Died: Sy Rogers, Who Testified God Changed His Sexual Identity

Ex-gay leader encouraged people to pursue faith in “the darkest corners.”

Sy Rogers, an early leader of the ex-gay movement, died from cancer Sunday at the age of 63.

Rogers had what he called a “God encounter” in 1980. He had begun to identify as a woman and was preparing for a sex reassignment surgery when Johns Hopkins Hospital shut down its gender identity clinic and stopped offering surgeries. Rogers, in desperation, asked God to change him. He spent the next 40 years testifying that God did.

“Sex is a powerful master,” he preached in 2014. “But I can also tell you this … God is a more powerful master. You can serve your desires or you can bring your desires to God, admit them and submit them, and experience his mastery over mind and body.”

Before “LGBT” was a popular term, Rogers challenged Christians to think about sexual orientation and identity. A past president of Exodus International, he was an early proponent of conversion therapy and frequently held up as a dramatic example that it worked.

He spoke around the world about God’s redemption of sexuality, becoming a key figure in the expansion of the ex-gay movement to the global church. In later years—once fellow leaders began to disavow the conversion therapy approach and a number of prominent Christian psychologists concluded it didn’t work—he focused his message less on orientation and more on abuse, brokenness, and shame.

“Sy was truly one of the kindest people you could ever meet,” Hillsong cofounder Bobbie Houston wrote on Instagram, reacting to news of Rogers’s death. “He exemplified grace and freedom and a passion to always bless others. We will miss you Sy. You ran your race perfectly, always giving honor to your Savior King.” ...