The last we heard of Tim Wilkins of Cross Ministry fame he had agreed to take a polygraph test for gayasyou.org (I never heard how that come out).
But now Tim has a new program aimed at giving ministers tools in their efforts in “Walking People out of Homosexuality”. In his program More Than Words, Tim promises to address a number of topics. To assist him in this effort, I’m offering my own notes to his topics:
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Stephen Bennett’s latest press release is so chock-full of bizarreness that I hardly know where to start. But here goes:
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6 p.m. Read the new 300-page book “Ex-Gay Research” and write review.
6:17 p.m. Watch the 48-minute ex-gay video “I Do Exist” by Chad Thompson, and write review.
6:21 p.m. Fight Exodus attempts to shut down Ex-Gay Watch and other gay-tolerant or gay-affirming sources of news. Contact lawyers from coast to coast.
6:32 p.m. Divide Ex-Gay Watch into separate websites catering to exgays, researchers, opponents of culture warriors, and defenders of constitutional liberty and privacy.
6:38 p.m. Watch the 83-minute ex-ex-gay video “Fish Can’t Fly” and write review.
6:43 p.m. Gently and patiently teach Regan how to separate paragraphs. 
6:49 p.m. Contact Chad Thompson and remind him to write counterpoint review of “Fish Can’t Fly” for Ex-Gay Watch.
6:50 p.m. Summarize the political and spiritual pornography discovered each day in Exodus media and Exodus-affiliated media.
6:58 p.m. Catch up on e-mail sent to Ex-Gay Watch back in 2004.
7 p.m. Oh, wait — several of those tasks require hours of full-time effort and minimal interruption.
7:01 p.m. My hour is up. What have Brady, Peterson, and Wayne written lately? Link to them instead.
Some conservative activists believe that if “abstinence only” is taught in schools it will eliminate the need for sex education and information on sexually transmitted diseases. After all, if teens aren’t having sex before marriage, then no problem, right?
One problem for gay teens is that it tells them that they can’t have sex before marriage, and that they can’t ever get married. Since “no sex for you, ever” isn’t a very compelling message, the gay community continues to fight the ongoing battle to have inclusive education to reduce misinformation and the spread of disease.
A second problem with the “abstinence only” approach is that it appears not to work.
It is reasonable to assume that the abstinence message would be most effective if backed up by regular church attendance and a religious family that instills you with these values. If the abstinence message doesn’t work for the religious children of Texas Southern Baptists, surely it won’t work for secularly raised children in public schools.
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A library trustee in Ohio doesn’t want the Upper Arlington Public Library to carry the local free gay newspaper, the Outlook Weekly. In a Focus on the Family article, Bryce Kurfees, the trustee said the following:
“What I want to do with them is toss them out. There’s no reason that we need to accept free newspapers that are just dropped off at our front door, especially ones that are obscene.”
And I’m concerned that if we can’t draw a line at pornographic articles, then it appears that we can’t draw the line anywhere.”
Alan Chambers is quoted about the desired censorship saying that “homosexuals use these periodicals mainly for one purpose”:
“The way I see gay newspapers is they are a means for mostly homosexuals to hook up with other homosexuals or materials that promote pornography.”
Perhaps Chambers has only used gay news magazines for “hook up” purposes or to find promotion of pornography, but this says much more about Chambers than it does about the Outlook Weekly.
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Brady at Some Guys Are Normal notes that Ohio’s antigay constitutional ban on nonmarital unions and any rights or services associated with such unions has resulted in court rulings that unmarried heterosexual partners enjoy no legal recourse under the state’s domestic-violence laws.
Meanwhile, Ohio antigay uber-activist Linda Harvey is using her “Mission America” nameplate to bury the state’s HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs in litigation and red tape, presumably to force the financially strained organizations to close and to cut off medical help (except for abstinence-only lessons) to people at risk for HIV/AIDS.
Gay People’s Chronicle, March 24
The Advocate, March 27
Ohio health advocates suspect that Beverly LaHaye’s Concerned Women for America is pulling the strings behind Harvey’s campaign.
Activist/author Wayne Besen has picked up on the news, also noted on March 25 by XGW commenter Chalker Cross, that the antigay video “It’s Not Gay” is on sale for $10.
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Eleventh Avenue South has a picture of the Minnesota “Family” Council using exgay activist Janet Boynes to decorate its booth at a March 21 antigay rally. Ex-Gay Watch is curious to know how, exactly, Boynes believes she is helping same-sex-attracted persons — or anyone else — by promoting discrimination.
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As reported by the TimesLeader, in a speech to a Pentecostal church in Pennsylvania, Melissa Fryrear went beyond “no one is born gay”:
Fryrear said “everyone is created heterosexual” and said many women are gay because they’re searching for a mother figure or because they have been sexually abused by a man. She said some women are gay because it’s “en vogue.”
Fryrear also said that gay people should be welcomed in church but not allowed positions of leadership. No mention was made as to whether this would apply to ex-gay leaders.
I was feeling snarky after Exodus dropped its recent copyright and trademark case against Ex-Gay Watch and blogger Justin Watt. And so I challenged Exodus’ recent use of the slogan Live Out Loud, which happens to be the name of a five-year-old New York organization that promotes safety for gay youths.
I should have known better. Humor never pays.
An anonymous tipster has pointed out that Live Out Loud is also a popular Christian contemporary song released by Steven Curtis Chapman in 2001. (Available via iTunes song and video, or from Amazon.com.)
I did some brief additional research:
Live Out Loud is also a financial-planning consultancy and a women’s wellness consultancy.
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