Ex-Gay Watch

(Note: The relevant texts to this episode can be found here (adb/pdf)), and/or you can view the whole thing here.)

With that, we begin.

Dr. David Kyle Foster is the producer and co-host of a show called “Pure Passion.”:

David founded Mastering Life Ministries in 1987 and has been its director ever since. He is also the producer and host of “Pure Passion” – a televised outreach designed to equip the church to redemptively minister to those who are trapped in sexual sin and brokenness. … The goal of the program is to tell the world of God’s grace and love through Jesus Christ and His power to set anyone free from any sin or bondage.

Foster has a series of articles on homosexuality, rife with all the stale yet vicious antigay talking points:

Kyle Foster, 2008: The reality [of homosexuality] is a dramatically reduced life expectancy and the likelihood of contracting hepatitis, AIDS, or one of a host of diseases and infections, as a result of the unnatural perversity of homosexual activity.

Suicide among homosexuals is epidemic, not because society disapproves, as many would have you believe, but because these dear people feel trapped and condemned into a lifestyle and orientation that they know is out of whack.
–
And the faithfully monogamous gay couple myth – not even close. Such relationships are statistically nonexistent in the gay community.

On December 21st, 2009, the host of the show was Jayson Graves, a board member of Exodus International:

Welcome to Pure Passion. I’m Jayson Graves, and I’m your host for today’s program.

Today we have a man who has lived with the HIV virus for almost 30 years. His name is Jonathan Hunter, and since 1985 he’s been the director of a ministry to those with the AIDS virus, called “Embracing Life.”

After overdosing on drugs, he also had an after-death experience which utterly changed his life.

In my opinion, this episode exploited Jonathan Hunter’s near-death experience (NDE) in an attempt to convince their audience that there is now eye-witness testimony—proving once and for all—that Jesus Christ Himself is anti-gay.
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Re: “New Jersey State Senator and NAACP’s Bond Support Genderless Marriage While Rejecting Ex-Gay Rights” [12-9-09]

“…major scientific studies and mental health associations have stated homosexuality is not innate,” said Regina Griggs, director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX). “No scientific evidence has found a ‘gay gene.’ No DNA or medical test can determine if a person is homosexual. Sexual orientation is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration…”

“Sexual orientation is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration.”

Try it like this:

Human sexuality is a matter of self-affirmation and public declaration.
—
Apparently you’re not human until you say so in public.

Building on David Robert’s post on the Richard Cohen portion of The Rachel Maddow Show, Randy Thomas, Vice President of Exodus International, had some things to say about the exchange.

Randy Thomas: I am going to share a review of the actual interview and then move into how I believe she, and some other militant gay activists, are missing the point with regard to Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill.

Transcript, edited for brevity, emphases mine:

MADDOW: But you have told them, particularly in your book, “Coming Out Straight,” which I understand you donated multiple copies of to this organization that‘s promoting this bill. You‘re telling them exactly what they need to hear in order to justify the kill-the-gays bill. I mean, your book portrays gay people as predators who must be stopped to protect the innocent.

COHEN: Oh, no, no, no.

MADDOW: Let me ask – I‘ll just read from your book, OK? Page 49, “Homosexuals are at least 12 times more likely to molest children than heterosexuals. Homosexual teachers are at least seven times more likely to molest a pupil. Homosexual teachers are estimated to have committed at least 25 percent of pupil molestation; 40 percent of molestation assaults were made by those who engage in homosexuality.”

This is the claim that you make in your book that exactly feeds these folks who want to execute people for being gay, what they need in order to justify that. Do you stand by what you said in your book?

COHEN: Actually, you know, that one particular quote, when I do republish it, reprint it, we will extract that from it, because we don‘t want such things to be used against homosexual persons.

MADDOW: That quote is cited – you cite somebody named Paul Cameron as the source of that book.

COHEN: I see that they‘re using it, but you took that one little quote out of a 300-page book.

“you took that one little quote out of a 300-page book”

That “one little quote” may be edited out of Cohen’s next revision, but it’s a paltry excision in light of the other “little” quotes in his book.
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Randy Thomas, Vice President of Exodus International:

Freedom of speech which expresses a difference of opinion on morality and spirituality is not a crime.

The following is a case of one of the hackneyed headless monsters that the anti-gay industry loves to trot out, especially in regard to hate crime legislation that includes protections for minorities on the basis of sexual-orientation and gender identity.

In an article on the EI blog called “Canadian Decision Protects Freedom of Speech For Religious Views,” Mr. Thomas links to another article titling “Alberta judge rules anti-gay letter not hate speech, overturns ruling”:

A Court of Queen’s Bench judge has ruled an anti-gay letter written by a former Alberta pastor in 2002 was not a hate crime and is allowed under freedom of speech.

Justice E.C. Wilson overturned a 2008 ruling by the Alberta [Canada] Human Rights Commission that the letter by Stephen Boissoin that was published in the Red Deer Advocate broke provincial law.

