and have a love of the truth). Not all the wandering hearts in the LGBT community have been overtaken by evil, and are just as lost and confused as we once were. Still, many hearts will be hardened because the SCOTUS ruling validates an invalid lifestyle/union not blessed by God.

This ruling has ramifications for our brothers and sisters in Christ doing God's work to undo the damage caused by sin. They will eventually be told that they cannot offer or provide their services to homosexuals, even to people who experience unwanted same-sex attraction, lest their licenses be revoked.