Anchored North, a Christian media company, is prepping to launch a new YouTube series, “Honest Discourse,” in which two speakers on opposite sides of an issue will debate one another.
Emily Thomes, who made headlines in 2017, when she shared her testimony of abandoning the lesbian lifestyle and embracing Christianity, shared Friday she will be taping an episode in Los Angeles this weekend in which she and her yet-to-be-disclosed ideological opponent will discuss sexual orientation, sin, family, and the meaning of love from a biblical perspective.
Thomes told Faithwire over the phone Friday it’s important to debate and discuss LGBTQ issues because there’s “so much confusion” today, between hateful groups like the Westboro Baptist Church members and those in the Christian community who purport to believe “sin doesn’t matter, you can live how you want.”
Having dealt with same-sex attraction in the past, Thomes, who is now married to a man with whom she has a young daughter, Dorothy, said it’s easier for her to discuss LGBTQ topics.
“I’m able to have compassion on these people; I know what it’s like to have bought into that and to have suppressed the truth so much,” she explained. “So it helps in that way.”
She went on to say she is encouraged “every week” by messages from parents whose children belong to the LGBTQ community. Many of them, Thomes said, tell her she’s shown them “Scripture is sufficient” and there is a way out.
What’s the purpose?
Asked if the idea of debating an opponent on issues related to sexuality makes her uncomfortable or nervous, Thomes said her time embracing the lesbian lifestyle actually prepared her for these conversations today.
Thomes said she’d often spend hours pouring over Scripture, hoping to find leeway in the Bible for her desire to live life within the LGBTQ community.
“That caused me to study the Scriptures really, really hard, trying to find a loophole,” she said, “and I think that’s probably made me more confident with talking to others, because I understand what it’s like to try and find it. But it’s not there.”
As for why she’s eager to have this conversation on the Anchored North show, Thomes said she’s hoping to impart the Gospel.
And to share compassion.
“I’m hoping that she sees that I’m a person just like her, who doesn’t think she’s better,” Thomes said. “I may be better off, because I know the Lord, but I’m not better than her, and that’s what I’m hoping she takes away — that we ’re all equal as far as needing forgiveness.”
More than anything, at the end of their conversation, Thomes said she just hopes to pray for the woman sitting across from her.
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