Ex-Gay Watch

A feature-length film aims to tell the story of American teenagers sent to an evangelical Christian boarding school, Escuala Caribe, in the Dominican Republic. According to its website, the school is “therapeutic,” with a mission to help the parents of underachieving kids “train their child in the way he or she should go.”

Several past students allege “physical and emotional abuse” at the “boot camp,” however. Among those featured in the upcoming documentary Kidnapped for Christ are a teenager who says he was, essentially, abducted during the night to be taken from his US home to Escuala Caribe:

One morning I woke up. Two guys were at my house. … Both my parents were standing there, saying: “We love you, David. We love you.” … [The men] tied a belt around my waist, dragged me with the belt to their car. … I got sent down here because I am gay, and my parents, they just weren’t okay with that.

Watch the trailer below:

Escuala Caribe is run by New Horizon[s] Youth Ministry, which, according to its website, has recently been taken over by Lifeline Youth and Family Services, Inc.

Here’s a very telling paragraph from the school’s website:

Culture shock is a form of psychological disorientation produced by a sudden and complete change in one’s cultural environment. … [It tends] to make adolescents remarkably more dependent upon our Christian staff for direction and emotional support, while also rendering them more malleable and capable of new perspectives. Culture shock in a highly structured setting greatly enhances meaningful communication, offering young people extraordinary occasions for making enriching discoveries that inspire personal growth.

Hat-tip: Towleroad

The evangelical media is silent on recent scientific research into sexual orientation, according to Dr Warren Throckmorton.

The Grove City College psychology professor says his Christian audience routinely confirms there’s a blackout on up-to-date information on sexuality in the Christian media:

They know there is no gay gene but they don’t know about the significant brain, perceptual and cognitive differences reported within the past six years by various researchers around the world. … Many evangelicals believe homosexuality is due to abuse. Some will say with confidence that gays are more likely to be abused than straights but they are unaware of the actual magnitudes of difference. … Many evangelicals I speak to think that change of orientation is pretty common and the evidence is being suppressed by the gay-friendly media.

Throckmorton blames the “culture war” for this dearth of facts on the state of sexual orientation research. Read the full article: The Evangelical Blackout of Research on Sexual Orientation.

The Toronto-based ministry New Direction is controversial. As a former Exodus organization that now aspires to “bridge the gap” between Christians and LGBT people, both Christian and non-Christian, it invites suspicion from both sides.

On Saturday, I was honoured to be a guest at Relevant Engagement, New Direction’s annual fundraiser. Last year, I joined the event via livestream and later blogged about sociologist and evangelical pastor Tony Campolo’s message. This year, the format was different. There was no big-name speaker; instead, Executive Director Wendy Gritter invited a handful of people to join her in comfy armchairs on stage, and she interviewed them about how the work of New Direction had affected their lives.

After hearing those testimonies — in a room full of conservatives and liberals, gays and straights — I knew there was no doubt New Direction was doing good things for the LGBT people who came to it.

Hanan, a once-judgmental mother, bewildered and distraught when her child came out, said she had “learned to be accepting of people who are different than us.” She recalls:

At the first meeting, we were at the parents’ meeting … [and] one of the parents was introducing herself and her son, and she said … she is so grateful that the Lord has a gay child in her family. And I thought that was so odd to me at that time. But right now I’m at that point. I am thankful the Lord has put our son in our family.

Not long ago, Alison was a biological male named Bob. New Direction supported her through her transition. She isn’t a Christian and “may never end up being something anyone would recognize as a Christian, but it’s a moving journey right now, and it’s actually pretty wonderful.” As she left the stage, Wendy congratulated her: “You’re a woman of great courage.”

Sandy came out as lesbian in her twenties and became a Christian in her thirties. Believing her homosexuality was immoral and encouraged by her pastor to believe God could change her sexual orientation, she pursued change through Living Waters and went through years of denial. She became heavily involved in a Pentecostal church and eventually found her “connection to Jesus” was fizzling out, leaving her feeling “suffocated” by the burden of church and religion.