Mr. Thomas then had this to say:

The step backwards came when freedom of speech was taken away by the oppressive will of the government through the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

Alberta Human Rights Commission:

Discrimination re: publications, notices
3 (1) No person shall publish, issue or display or cause to be published, issued or displayed before the public any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that:

(a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a class of persons, or

(b) is likely to expose a person or a class of persons to hatred or contempt…

The reasoning goes; since it happened in Canada, it will can happen here. Except for the fact that Canada does not have the First Amendment which protects religious hate-speech from interference by the U.S. government. (Westboro Baptist Church, anyone?)

Despite the absence of this protection in Canada, their judicial system sided in favor of Mr. Boissoin. Ergo, even their system worked in favor of free-speech.

One of the things Mr. Thomas, et al, neglects to mention, is that Egale Canada (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) refused to take up the case against Reverend Boissoin:

We believe that sunshine is the best disinfectant.

I concur. The suppression of hate-speech does not solve the root of the problem—the climate that allows for hate-speech to flourish.

But let’s take a look at the example Mr. Thomas chooses to defend free-speech with on a moral level.

Here is the full text of Stephen Boissoin’s letter to the Red Deer Advocate that Mr. Thomas describes as  ”provocative”:
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Vision America, an organization formed by Baptist minister Rick Scarborough, has issued a press release concerning their involvement with the newly announced “Freedom Federation.”  In it we find a little more about this organization which is “not an organization.”

Scarborough commented: “These organizations represent some of the nation’s largest constituencies of youth, Hispanics, African-Americans, women, pastors and churches, who are uniting to defend a tradition increasingly under attack.”

The Freedom Federation is committed to defending and extending core values expressed in the Declaration of American Values, the organization’s founding document. These include the right to life, the institution of marriage, parental rights, religious liberty, an environment free of pornography and indecency, the right to property, freedom from excessive taxation, and national sovereignty. The statement is posted on the Vision America website at www.visionamerica.us.

The Declaration of American Values was apparently written by Liberty Counsel‘s Mat Staver ( playing the part of Thomas Jefferson).  Staver also wrote the Florida amendment denying marriage (or anything like it) to same-sex couples (which passed).  This new declaration contains a list of ultra-conservative activist top hits, including:

To secure our national interest in the institution of marriage and family by embracing the union of one man and one woman as the sole form of legitimate marriage and the proper basis of family.

Reading through it was a bit eerie for reasons I can’t yet describe fully.  Partly, at least, must be the melodrama of using the Declaration of Independence as a template for something like this.  It has more than just a bit of Constitution Party to it.

Scarborough apparently made his bones in the early 90s by “exposing” a local AIDS awareness curriculum that dared to claim that sex was “safe with condoms.”  While this was not an uncommon statement to make in 1992, it seems the frank discussion of sex in general, transcribed for his congregation, was enough to create a new conservative activist out of Scarborough.

In 1992, Dr. Scarborough gained national recognition when he exposed the contents of a disturbing assembly program at the local high school. Under the auspices of an “AIDS Presentation,” a young lady, sponsored by the AIDS Foundation of Houston, candidly discussed every sex act imaginable expressing the opinion (presented as fact) that “safe sex” was attainable by using condoms. Dr. Scarborough recorded the assembly and then made transcripts available to his congregation the following Sunday morning. The resulting furor that erupted caught the eye of the national media.

Scarborough has also written a few books including In Defense of Mixing Church and State, and Liberalism Kills Kids.  As we said, definitely something to watch.

According to Reuters, a press conference in Washington D.C. today at 1:30 pm EDT will announce the formation of the Freedom Federation.

The Freedom Federation is a new and unique federation of some of the largest multi-ethnic and transgenerational faith-based organizations in the country committed to plan, strategize, and work together on common interests within the Judeo-Christian tradition to mobilize their grassroots constituencies and to communicate faith and values to the Religious, social, cultural, and policymaking institutions.

The organizations list some of the usual suspects in such an effort, including some of the most shrill in the anti-gay realm, along with a few with which we are not familiar.

American Association of Christian Counselors
American Family Association
Americans for Prosperity
Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND)
Campaign for Working Families
Catholic Online
Concerned Women for America
Conservative Action Project
Eagle Forum
Exodus International
Faith and Action
Family Research Council
High Impact Leadership
Liberty Alliance Action
Liberty Counsel
Liberty University
Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN)
Marc Nuttle
Morning Star Ministries
National Clergy Council
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
Renewing American Leadership
Strang Communications
Teen Mania
The Call to Action
Traditional Values Coalition
Vision America

The inclusion of Exodus in this list caused us concern as another breach of president Alan Chambers pledge to veer away from policy matters.  Even with these few details, it is obvious that this group is going to be heavy on policy.

So we asked Chambers for an explanation and he gave us the following statement for the record.

