Forward in Christ (FIC), the official magazine of WELS, is finishing its three-part series on homosexuality with an article offering advice to those wanting to leave the gay lifestyle.

"We want the people in our churches to realize that if they or their friends or relatives are struggling with homosexuality that we're open and willing to listen to them because we want everybody to have peace with God," says Rev. Thomas Trapp, author of the final FIC article.

Trapp, the WELS campus pastor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for the past 30 years, holds a yearly Bible study on homosexuality and deals one on one with students struggling with homosexuality a few times a year.

He says that the topic of homosexuality has been a focal point on campus for years but that it is even more prevalent recently. He says that's because society no longer supports basic morality and the natural law. "One of the big lines is that homosexuality is something that you're born with, like being left-handed," says Trapp. "People are pushing it to become a physiological issue and not a moral one."

He says that he feels the even bigger issue is the erosion of truth. "There's no right or wrong. It's all relative," he says. "That concept is applied to all the different issues—sexuality, stealing, cheating, etc."

The answer? "Homosexuality and sex outside of marriage are symptomatic of another deeper problem, and that's one's relationship with God," says Trapp. "Because of one's sinful nature, we're all lonely and looking for love and need Jesus. That's where spiritual change occurs."

Read Trapp's article at www.wels.net/homosexuality. There you will also find links to the first two articles in the series—real-life stories from a man and a woman who have left the homosexual lifestyle.