Ex-Gay Watch

• LifeSiteNews claims that ex-gays live in fear because of a stigma imposed on them by homosexuals, citing PFOX “under attack” at ex-gay exhibit booths as an example. They also cited the recent Ryan Sorba debacle as the main reason why the potentially one-sided American Psychiatric Association’s “Homosexuality and Therapy: The Religious Dimension” symposium was cancelled.

• Stephen Black believes Ex-Gay Watch is WATCHING and STALKING ex-gay leaders, even though Ex-Gay Watch already freely invited him (and many other ex-gays for that matter) to comment here, and even moderated some unsupported claims against him.
  Update: Black has removed this comment from his blog posts.  XGW appreciates his reconsideration.

• In an example of the infamous “slippery slope” argument, Peter Sprigg of FRC claims incidents like the one involving the [heterosexual] polygamous cult in Texas will become the norm should homosexuals be granted equal marriage rights. Yet another example of the infamous “slippery slope” argument.

• Peter LaBarbera accuses Timothy Kincaid of “anti-Christian bigotry”, Kincaid counters by dredging up plenty of anti-Christian bigotry from LaBarbera’s own writings

• Jay Bakker, son of Jim and (the late) Tammy Faye Bakker, challenges megachurch pastor Joel Osteen on his anti-gay message

• Truth Wins Out: Ex-gays failing to denounce anti-gay violence

In response to Soulforce’s American Family Outing initiative to open dialogue on the issue of homosexuality at six megachurches, Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink is advising churches on how it thinks they should respond.  At first glance, FotF’s advice may seem reasonable:

Jeff Buchanan, director of church equipping at Exodus International, said each church needs to assess whether a meeting would be helpful.

“I would be completely open to having a meaningful conversation, if both parties were humbly submitted in that conversation,” he said. “I would not enter into a conversation if I knew there was not a sincere openness to the truth.”

Inevitably, however, when Focus on the Family and Exodus refer to “the truth,” no room is left for the possibility that their own interpretation of the Bible could be anything less than infallible. Buchanan continues by recommending that “churches — and all Christians — embrace the issue ‘with compassion, not compromise.’”

In other words, a conservative church should only enter into dialogue when the other party is completely open to admitting that they may be wrong – but the church must be adamantly committed to the absolute rightness of its own position before a single word has been spoken by either side.

Sorry, Focus, but there’s nothing meaningful about such a one-sided conversation.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and here is another shining example.

Anti-gay activists have hit the trifecta of racism, antisemitism, and homophobia with newly recognized allies David Duke, Rev. Ted Pike, and Peter LaBarbera.

Rev. Ted Pike makes claims against Jews on his website in the name of Jesus, while Duke not only pushes “white civil rights” and caters to white supremacists, but has published his own “bestselling” take on what he calls “Jewish Supremacism.” Peter LaBarbera aligns himself with this man while claiming to know the truth about what happened when a gay young man called out another young man for making a homophobic remark.

Here’s how they’re all connected: David Duke’s website features a retelling of the incident by Rev. Pike, who encourages people to take up his cause and protest the prosecution of the perpetrator. LaBarbera takes him up on this cause on his own website, encouraging others to do the same, all the while benignly referring to Pike as a “pro-family activist.”

World Net Daily reports their own view of the incident, quoting LaBarbera’s qualms:

“The true danger of hate-crimes laws is selective prosecution and unequal protection under the law. If a homosexual were to push an obnoxious Christian onto the ground, or things got out of control after a verbal spat, would he be facing a felony hate-crime conviction and possible jail time in Champaign, Ill., right now?” LaBarbera asked.

The answer is “yes,” because religion is protected under hate crimes laws. If a gay person were to assault a Christian because they saw them praying on the street or because they saw them wearing a crucifix, this would count as anti-Christian violence and therefore be a hate crime. The same thing would count if a gay person assaulted a Jew for wearing a skullcap or a Muslim exiting a Mosque.

There exists here a practical conflict for evangelical Christians seeking to convert Jews out of “love”, especially Christian Zionists: it does their cause no good when their own kind end up aligning themselves with anti-Semites.

UPDATE:

Peter LaBarbera has responded to Box Turtle Bulletin, Pam’s House Blend, and XGW for our coverage of this issue:

I cited Ted Pike in my original article on this case because, as one who has crusaded against “hate crimes” laws, Pike was the first to bring the VanAsdlen story to national attention (in a mass email) — not because I agree with the thrust of his website (or Duke’s). Like most evangelicals, I abhor anti-Semitism and in fact am quite the hawk on defending Israel. I also decry racism and, of course, white nationalism, “white pride,” etc. [emphasis mine]

As if to prove how un-racist he is, Peter then goes on to talk of what a tragedy it is that gays have “hijacked” the civil rights movement, which in his mind, belongs to African Americans ONLY.

It’s good to see that Peter “abhors” anti-Semitism, but I also hope he understands is that his evangelical support of Israel (or, “Christian Zionism”) is not the same thing as supporting Judaism.

Gay bloggers recently had a field day with ex-gay counsellor David Pickup’s “Increasing Manhood” video, one even speculating whether it was a spoof, in the vein of Donnie Davies.