Now in her late forties, and with the support of New Direction, Sandy has returned to a liberating faith and has come to admit that “I’m just as attracted to women as I ever was, and I like guys, but it’s just not the same thing.” She has discovered that she “pushed down this really integral part of me,” and it did her a lot of damage. She is single, but after decades denying her sexuality, she is open to meeting a woman and having a relationship.

A mother learns to love and accept her gay son. A transgender woman finds support and affirmation. A lesbian puts aside denial and learns to be happy how she was created.

I didn’t need convincing that New Direction was doing good things. I’ve corresponded with Wendy for a few years and gotten to know her as a friend since I moved to Ontario a couple of years ago. I’ve never felt less than fully affirmed by Wendy in every aspect of my person, including my sexuality and my spirituality, as much as they both differ from the Christian norm. I hope others will take a look and consider what New Direction is about, however.

Watch the full video of Saturday’s Relevant Engagement 2011 below. The live interviews are at around the 1-hour mark; the broadcast also includes a talk by Wendy, some pre-recorded interviews and some amazing live music (kinda folky) by Canadian singer-songwriter Miranda Stone.

Video streaming by Ustream

Read more about New Direction in the Ex-Gay Watch archives, or visit the official website at www.newdirection.ca.

A 2007 study of sexual orientation change is back in the news following its publication in a scientific journal. But despite conservative Christians’ championing of the research as proof that gays can change, the article presents nothing new.

Stanton L Jones of Wheaton College, IL, and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University, VA, followed 61 subjects over about seven years of ex-gay therapy to assess whether homosexuals could change.  It was published by Inter-Varsity Press in 2007 as Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation.

Interested readers can revisit Dr Patrick Chapman’s three-part review of the study to see clearly why it fails — there’s no need to rehearse the flaws again, because what’s presented in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy (Volume 37) is essentially the same. Its negligible results offer little hope for gay Christians who want to do anything more than change their behaviour

The conservative Christian LifeSiteNews.com has already latched onto this old news with the grossly misleading headline “Major Study: Changing Sexual Orientation Is Possible,” but even the authors’ own press release downplays this claim:

In short, the results do not prove that categorical change in sexual orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful shifts along a continuum that constitute real changes appear possible for some.

To bolster its optimism, LifeSiteNews.com also throws in mention of NARTH’s 2009 report on sexual orientation change, a mere literature review falsely touted as a new milestone study. Robert Spitzer also gets a nod for his 2003 study, which has been used to prop up an ex-gay, anti-gay message, but the article fails to mention he has since denounced conservative abuses of his findings and says orientation change is rare.

An increasingly desperate Christian Right will try to milk this latest publication for all its worth, but don’t be fooled: Same study, same results, same flaws.

Update: Warren Throckmorton reminds us to mention Mark Yarhouse’s other recent study, which demonstrated that “ex-gay” men in mixed-orientation marriages change their behaviour but not their sexual orientation. Ex-Gay Watch also commented on this here.

The ex-gay LIFE ministry, in New York City, teaches gays and lesbians that their sexual orientation is sinful and must be changed.

Homosexuality is a psychological, emotional and spiritual disorder that can be overcome with prayer, deliverance and counselling, it says. It often comes with demons attached, according to leader Joanne Highley; if you’ve had any form of immoral sex, evil spirits have infected any cavity that has received an ungodly deposit of semen, whether it’s the mouth, the anus or another orifice. Once you’ve confessed the sin of homosexuality, your repentance is a process that ends with complete healing of all your gay desires. The journey involves breaking off all contact with gay friends, as they were never true friends in the first place.

LIFE is not the kind of ministry you get involved with, as a church, without some knowledge of just how extreme its message and its ministry really are.

In the Guardian‘s Comment is free today, I shed light on a major Liverpool church whose ex-gay ministry has its origins in LIFE. Joanne Highley visited the city multiple times to help establish it — and the connection is troubling.

Read: How Liverpool’s Frontline Church ‘Struggles’ with Homosexuality

In this video, gay journalist Ashton Elijah talks about his experience at The Ramp, a church ministry run by Damon Thompson in Hamilton, Alabama:

The interview above was filmed as part of The David Pakman Show. It featured in his July 4 podcast, alongside a segment about the dubious Marcus Bachmann, husband of Republican presidental hopeful Michele Bachmann.

