The person in this video goes by the nickname RevolutionaryHorizon on YouTube. I don’t think this is a joke – he seems to be serious about what he is saying. I’m posting this in an open forum because in just a few minutes, he touches on all kinds of issues we discuss here.
A lot has been made lately of how best to provide therapy to those struggling with issues of sexual orientation. Here is your chance; you are the therapist and he is your patient. How would you honestly address some of the things he is saying? What is your advice?
This video was released almost two weeks ago by Focus on the Family through their political mouthpiece, CitizenLink, so you may have already seen it or read commentary about it. Regardless of where you might stand on hate crimes laws, this kind of glib, heartless characterization seems unwarranted and cruel. It may also signify a certain amount of desperation. When you watch, pay attention to the last few comments.
We’ve heard gross distortions of this legislation apparently designed to scare people with the idea that, if it passes, free speech will be curtailed, pastors will be jailed, and innocent little grandmothers will be arrested for standing on a lonely street corner doing nothing more than offering tracts to passersby. What you will find at the end of this clip is what I believe is actually at the heart of the matter. Focus, et al, simply can’t allow sexual orientation to be codified into federal statutes as real and fixed, even as a byproduct.
After all the time and money they have spent trying to convince us that homosexuality is nothing more than a behavior, and a sinful one at that, it is against their self-interests to allow the obvious to make it into law. So in another example of the ends justifying the means, they use fear and lies to deny another vulnerable group the same protections against violent hate crimes that they themselves enjoy as members of a protected group by virtue of their religion.
Again, no matter where one stands on the need for hate crimes laws in general, who would laugh at such things as this? Unfortunately, the answer came quickly from Exodus VP Randy Thomas. Tell us again about your compassion, Mr. Thomas.
Ex-ex-gay activist Peterson Toscano writes about sexuality, choice and the ex-gay journey in the latest New Statesman (a broadly left-wing British political weekly). Peterson writes both humorously and powerfully:
I chose to be authentic, to no longer demonise my sexuality, to integrate my faith with the rest of my life. I did choose to be a Christian, a Quaker, a vegan and an activist, but I never chose to be gay.
A talking point: How does Peterson’s description of of faith and sexuality compare to Warren Throckmorton‘s words on CNN last week?
Toscano:
I chose … to integrate my faith with the rest of my life.
Throckmorton:
The congruence with some clients will be with their sexuality; the congruence for others will be with their religious beliefs. Clearly some people feel that the most core aspect of them is their sexuality; others, on the other hand, believe that their religious values and their religious beliefs are the most core, and they would rather explore congruence of their behavior with those beliefs and values.
Are they in disagreement, or are they essentially talking about the same thing?
This is a recent, brief interview of Dr. Warren Throckmorton and Dr. Benjamin McCommon on CNN regarding their views on the APA’s current re-evaluation of their position on reparative therapy. Sean O’Donnell also appears via a brief file clip explaining his own attempts to change from gay to straight. You may have already seen this or read about it; either way we would appreciate your candid impression of the comments by both interviewees.
Hat Tip: Jeremy for the video.
In her final TV interview, taped Wednesday and aired Thursday on CNN, Tammy Faye Messner didn’t declare that she knew God’s will. She didn’t excuse her own fallibility or pass selective judgment against others. And she didn’t order up a set of litmus tests for would-be followers to pass in order to win divine approval.
True to her lifelong calling, Messner spoke of a personal faith and unconditional love. As she was dying, she said, “I talk to God every single day. And I say, God, my life is in your hands and I trust you with me.”
Read more…
Former ex-gay Peterson Toscano sums up the week in ex-gay news.
Toscano has also posted new video from the Survivor Initiative press conference outside Love In Action in Memphis, Tenn.
Looking for new or rejuvenated ex-gay topical blogs to read this weekend? Try these:
Chronicles of An Ex-Ex-Gay, by Jacob, a survivor of “Love In Action”
Straight Guise, by Joe Kort, M.A., M.S.W.
Walk Free, by Ken Peters
Whether you like or dislike them, hop over and give them a piece of your mind.
A researcher in the UK would like to speak to former ex-gays who have been through ex-gay therapy and/or ministry in Britain, or who received any sort of ministry in a UK church or religious group to help them change their sexual orientation.
If you think your story might be relevant, please contact me, Dave Rattigan, in the first instance. Your details will not be passed on unless and until you give your consent.
WorldNetDaily cites the (alleged) Madison, Wis., arrest of ex-gay David Ott under local hate-speech laws as one of several cases where local misapplication of local or state hate speech laws is somehow (illogically) used as the primary excuse to prevent violent hate crimes against gay people from being sentenced to the same degree that violent hate crimes targeting blacks, Jews (or for that matter whites) are sentenced.
Focus on the Family and Alan Keyes’ Renew America have joined ex-gay activist Linda Jernigan and Peter LaBarbera in spreading an already-disproven false report that lesbian gangs are running amok in America’s cities. All four sources neglect to tell their readers that Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation didn’t want the story to run in local media because the story was, in fact, false — disproven by the Southern Poverty Law Center and reported as such by the New York Times. Instead, Jernigan says, “They [GLAAD] don’t want this type of information to get out,” she told Family News in Focus, “because then they know people’s eyes will be opened, they’ll begin to see this whole situation for what it really is.”
Addendum: Antigay activist Robert Knight has joined in fueling the scare via a July 18 article in Human Events. As with the other antigay activists, Knight declined to tell his readers that the “Fox News Channel investigation” was already withdrawn and, according to the SPLC, “based almost entirely on the lurid musings of a single Shelby County (Tenn.) gang officer.”
Adherence to what most evangelicals would regard as a false religion is apparently acceptable under some circumstances, according to the Christian Post:
Christians need to understand that any support for Glatze should not be interpreted as support for the Mormon church. Instead it should be viewed as support for an individual and a very important movement, as is done during any interfaith activity.
Glatze should be accepted for who he is – not the result of Mormon conversion, but one of the latest and most prominent examples of former homosexuals who came to acknowledge homosexuality as sin and made the decision to turn away from the sinful lifestyle.
And because Glatze’s conversion is more likely to pull people away from homosexuality than draw people towards the Mormon church, believers should be more concerned about Glatze returning to homosexuality than him joining the Mormon church.
One wonders if ex-gay Scientologists would receive a similarly warm welcome.
Recent Comments