Christian rapper and former lesbian Jackie Hill-Perry recounted in a recent interview how she was able to overcome her same-sex attraction, saying it was due to the efforts made by church leaders who made her understand that her identity is more than just her sexuality.
"What was helpful for me was that my leadership did not isolate my same-sex attraction from my whole person," she said in a recent interview with The Gospel Coalition.
After talking to church leaders, she said she realised that her struggle was not with lesbianism but "with hatred, bitterness, laziness, gluttony, lack of stewardship, pride."
She said she eventually realised that "there was a lot to me that was much deeper than just my sexuality."
Hill-Perry accepted Christ into her life in 2008, letting go of her previous lifestyle. She is now married to fellow artist Preston Perry, and they have a daughter. She said it really helped when she realised that all she needed was Jesus Christ in her life and "only Jesus can make me whole."
"When I was able to see that all of me needed Jesus, all of me needed to be whole and all of me needed to be disciplined, that's what helped me. Because it kind of humbles you where [I said] 'I'm real messed up because it's not this one little fraction of me. It's all of me.' And I'm able to really crawl to Jesus and know He can fix me," she said.
The rapper wrote several articles regarding Christianity and homosexuality after her conversion. In 2013, when rapper Macklemore released the single "Same Love," which says that homosexuals can't change, she wrote in response: "What I would say to Macklemore is, if we believe the Bible is completely true and God breathed—which it is—then we need to deal with texts like 1 Corinthians 6:9-11."
"The word of God itself," she said, "testifies that people can change."
"So if the word of God is the word of God, then we need to deal with that and believe that it's true. I think we've made God very little if we believe that he cannot change people. If he can make a moon, stars and a galaxy that we have yet to fully comprehend, how can he not simply change my desires?" she asked.
She said people with predisposed homosexual desires have the capacity to overcome those desires. "If God chooses not to change my desires, he has promised to give me his Holy Spirit that will help me flee from them," she said. "There are people who were alcoholics for 20 years, went through rehab and they don't drink anymore, but sometimes they may be tested. If they see a bottle of whiskey, they're going to want that whisky, but they have a choice."
On Olympic runner Bruce Jenner who transitioned into a woman named Caitlyn, Jackie said: "When God is involved, now it's a bigger deal. He created your body. He allows you to be male or female, so for you to go against Him is an eternal issue. He created your body, so you don't have the right to say, 'I can do with it whatever I want.' That's the most prideful thing you can do because it's an attack on the wisdom of God."
