To be fair to the watchtower, it is not unique in "covering over" sexual orientation through marriage. A colleague of mine was involved in a pentecostal group several years ago as a young man. He had been struggling with his homosexuality for years due to a strict Christian upbringing. He "confessed" his homosexuality, including having sexual encounters with men.
His fellow believers prayed for him and over him, he went to a week long Christian retreat, had some intense religious experiences and genuinely believed he had been "cured". His friends encouraged him to develop relationships with members of the opposite sex, which he did. Eventually, he met and "fell in love with" a young Christian woman who knew about his past, but she too believed he had been "cured". They married, and had three children, the youngest of which died in tragic circumstances.
Shortly afterwards, my colleague - who I did not know at the time - realised he had been living a lie. In the intense emotionality of the religious experiences, he had really believed "the Lord" had cured him and swept up in other's enthusiam, he had allowed himself to lead a "normal" good Christian life.
The pain of eventually separating from his wife and the severe judgementalism of his fellow believers took a toll of him and he attempted suicide on several occasions. It is several years since this happened, but I often think, if only he had associated with a group of people who could have encouraged him to accept himself instead of encouraging him to suprress his sexuality and live a lie.
Because of his religious fundamentalism, not only did he end up in tragic circumstances, but so did his wife and children. Obviously, the Christians blame Satan for what happened. If only they had the courage to face up to their own part in contributing to this sorry story.
