Ex-Gay Watch

Exodus and Focus on the Family made prominent use of ex-gay advertising at the so-called Values Voter Summit today.

Courtesy of People for the American Way Foundation and Flickr, here are some snapshots:

(Ex-Gay Watch reviewed the above ad here in 2005.)

Note that, for the moment, PFOX has dropped “and Gays” from its name.

Finally, I noticed this photo from Bishop Harry Jackson’s High Impact Leadership Coalition. In all fairness, I’m not sure what kind of “change” it’s referring to. Political? Spiritual? Sexual? But the anger and fearmongering are obvious.

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[Update: This shirt is a protest against radical Islam and multiculturalism.]

Also prominent in the images: Posters and brochures for the abstinence-only movement.

Taken together, PFAW Foundation’s images suggest a summit preoccupied by sexual issues to the detriment of other, arguably more urgent matters facing the United States. If others have more objective information about the summit, please feel free to post your observations or links in the comments.

In related news, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas commented on his blog about the summit:

It’s been an amazing day and it is only a little over halfway done! OH … and if you hear about ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) on the news… I might be on it. I participated in a press conference today concerning the matter and all of the major cable news and MSM were there. It was an amazing opportunity that will have it’s own post!

Yesterday, Thomas commented:

This is the event for the “social conservatives” of the Republican party. The registration packet had all kinds of stuff ranging from a ten commandments bookmark, to our Exodus brochure, to an EXCELLENT program book, to a rubber wristband with “ouramericanvalues.org” on it (Gary Bauer is the President.) Rubber wristbands are the new “ribbon” for symbolic cause jewelry.

The Exodus booth that Brad and David had set up earlier looked great. They, with Caryn on Publications, did a great job. We also have prime real estate in the exhibit hall … amazing traffic flow.

A documentary short in which a psychiatrist lays out the case against ex-gay therapy will have its New York premiere next week. Montel Williams Show regular Dr Alicia Salzer produced the film, which according to the latest press release has already “struck a nerve” with critics at festivals across the US and Canada.

In ABOMINATION, Salzer profiles four gay Christians who did everything possible to become heterosexual, including undergoing conversion therapies such as shock therapy, hypnosis, gender coaching, and sham marriages.

The film’s subjects include: a rural Mississippian who spent 20 years trying to suppress her lesbian feelings; an Arkansas minister struggling to integrate his gay identity with religious life; a New Yorker who embraced the “ex-gay” community but ultimately found the treatment to be ineffective; and a conservative Arkansas mother who became an opponent of conversion therapy after her daughter’s suicide.

Read more…

During the past four years, former ex-gay Peterson Toscano has been in contact with more than 1,000 “ex-gay survivors” — people who pursued ex-gay experiences, often assisted by a therapist, minister, ex-gay program.

At his blog, Toscano and his commenters are outlining numerous ways in which ex-gay experiences harm individuals or cause individuals’ existing sexual, emotional, social, spiritual and family difficulties to worsen.

Jews who want to rid themselves of same-sex attractions will often turn to “secular” organizations like NARTH, because aside from Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), every religious ex-gay ministry in the United States is targeted to some type of Christian population. JONAH is extremely close to NARTH, in fact, virtually all their “scientific” articles come from NARTH’s library. This is a serious mistake. Jews who align themselves with NARTH don’t just align themselves with bad science – they align themselves with Holocaust revisionism and hateful rhetoric that parallels the language of Nazi Propaganda; specifically, anti-Jewish propaganda. Here are sources from NARTH’s website:

• NARTH sports a guide to “taking back” schools from pro-tolerance activists, written by Scott Lively. Lively is a former American Family Association state chapter leader (he’s still listed as an active director) and the author of the book The Pink Swastika, which (according to the SPLC) falsely asserts that more gays were involved in the perpetration of genocide than were murdered under the Nazi regime. Lively has used The Pink Swastika to achieve popularity in Eastern Europe and among Russian-speaking U.S. immigrants. Lively is now a leader of a Slavic organization called Watchmen on the Walls (Google translation link), which has applauded the murder of a Sacramento gay man by Slavic skinheads, used West Coast Russian-language radio shows to promote anti-gay ethnic cleansing, and taught audiences that homosexuals have a contagious disease that must be quarantined and treated. If you think this sounds eerily familiar, you’re right.
• Paul Cameron, previously reported to be a supporter of a “Final Solution” for homosexuals and an admirer of Nazi officer Rudolph Höss, is still quite pervasive in NARTH’s library. Articles that cite his work can be found here, here, here, and here.