See our previous coverage of Damon Thompson for more video of the Pentecostal preacher and his extreme anti-gay views and practices.

Where to begin dissecting the manipulation and abuse on display in this video of Pentecostal preacher Damon Thompson casting demons out of young gay and lesbian women? Thompson, who heads up fiery youth ministry The Ramp in Hamilton, Alabama, employs every trick in the spiritual abuse playbook to coax his young congregation into outing themselves as gay and then stepping forward to be exorcised of their demons:

Ashton Elijah, who was at the meeting in the video, describes his experience:

Damon called upon those who were struggling with homosexual demons to come to the front and be “set free from sin.” He and members of The Ramp began to work the crowd into a frenzy as they labored to draw people out of the closet and onto the altar. At first, only a few guys and girls came forth. But, aided by music, the ministry leaders continued to pluck at the heartstrings of every struggling gay kid in the audience, promising that if they would only make themselves known, God would grant them the deliverance they so longed for.

Over a period of forty minutes, kids approached the altar one-by-one — some admitting to same-sex attraction for the first time in their lives. Some fell to their knees in brokenness, rocking back and forth as they prayed for absolution; others stood with their arms spread out as tears spilled from their eyes. By the end of the morning, dozens had approached the altar hoping to lay their burden down.

Thompson’s display is like a tutorial in spiritual abuse. I experienced a similar religious atmosphere time and again during my days in the charismatic movement (which you can read about in my essay “Fantastic Voyage: Surviving Charismatic Fundamentalism“). Thompson hardly tries to hide his manipulation, audibly encouraging the worship band to “pick it up” in order to heighten the atmosphere and get more troubled gay teens to come forward.

The first time I came out was at a similar Christian event — loud music, concert atmosphere, persuasive pleadings and emotional appeals from the preacher. Thankfully, for this extremely fearful 15-year-old, the ministry I received once I went to the front was more low-key. I was taken to one side and, after sobbing my confession, I received a relatively short prayer from a band member. Since homosexuality was just one of the “problems” and “sins” named by the preacher, it wasn’t evident to any of my friends why I was there.

So I wasn’t exposed quite like these young people, many of whom appear never to have admitted their sexual orientation until they were manipulated into coming out in front of video cameras and a live audience of hundreds. As Arni Zachariassen observes, it’s “a terrible way to come out of the closet.”

Not only terrible but disgusting, shameful and abusive.

H/T: Reader Jeremy

Wendy Gritter of Canadian LGBT ministry New Direction urged her fellow Christians to stand against anti-gay bullying in a Palm Sunday message to her church yesterday.

Wendy highlighted two recent initiatives against homophobic bullying — Day of Pink and Day of Silence — and then had these words for her congregation:

In this time of confession, in this time of recognizing how quickly our own Hosannas can ring hollow, we, as the church of Jesus Christ, of all people in the Earth, should be standing in solidarity with those who are oppressed or are treated injustly for whatever reason. It ought not to be the world taking the initiative. The Church needs to stand up.

For those unfamiliar with the Christian story, Palm Sunday was the day when, according to the gospels, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, to be greeted with cheers of “Hosanna!” Less than a week later, the praise turned to betrayal, injustice and death on a cross.

Wendy’s daughter Arianna then sang Don’t Laugh at Me. Watch the video of Wendy’s short message and Arianna’s song below, or head to the original entry at New Directions’ Bridging the Gap blog. After that, browse the Ex-Gay Watch archives to find out more about the work of Wendy Gritter and New Direction.

An abstinence group based in Jacksonville, Florida, has ties to the anti-gay Ugandan activist Martin Ssempa, according to a report in the Florida Independent.

Project SOS founder Pam Mullarkey is quoted on Ssempa’s website as saying that Ssempa is “the most powerful voice for abstinence in the world and his passion, charisma and character make his vital message irresistible.”