I am attending a meeting today for the formation of a new conservative coalition made up of a wide variety of groups on a wide variety of topics. Because there will be focus on gay and lesbian issues I was invited to join the coalition and to speak. My stated purpose for being there is not to rejoin the policy debates or to engage Exodus in them. We have made great efforts over the last two years to be a ministry focused on spiritual renewal and not political renewal. We know that nations change when the hearts of people change. Today when I address this group, some of whom are friends that I deeply respect, I will do so, ironically, on behalf of the gay community. My overwhelming message will be that God is deeply in love with the most adversarial of gay activists and that as these groups do battle over policy they must never forget that fact.

I was asked to speak at the follow up press event, which is the notice you received, and decided instead to serve only as a testimony to my conservative colleagues in a meeting prior, which I believe will serve as a reminder that it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance. I imagine there will those who shout amen when I speak today and those who will write me off because I am no longer activist material. Either way, I hope at the end of the day what I share encourages my fellow Christians to treat others as they would like to be treated and when they find someone who is struggling with unwanted homosexuality that they will think of Exodus.

It is not entirely clear from this whether Exodus has joined or will join this group officially, but this reader doubts that — even with good intentions — anyone could substantially alter the mindset of this brood of vipers.

We should have more details after the press conference, but this may be one to watch.

Discredited anti-gay researcher Paul Cameron was guest speaker at a meeting of the Christian Council of Britain last month. Cameron used the opportunity to claim that homosexuals are responsible for 29 percent of child rapes and murders.

It is hard to say which is worse: Paul Cameron aligning himself with the far-right, nationalist Christian Council of Britain, or the Christian Council of Britain aligning itself with the virulently homophobic Paul Cameron. We know all about Cameron, but here’s a sample of where the CCB is at:

The Christian Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland resolved that it recognises that all men are of one blood (or proto-race) in Adam through to Noah; and that from that one race divergent sub-races have historically devolved – Russian doll-like – (Genesis 11:1-9) so that we are now different, though related, races and nations of men, all of whom God has made (Psalms 86:9); which are each to bring their glory into the kingdom of God (Revelation 21:26). The Christian Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland therefore resolved to recognise the godly importance of race and nation as groups based on this historical and providential process of objective descent: giving rise to different organically-formed communities; sharing and passing-on common genetically inherited (physical, intellectual and character) features, together with cultures, mores, relationships, loyalties, memories, and identities-in-common; and ultimately – by the will of God – national homelands, where an ongoing connection between land and people has developed, and can be encouraged and preserved (Acts 17:26). The Christian Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland recognises these facts and privileges, especially with regard to the historic British people whose land this is. The Christian Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland therefore resolved especially to welcome the British as such a People, and as individuals, into membership.

In other words, other races and cultures are fine; just don’t let them into our country. Elsewhere, CCB founder Reverend Robert West said that “the mixing of races challenges the glory of God”.

The CCB grew out of the racist British National Party (BNP), to which West – a councillor in his native Lincolnshire – later defected when he was ousted by the Tory Party. See these documentaries for evidence of the BNP’s ugliness, which it tries hard to disguise. British religion blogger Richard Bartholomew has documented the CCB, West’s career and the BNP connection extensively, beginning here.

What are we to conclude? That evidently neither Paul Cameron nor the Christian Council of Britain are fussy about the company they keep.

Here on the Ex-Gay Watch I know I frequently point out logical fallacies in logical (or perhaps better said illogical) arguments, and my peers here do the same thing. My peers and I have noted ex-gay and ex-gay affirming organizations — such as NARTH and Exodus International — often use Statements Of Conversion to make their points, vice referencing statistically sound research or widely recognized subject matter experts.

Backing up a little, a Statement Of Conversion is where a person asserts that he or she used to believe one way, but now has a rejected that previous belief, and now because he or she has personally experienced belief in both sides of a particular argument that he or she is now a topic authority. This is a version of Argument From Authority — where the speaker is claiming to be, or has been asserted to be an expert, and it’s implied that because the person is an expert he or she should be trusted.

Americans For Truth‘s President Peter LaBarbera has recently used a Statement Of Conversion in his recent article Great News: IL Student ‘Trans’-formed by the Christ of Christmas! to argue for donations, and argue “change is possible”.

Long story short, suburban Chicago high school student John identified last year as transgender student Joanna, but now has converted back to John. From Peter LaBarbera’s telling of the story:

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Father, give us grace and mercy. Father, help us this next week and a half as we go into national elections, and Lord we pray for our country. Father, we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed.

These were the words Ted Haggard used to open his sermon last Sunday. And until this week Ted Haggard was one of the most influential religious voices in the nation. Haggard was pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, the head of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals, and an advisor to President Bush on evangelical issues. Now he is none of these things.
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From Focus on the Family’s ‘Love Won Out’ Conference Comes to Woodstock; Message That ‘Change is Possible’” to Be Shared in Georgia on Nov. 4:

“The issues surrounding homosexuality have become so politicized in recent years, that it is easy for people to forget how deeply personal these matters are. We hope to change that,” said Melissa Fryrear, director of Focus’ gender issues department and a conference speaker. “Love Won Out is a conference that reaches out to those who are hurting and offers them a message of understanding and of hope.”

An brief examination of Melissa Fryrear’s media release statement for Focus on the Family (FOTF) :
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