In addition, NARTH’s online library is filled with examples of anti-gay rhetoric that parallels anti-Jewish rhetoric found in the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew: Read more…

Faced with an increasingly negative public image and declining support for his holy war against GLBT individuals and every other sort of infidel, James Dobson is pulling out all the stops to rally his remaining troops.

“It’s not just marriage that is at stake, it’s absolutely everything,” Dobson solemnly warned listeners on his October 10 broadcast. Together with guests Maggie Gallagher, Chuck Colson and Robbie George, the spin machine was in high gear as Dobson laid out a grim scenario in which increasing support for gay marriage would lead to the destruction of all marriages everywhere, the repeal of religious freedom and the end of Western civilization.

How gay marriage would lead to the “abolition” of heterosexual marriage was never explained, nor did anyone on the program elaborate on how the efforts of gay rights activists to “stack” state legislatures are any different than the efforts of any other political group, much less how they could be any worse than the tactics employed by religious right groups in those same elections.

Maggie Gallagher repeatedly asserted that “60-65%” of the American public is “on our side” in the battle against gay marriage, notwithstanding recent polls that show that actual opposition to gay marriage now runs between 50-55%, and that many of those who oppose gay marriage support civil unions for gay couples. But then, Focus on the Family and its allies are no strangers to playing fast and loose with statistics.

The panel continued its rallying cry by suggesting that the evangelicals who form the core of the religious right’s support base are merely demoralized and in need of a good pep talk, conveniently ignoring the many Christians who have become disillusioned with the religious right’s political crusades, and the growing number of evangelical leaders who advocate dialogue over acrimony or seek to disentangle the church from politics altogether.

Dobson’s panel further sought to rally the troops by citing examples of religious liberty coming under attack, but again couldn’t make their case without a hefty dose of spin. Colson talked about his prison ministry’s recent expulsion from a British prison, claiming they were shut out for advocating chastity, when in fact his ministry was disqualified for failing to meet multiple criteria.

James Holsinger’s controversial nomination for Surgeon General was also referenced as a case of religious persecution, without any mention of the fact that he used doctored statistics and pseudoscience in a report intended to influence policy decisions being made by his denomination.

That Dobson and his allies are alarmed by the recent decline in their support base is understandable, and it’s hardly surprising that it would cause them to become even more shrill and alarmist in their rhetoric. A political empire that’s founded on fear and half truths can only be maintained through ever-increasing doses of the same tactics, after all.

 Hat tip: Good As You

Warren Throckmorton reports that Fred Hutchison reports that Paul Cameron reports that Exodus President Alan Chambers has returned to “sodomy”.

At the root of this bizarre claim is last June’s LA Times article in which Chambers was said to “resent the term ‘ex-gay’,” because “by no means would [he] ever say change can be sudden or complete.”

Now conservative pundit Hutchison, of Renew America, quotes Paul Cameron approvingly in a recent mailshot:

Ex-gay leader returns to sodomy

According to Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute Alex Chambers, (sic) Director of Exodus International, the largest Evangelical organization for ex-gays declared that he is no longer ex-gay and is not sure he has ever met an ex-gay! He is now calling to Evangelicals to reconcile with practicing gays.

Of course, as happy as it would make XGW, Chambers was not announcing a change of mind on homosexuality, but simply expressing something about the inadequacy of the term “ex-gay”. He later appeared to play down the LA Times report in response to criticisms from fellow ex-gays:

A recent Times article characterizes Exodus president Alan Chambers as saying he has never met a successful “ex-gay.” Chambers cautions those words were not his, but those of the writer, Stephanie Simon. Chambers says in the interview, he merely stressed he has never met anyone who has loved the term “ex-gay” — which he contends is difficult to define.

“It’s something that comes across as confusing,” he says. “And while I understand why people have used it over the years — it’s easy to use in a soundbite — to say that someone is primarily described by the behavior that they used to be involved in I think is a disservice to the people who have found freedom from homosexuality.”

And that includes himself, says Chambers. “[R]eally, more accurate labels for me would be, ‘I’m a man. I’m a Christian. I’m a husband. I’m a father. I’m a son.’” Chambers says he is considering whether to ask the newspaper to issue a clarification of his remarks.

Update: Hutchison says he thought Paul Cameron and the LA Times were “adequate sources,” blames “trusted advisor” for publishing his words without permission, regrets using the word “sodomy,” and says he’ll give Alan Chambers “a fair hearing.”

2nd update: Hutchison offers a fuller “apology”, beginning with a condemnation of the “prying busybodies” who dared to publish his remarks. The entire statement is a great example of someone attempting to apologize while in fact doing everything they can to avoid taking real responsibility.

The UK evangelical ministry Courage lent its support to a new anti-discrimination campaign this past weekend.