Mullarkey refused to decry Ssempa when contacted for comment; instead she praised him. Other US evangelicals have disassociated themselves from Ssempa when pressed.

The Ugandan pastor is notorious for promoting misconceptions about gays in Uganda, including the myth that eating one another’s “poo-poo” is a defining homosexual practice. He has been the most vocal Christian supporter of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would result in the death penalty for gays.

An excellent piece by Patrick Strudwick in today’s Independent (London) details the author’s strange and disturbing experiences in ex-gay therapy in the UK.

It’s a refreshing article in that it focuses exclusively on reparative therapy, and tends not to dilute it with other aspects of the ex-gay movement. Strudwick begins his undercover investigation by attending a conference by Dr Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH. (We covered that conference here.) There he heard the usual Nicolosi myths, including the oft-repeated claim that “If you don’t hug your son, some other man will.”

Strudwick met two reparative therapists at the conference, and later consulted with them privately. His experience was shocking:

“Any Freemasonry in the family?” No, I say, again asking her to elaborate. “Because that often encourages it as well. It has a spiritual effect on males and it often comes out as SSA [same-sex attraction].”

Next, she looks for self-esteem wounds. “I think you have some unhelpful thoughts about yourself, about who you are,” she says. “What do you think about yourself? In the deepest part of you, in your stomach.”

“I think I’m a good person,” I reply. She wants more. “I think I am a determined person.” Still not enough. “I think I’ve a lot to give.”

“But do you like yourself?” she asks, becoming impatient.

“I think I’m a good person,” I repeat.

“Yes that’s different though from ‘do you like yourself?’ Deep underneath this there’s other stuff we need to get to. I think you must have had quite a lot of bullying.” No, I say. “There was no sexual abuse?” she asks, leaning in and squinting again. No, I repeat. “I think it will be there,” she replies, dropping her voice to a concerned tone. “It does need to come to the surface.”

And so, she prays for me again. “Father, we give you permission to bring to the surface some of the things that have happened over the years. Father, enable your love to pour into that place of isolation in that little boy, whatever age, we give you permission to go there, with your healing power and your light, go into those parts, open all the doors, and access each one with your light.”

She looks up. I ask her again about this abuse. “I think there is something there,” she says. “You’ve allowed things to be done to you.” In the next session I ask if she thinks the abuse would have taken place within my family, because I can’t remember it. “Yes, very likely,” she replies.

This session with an accredited psychotherapist and counsellor is a strange mixture of psychological mumbo-jumbo, Christian fundamentalist myths and a bizarre guessing game bearing more resemblance to a psychic reading than professional therapy.

Strudwick’s next session is with a married ex-gay psychiatrist, a follower of Richard Cohen. He says he can help men to “reach their full heterosexual potential.” Here things become even more bizarre. The psychiatrist admits he hasn’t entirely escaped same-sex attraction, and still experiences “unhealthy patterns of porn and masturbation, if I’m feeling a bit flat.” As therapy, he encourages Strudwick to experience sexual arousal:

I say that when men compliment me on my appearance it triggers sexual feelings. He probes again, asking me how I’m feeling as he talks about my body. Aroused, I repeat. But rather than moving away from this apparent sexual trigger, he asks if we can do an “exercise” around it. I agree.

“Close your eyes and focus on that arousal you’re feeling down in your genitals,” he says. “I want you to hear, as a man, as I look at your body, I see strong shoulders and a strong chest, I see a man who has an attractive body and I want you just to notice the arousal you feel as you hear me talking about that. Imagine an energy and picture that energy as a colour, and make the brightness of the colour relate to the intensity of the sexual feeling, so you might be starting to get a bit of a hard on, you might be starting to feel an erection and that sexual energy, but I want you to just picture that as a coloured light. What colour would it be?”

Red, I say.

“I want you to imagine that red colour, that energy and listen to the affirmations that I see you as a strong, confident man, and I want you to move that red light from your genitals up into your chest to join that feeling of affirmation as a man, and as you breathe in that affirmation do you notice now what happens to the arousal?”

I tell him it’s still there.

The piece is very revealing. It can be read in its entirety here.