Unfortunately, Pickup (right) and his campaign to undermine the masculinity of gays — while supposedly helping them to discover their true manhood — are very much for real. Pickup is a member of the “therapeutic team” at Healing for the Soul, the ex-gay ministry of Jayson Graves (left). And who is Jayson Graves? Well, he is a lot of things but what surprises us most is that he is also a board member of Exodus International.

It is not hard to discern the ex-gay genre into which Pickup fits. He is Training Coordinator for an LA chapter of the controversial Mankind Project (New Warriors in Training), and his own Workout program is similarly testosterone-fuelled, leaning heavily on the work of NARTH’s Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.

To get a sense of Pickup’s philosophy of homosexuality and masculinity, one need look no further than this personal ad he placed on Bodybuilding.com in 2000. These things have a tendency to disappear off the Web, so I reprint it here in full, with comments:

My name is David. Let’s get the stats out of the way. I’m 6’2′, 240, 49c, 34w, 18a, all-around big muscular man. I’m 44, and look about 35. Yep, I’m in great shape.

As we’ll see, this kind of detail is apparently key to Pickup’s perception of masculinity. He denies there’s anything homoerotic about this. It’s just something gay men (and, frankly, most straight men) can’t understand without turning it into something sexual — in his opinion. Read more…

• John Corvino on the importance of dialogue

• Jonathan Rowe dismantles World Net Daily’s latest screed

• Exodus Global Alliance Ontario conference to focus on young people questioning their sexuality; Truth Wins Out responds

• Former ex-gay leader interviewed on GCN Radio

Chris Tyler grew up in a devout Mormon family.  In this podcast series (part one is below; the rest of the series can be accessed through his YouTube channel) he chronicles his time in ex-gay therapy and the subsequent process he went through in coming to a place of self-acceptance.

Chris’ whole story may go into more detail than some are interested in sitting through (the podcast is broken up into 14 ten-minute segments).  Those who come from similar backgrounds (Mormon, evangelical or otherwise) will identify with the emotions he describes as he is first coming to grips with the reality of his attractions, as well as the arduous process he goes through as he gradually disentangles himself from the deeply ingrained fears that accompany the deeply conservative mindset he grew up with.

Hat tip: Good As You 

Sawed-Off Films has released preview footage of the new documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like.

The film is an examination of the controversial Memphis-based Love In Action (LIA), a ministry whose actions became notorious in 2005 when 16-year-old Zach was enrolled in their residential ex-gay program against his will.

Zach, now 19, is one of several participants in the documentary. Following his ordeal at LIA, the harrowing run-up to which was uniquely documented on his MySpace blog, Zach refused to talk at length about his experience. In This Is What Love In Action Looks Like, he revisits the events of 2005 in detail for the first time.

Watch the film’s opening 10 minutes below, then click here to see an earlier extended preview.

HT: BTB.

• Free resources on Judaism and LGBT issues now available from Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion

• New report on effectiveness of ex-gay therapy shows “robot-like parroting” of rhetoric, according to Jim Burroway

• In case you missed it, Christian TV host Azariah Southworth came out gay

• Cornell PhD student Gabriel Arana reminisces about three years of therapy under Dr Joseph Nicolosi

Exodus Vice President Randy Thomas wrote an article titled “Grace and Gay Men” that recently appeared in the Focus on the Family webzine Boundless. While doing my best to read it with an unbiased eye, I’ll admit that Randy’s erratic blogging and commenting behavior make that difficult. For whatever reason, the man wipes out his entire blogging history on a repeated and regular basis (which makes accountability for past statements nearly impossible).

Also, it has been my experience that Randy is incapable of allowing for or conducting any open and honest discussion with people who disagree with him. Whether he is willing to admit it or not, those sorts of behaviors take away from the credibility of his content and portray him as disingenuous when he talks about loving homosexuals as Jesus would.

The article is prefaced by a disclaimer that is almost long enough to be a piece on its own. I understand the need for a disclaimer now and then, but Randy writes three paragraphs justifying what he is about to say. Number one, someone important at Exodus can attest to how distraught he has been while writing; second, he has thrown caution to the wind against the good advice of a friend who fears he will be perceived as pro-gay; last, gay men are dying of AIDS so it’s time to toughen up and be forthright about how much he cares about all the gay men dying while headed straight for hell. In my opinion, the long disclaimer, just like Randy’s web etiquette, detracts from the sincerity and impact of the entire piece.

Following the disclaimer, there is a sort of mini-essay in which Randy addresses the Body of Christ and its reluctance to demonstrate love and grace to gay men during the initial days of the AIDS pandemic.

I did not and do not think it is appropriate to stigmatize a large group of men whom the Lord loves, dismissing them as unworthy of our love.

And,

Even today, the overarching consistent message coming from the Christian community has been one of stigmatization and warning.

Randy goes on to write an article about gay men that’s full of stigmatization and warning, spending a fair amount of print convincing the reader of his own depravity in the late 80s. It strikes me as suspect when he talks about friends seeming to drop dead during that time frame with no knowledge of what was killing them. This was 1988. Read more…