Courage began in 1988 as an ex-gay ministry, but announced it was gay-affirming in 2001. Now the pioneering organisation is among the supporters of Would Jesus Discriminate?, a campaign being run by the Metropolitan Community Church in Bath, England. Other UK Christian organisations backing the initiative include Ekklesia and Accepting Evangelicals.

At the heart of the campaign is an appeal to Scripture, with a call to look again at the biblical teaching on homosexuality, beginning with an examination of Jesus and the Gospels:

The gospels are clear. Jesus refused to be bound by cultural prejudice. Repeatedly, he took up the cause of the oppressed and defended them against narrow-minded religious leaders. Unfortunately, the Church has often failed to live up to Jesus’ example.

Perhaps most significant is that the majority of the campaign’s proponents are evangelicals. Ekklesia challenges the perception that the gay debate is simply a liberal-vs-evangelical issue (as Exodus’s Randy Thomas recently argued):

Since the current sad argument within the churches over human sexuality and the status of LGBT people is mainly presented in the media as a fight between ‘liberals’ and ‘evangelicals’, Ekklesia has given priority, once more, to voices who wish to challenge this simple and misleading polarity.

The UK campaign follows the MCC’s recent high-profile campaign of the same name in the US.

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Matt. 18:12-14, NIV)

Thus did Jesus summarize what Christian ministry should look like as he set the example by going out of his way to reach out to the outcast, the wounded, the “sinner” and all those looked down upon by society.

From the perspective of Exodus, Focus on the Family and their allies, members of the GLBT community would certainly be considered “lost sheep.” Surely, then, Christians in the above groups would consider it all the more urgent to give freely and sacrificially of their time, energy and resources to identify and meet the needs of those “lost sheep,” following Jesus’ example of unconditional and self-sacrificial love that hopes for the best without demanding anything in return.

And we do see a considerable outpouring of time, energy and resources from these groups. Unfortunately all of that effort has been redirected to support a declaration of war against the aforementioned “lost sheep,” who have been labeled a deadly threat to the rest of the flock by virtue of their current location.

Compassion gets redefined out of existence as love becomes something to withhold pending a sinner’s repentance. Ministries that once sought to help those in need divert more and more of their resources to political crusades as the church sets aside its spiritual mission to wage a holy war against the rest of the world.

On the rare occasion that a lost sheep does return (usually on hands and knees, and only let back in after acceding to a list of ultimatums), it’s immediately paraded around as a trophy and its testimony wielded as a weapon against those that remain “unrepentant.”

But maybe God won’t mind if a few million of “these little ones” fall through the cracks as a result of the church’s crusade to establish a “Christian” nation. It’s all being done in His name, after all.

Sounds like a good time to ask: What would Jesus do?

Dr. Warren Throckmorton is alleging that the ties between Richard Cohen’s organization, International Healing Foundation (IHF), and the Unification Church may be alive and well, despite Cohen’s statements to the contrary.

A brief review [of the IHF website] finds professionals operating from within Latter Day Saint, Jewish, Christian and Unification Church traditions. The latter group, followers of Sun Myung Moon, is surprising since Cohen said he left that church behind in 1995. Curious, I asked Cohen recently by email if there were any UC connections to his organization, and he told me, to his knowledge, there were none. To the contrary, it appears that there has been for quite some time.

As Ex-Gay Watch recently reported, there is also some question about why a previously respected Christian publisher, InterVarsity Press, would publish Cohen’s latest edition of Gay Children, Straight Parents. Cohen’s unorthodox approach and bizarre public displays aside, Christians looking to IVP for reading material would not normally expect to find something written by an author allegedly close to the Unification Church — considered a cult by many Evangelicals and mainline Christians alike.

And for those who do not appreciate the issues of faith involved here, what does it say about Cohen if he is indeed misleading those who come to him for help in this way?

Update 10/4: Dr. Throckmorton has added to his original post, relaying that someone from IHF has disputed his allegations.  We encourage readers to review all of his post on this and come to your own conclusions based on the evidence.

Source: wthrockmorton.com

A recent study conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has found, among other things, that younger (age 18-44) gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women experience fewer mental disorders and are less likely to have attempted suicide than their counterparts in the 45-59 age group.  As Dr. Ilan Meyer, Associate Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences and principal investigator of the study notes,

The finding regarding younger cohorts of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals is consistent with social stress theories that predicted that the liberalization of social attitudes toward homosexuality over the past few decades can lead to a decline in stress and related mental disorders and suicide among lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals.

While no single study is likely to present the final world on any given topic, this latest survey appears to hammer yet another nail in the coffin of the myth (common in evangelical and ex-gay circles) that same-sex attractions are, in and of themselves, a major contributor to mental illness even among openly gay individuals.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan