Ex-Gay Watch

In an opinion piece for Christianity Today, Timothy Shah absolves American evangelicals from any responsibility for homophobia in Uganda and says the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is “a single legislative stunt by a single low-level politician.”

Shah responds to the claim that a 2009 conference stirred up anti-gay sentiments . The agenda of its American organizers, Shah says, was “therapeutic, whereas Mr Bahati’s bill is remorselessly punitive.” The reference is to David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who attended the conference and was later to draft the bill that would effectively put to death homosexuals and their supporters in Uganda.

Therapeutic? Perhaps Shah has not seen this video from the conference, in which historical revisionist Scott Lively explains his theory that homosexuals were behind the atrocities of the Holocaust and Rwanda:

Following the conference, chief organizer Stephen Langa, of the Family Life Network, continued to promote Lively’s so-called history of the “gay movement,” a fabrication that connects homosexuality to Nazism, communism and pedophilia. Lively later described his visit as “a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.”

Along with other commentators, we predicted an increase in anti-gay violence in Uganda — and it happened.

More video at BTB.

Scott Lively made a small splash by deciding to open a Christian-themed coffee house in Springfield, Massachusetts called “Holy Grounds.” People wondered aloud if this was a “new leaf” being turned over, but Lively made known that he would continue to serve as a conference speaker on the topic of homosexuality.

Now, it turns out that the man who advises parents to keep their children away from gays has himself employed a child molester to manage his establishment. Michael J. Frediani, 38, was arrested for failing to register as a level 2 sex offender in Springfield. He lived in an apartment above Lively’s shop.

In New York, Frediani was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse in the second degree in 1996.

The charge relates to an arrest by police in Canandaigua, N.Y., in 1995 in which the victim was an 11-year-old girl. The description of the offense was “deviate sexual intercourse.”

He was sentenced to two to four years in state prison, serving at the Midstate Correctional Facility from September of 1996 to February of 1999, according to Carole Weaver, a spokeswoman for the state’s Division of Parole.

Local authorities expressed concern that the business was becoming a haven for truant teens, as well.

Lively is of course the co-author of the infamous book “The Pink Swastika,” in which he falsely claims the Holocaust was perpetrated by a Nazi Party infiltrated by hyper-masculine homosexuals. Its claims have been consistently debunked, and Lively has become well-associated with outright hatred of gay people. His group “Abiding Truth Ministries” has been on the SPLC anti-gay hate group list for several years, and recently played a key role in the introduction of Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” bill.

Lively’s response to Frediani’s arrest?

Frediani had told Lively that he had a “rough past before he became a Christian,” Lively said, adding that he did not know any specifics and that he saw no need for a criminal background check.

“That’s the beauty of the salvation of Christ,” Lively said. “When you come to Jesus Christ, and you accept his forgiveness for your sins, then you are forgiven by Him and enter a new life. It doesn’t surprise me that he had a rough past, that he has a criminal record.”

Hat Tip: BTB

Scott Lively, the anti-gay activist whose conference appearance precipitated Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, is fighting back against the media’s “character assassination” of him.

In an email sent to supporters this week, Lively wrote:

Friends,

I’m looking for a good Christian media source to interview me on film on the Uganda issue for posting online.  I intend to get off defense and counter-attack the false witnesses with hard facts about Uganda and the dishonest way the media has addressed the story.  Please forward this to any pro-family journalists you know and ask them to contact me at sdllaw@gmail.com.

In the mean time, I have created a new category of news stories at DefendtheFamily.com under the title “Uganda.”  There are about 20 stories there now, going back to about 2003 which show the growing problem of pro-homosexual activism in that country, long before my 2009 seminar which is now being blamed for creating a climate of “homophobia” in Uganda. There are also numerous examples of liberal media propaganda about the anti-homosexuality bill.

If you happen to hear someone criticize me based on the intense, global anti-Scott Lively character assassination by these media, please refer them to our website, both to read the material there, but also to download Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the “Gay” Agenda which was the source of all of my comments and teaching in Uganda.

Thanks for standing with me through the firestorm,

Dr. Scott Lively

The media hardly needs to assassinate his character. His own testimony is sufficient: he is in favor of the criminalization of homosexuality, and opposes the death penalty only on pragmatic grounds, not on principle, as Dr Warren Throckmorton points out. Lively’s preferred solution is “rehabilitation” – in other words, forced reparative therapy for homosexuals.

Scott Lively’s ugly words speak for themselves – and for his character.