Ex-Gay Watch

Democratic Catholic Lawmakers Warn Bishops

From The Washington Post: Forty-eight lawmakers, including several who are anti-abortion, warned the bishops not to harm the church by denying Communion based on partisan political biases.

[The lawmakers] questioned how the bishops could limit the denial of Communion to abortion, noting that Pope John Paul II and many U.S. bishops have condemned the death penalty and the war in Iraq. “All of us firmly believe that we can be good Congresspersons and Catholics and we respectfully submit that, while sometimes difficult, each of us has the responsibility and the right to balance public morality with private morality without pressure from certain bishops,” the letter said.

One of the signers with a solidly antiabortion voting record, Rep. Bart Stupak (Mich.), said in an interview that bishops “are making these statements thinking they’re undermining the candidacy of John Kerry, when what they’re really undermining is the Catholic church.”

Stupak added that he has been surprised by the partisanship of some bishops.

“I’ve had some threaten not to give Communion to me, even though they don’t know my position, just because I’m a Democrat,” he said. “I’ve had cardinals refuse to shake my hand because I’m a Democrat, and then somebody whispers to them that, ‘No, no, he’s a good guy.’ ”

Baptists Compare Mass. Gay Marriage to 9/11
From Baptist Press via AmericaBlog

Focus/Family Compares Gay Newlyweds to Bestiality
From CNS News via AmericaBlog

Texas Cheats Unitarians Out of Tax Exemption
From The Village Gate and Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Courts have ruled against Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn (Google search), who is denying tax-exempt status to a Unitarian Universalist congregation because Unitarians do not mandate a belief in a supreme being. But Strayhorn is determined to appeal the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, costing the Unitarians a fortune in legal fees. Strayhorn enjoys close ties to President Bush.

In his early movie, Bananas, Woody Allen’s character Fielding Mellish complains:

This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.

The vocabulary has been adapted recently by a Miller Beer ad which spoofs a political debate in which the exasperated candidate has exhausted his time:

Candidate: This whole thing is a travesty and a sham and a mockery! It’s a TRAVISHAMOCKERY!
Moderator: No making up words.
Candidate: Burgleflickle!

(You can watch the commercial here after supplying age information.)

In its press release marking the first same-sex marriages in Massachusetts on Monday, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas sounds exasperated, too.
Read more…

Exodus International‘s executive director, Alan Chambers, writes a personal blog titled Just Think! Encourage it in others. Demand it of yourself. In an entry yesterday, he blames an undefined “Gay Elite” for:

• Hijacking “a legitimate civil rights triumph with their battle for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts[, thus] trump[ing] Black Americans for coverage.”
• “Commandeering” the word gay.
• Stealing the rainbow symbol from Christian and secular folks.
• Co-opting the term “family”

Read more…

Oliver Griswold of The Morning News did for 30 days what some ex-gay activists do for their entire adult lives:

Live solely on an all-reactionary media diet.

The results were as toxic as a McDonald’s super-size meal.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability monitors the financial integrity of evangelical Christian ministries on an annual basis.

Christianity Today notes this week that ECFA’s standards are a bit rudimentary: Participating charitable ministries, for example, are permitted to pay most of their income in lavish salaries to executives and fund-raisers. The magazine says 30.9 percent of ECFA member organizations pay more than 25 percent of the income on fundraising, and four ministries spend more than 50 percent.

CT notes that another organization, MinistryWatch, goes a step further: It “provides ratings and detailed analyses of the financial and doctrinal particulars of more than 500 Christian ministries. When Wall Watchers detects problems, it issues donor alerts, suggesting that people ‘prayerfully consider withholding contributions.’”

As it happens, MinistryWatch monitors Exodus International, the ex-gay network.

Rated in the efficiency of its fund-raising and spending, Exodus ranks in 287th place out of 446 ministries. That’s the poorest 35 percent of the rankings, in terms of efficiency. However, Exodus ranks 29th, or in the top six percent, in how it uses its assets. Among all 22 rated organizations devoted specifically to issue advocacy, Exodus ranks halfway down the list in terms of efficiency.

In transparency of its financial disclosures, Exodus earns a round of applause: It gets an A.

However, on a chart comparing the organization’s revenues to its age, Exodus scores low: After more than 25 years, Exodus revenues are still under $1 million per year. Clearly there do not appear to be tens of thousands of successful ex-gays rallying financial support for Exodus operations.

MinistryWatch helpfully charts Exodus financials for every year from 1999 to 2002. The key trouble areas: heavy deficit spending in 2002, and little room in the annual budgets for long-term investment.

Not reported, unfortunately, are the primary sources of Exodus’ revenues; the extent to which the Exodus board overlaps with Focus on the Family, and the extent to which Exodus relies on Focus on the Family for marketing, publicity, and access to lobbyists and state and federal legislatures.

Focus on the Family’s own financials are far healthier, and again free of major scandal. But MinistryWatch notes some problems: consistently mediocre efficiency in financial performance; grandiose real estate holdings; profiteering by James Dobson’s private company; and overdependence on Dobson’s fan base, given Dobson’s age (68) and recent health problems.

Afterword: Christianity Today reported last year on longtime Washington Republican political insider Donald P. Hodel’s growing role as president and CEO of Focus on the Family.

Via e-mail from Focus on the Family today:

Former lesbian Amy Tracy and Focus anti-marriage activist Glenn T. Stanton will debate against marriage for gay couples in a “Townhall Meeting” program on the Total Living Network from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. tonight.

On the other side of the debate will be marriage rights proponents Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, and Camilla Taylor, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

More about Glenn T. Stanton: According to his Focus staff bio, in addition to his work supporting antigay discrimination, Stanton is “serving the Bush Administration as a consultant on increasing fatherhood involvement in the Head Start program.” He has a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of West Florida.

More about Amy Tracy
Her 1999 Exodus bio, identifying her as a public-relations staffer at Focus on the Family.
A review of her April 1999 speech at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Ex-gay activist Tim Wilkins of Wake Forest, N.C., spotlights an effort that he made to establish friendly rapport with gay activists in Tucson, Ariz.

His effort and his hospitality are admirable; his uncharitable characterization of the equality activists as “militant” suggests that his dialogue skills need improvement.

Might Wilkins possibly benefit from further engagement, through groups such as the Quakers?

Ten speakers with diverse perspectives on gay rights debate before high school honors students in the Toledo area on May 10.

Among the speakers was ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan of Dayton, Ohio, who frequently lobbies in defense of discrimination against gay people.

His decision to attack the mental health of gay people does not appear to have been very persuasive, for many students said they knew someone who is gay.

While the leadership of the Exodus International ex-gay network opposes dialogue that might lead to mutual understanding between gay and ex-gay people of faith, especially regarding marriage, other Christians support dialogue and are actively promoting it.

The Quakers, for example, are hosting “Peace Building Dialogues” this month — and inviting the online public to participate:
Read more…

Ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett enthusiastically promotes his antigay CD as a joint project with World Net Daily.

As it happens, the current issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report cites World Net Daily’s role in the publication of racist, anti-Semitic talk-show host Michael Savage’s most recent book, The Enemy Within. A World Net Daily official makes no apologies for the organization’s role in promoting Savage’s propaganda.

Does Stephen Bennett care whether his business partners are racist or anti-Semitic? Does he conduct proper research on his contracts, or does he simply hire the loudest antigay voice that limited money can buy?