“Ex-gay” leader Frank Worthen and his wife Anita led a workshop on “Making Your Marriage Work” at this summer’s Exodus “ex-gay” conference in Virginia. Frank Worthen discussed the problem of “ex-gays’” same-sex fantasies while they try to make love with their wives. He said it would be prudent for the couple to wait a year after marriage before they attempted sexual intercourse. He told the “ex-gay” men that they would be ready for marriage to a woman “when their desire to be protected becomes a desire to protect.” Anita Worthen explained that “ex-gay” men experience erectile dysfunction with their wives and that wives must offer extra help here. But the couple warned against oral sex which, they said, could remind the “ex-gay” man of his attraction to “the homosexual lifestyle.” Frank Worthen recommended that the “ex-gay” men work out at the gym to build “hard and masculine” bodies in order to be able to enjoy the feel of their wives’ “mushy” flesh.
“We don’t believe in the word cure.” So says Exodus president Alan Chambers in a feature article in the Religious Right’s World magazine (July 30). But he then adds: “We believe no one is fully cured of sin until the end of the Christian life.” It is this shifting from discussion of sexual orientation to sin as such that confuses many supporters of the “ex-gay” movement. Nonetheless, reporter Jamie Dean notes the “homosexuality as a life-long struggle.” Failing to pick up on such dismal prospects, the charismatic movement’s Charisma magazine (August) calls Chambers “the gay community’s worst nightmare.”
John Smid, head of Love In Action’s “ex-gay” program in Memphis, once advised his charge, John Paulk: “The label of ex-gay is still connected with your past. … So from now on … you’re not an ex-gay; you’re a man. And not just a man, but a heterosexual.” (Not Afraid to Change by John Paulk). Paulk went on to lead the Focus on the Family’s “ex-gay” program, but after being caught on camera in a gay bar in Washington, DC, his leadership role was diminished and Paulk is no longer working in “ex-gay” ministry.
Smid admits that though he’s been out of what he calls “the homosexual lifestyle” for many years, he still has same-sex attractions. (Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 14).
Smid’s LIA “Refuge” live-in program is at the center of a controversy over a 16-year-old gay youth (Zach Stark) who wrote on his blog of his distress at being forced into that program by his Fundamentalist parents. His Web supporters call his parents’ action “child abuse.” His father, Joe Stark, counters that his son must learn that the homosexuality is a “destructive lifestyle.” According to psychiatrist Jack Drescher, chair of the American Psychiatric Association Committee on LGBT Issues, controlling programs such as LIA “may delay the child’s coming out for many years, but by the time they are ready to come out, there’s been a lot of psychological damage.”
The house rules at Refuge include a clients’ spending no more than 15 minutes per day behind a closed bathroom door, keeping their “bedroom doors open at all times, day or night,” and sleeping in “full pajamas (tops and bottoms) or a pair of non-underwear-type shorts and a T-shirt. Nightgowns are not allowed.” There is to be “no masturbation, no contact with unapproved persons, no private journaling, no wearing of jewelry, no sideburns below the top of the ear, no “tight, provocative, or suggestive clothing or spandex,” no T-shirts without sleeves, and no Calvin Klein underwear.
John Evans was one of the original members of Love In Action back in 1973. But he soon found, through prayer and Bible study, that what he’d been told about homosexuality was not true. And he also found that he and the others did not change sexual orientations through the ministrations of Love In Action. One killed himself and he and the others went on to accept their homosexuality. Yet the charismatic publishing house that first reported their “healings” refused to withdraw the book (The Third Sex by Kent Philpott) and, in fact, issued a reprinting.
For many years now, Evans has been associated with Evangelicals Concerned and has been in a faithful, long-term relationship with another man. When some people in Memphis contacted him about the Love In Action controversy there, Evans wrote up a summary of his experience. He noted that he’d just returned from a summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned and that, while there, he’d “met gay Christians who have an even closer relationship with Jesus. The Holy Spirit seemed to hover over the entire conference … and [it] seemed as if Jesus Himself was there saying ‘Come to me all who labor and are laden with the burden of trying to conform to the impossible conclusions of others, and I will give you rest.” He concluded: “I challenge Christians to investigate all sides of the issue of being gay and Christian. The church has been wrong in the past regarding moral issues and I am sure there will be more before Christ returns.”
“Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House” is Peterson Toscano’s one-man theatrical performance built around his two-year stint in a Love in Action “ex-gay” residential program in Memphis. In his long effort to become “ex-gay” he also tried Christian therapy, exorcism, pastoral counseling and other “ex-gay” programs.
Toscano writes in a PlanetOut.com Opinion piece: “I spent 17 years and over $30,000 in pursuit of the hetero impossible dream. In 1999, I finally came to my senses.” Observing that the “ex-gay” movement is trying to recruit vulnerable youth who are “coming out” as gay earlier these days, he states: “For years the Religious Right has slandered our community, accusing us of orchestrating a gay agenda that targets America’s youth. They claim that we recruit and convert young people. They have been wrong about this for years. … But now look at who, with evangelical zeal, is targeting young people, and then is attempting to recruit and convert them.”
In the interest of diversity, the American Counseling Association has succumbed to an “ex-gay’s” advocacy that the ACA endorse rights to “ex-gay” therapy. Citing the ACA Code of Ethics that states: “Respecting Differences: Counselors will actively attempt to understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of the clients with whom they work … [e.g.] how the counselor’s own cultural/ethnic/racial identity impacts her or his values and beliefs about the counseling process,” Rev. D. L. Foster secured this response from Larry T. Freeman, the ACA Manager of Ethics and Professional Standards: If a person’s same-sex attraction is an issue for him or her, “the person(s) should have the freedom of choice to seek appropriate treatment for it.”
A. Dean Byrd of the “reparative” therapy umbrella organization, NARTH, says: “This statement is welcomed by NARTH and by the numerous ex-gay ministries throughout the United States that are involved in helping individuals deal with these unwanted sexual attractions.” NARTH used to be The National Association for Reparative Therapy of Homosexuals. It’s now called The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.
Bisexuality in men is not confirmed by research. When men who claim to be bisexual rather than homosexual are fitted with penile volume instruments and allowed to watch erotic films, most were found to be aroused exclusively by male images. Psychologists in Chicago and Toronto did the research. According to psychologist J. Michael Baily of Northwestern University: “In men there’s no hint that true bisexual arousal exists. And for men, arousal is orientation.”
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force were upset with the politically incorrect finding that cast doubt on the “B” in the ever-expanding identity of the “LGBTQ …” movement and called for outrage against the New York Times for publishing it. However, gay writer Chandler Burr said that that reaction was “hysterical and anti-science,” adding that “those of us familiar with the scientific literature have known since, basically, forever [that] bisexuality may not exist among human males.” Gay syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage agreed, noting that “there’s a difference between someone’s true sexual orientation and their sexual capabilities.”
A psychiatrist who become a “biblical counselor” and wrote a Fundamentalist bestseller called How Christian is Christian Counseling?: The dangerous secular influences that keep us from caring for our souls, (Crossways) has admitted to molesting two male teenagers in his care in 2000 and 2003. Gary L. Almy was arrested in February. Because of the statute of limitations, he could not be charged in two other abuse allegations. Almy was part of the International Association of Biblical Counselors, a group that eschews standard psychiatric and psychological treatment.
Black pastors are organizing to fight same-sex marriage. Led by Bernice King, a daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bishop Eddie Long of Atlanta’s New Birth Baptist Church, Eugene Rivers III of Azusa Christian Community in Boston, Maryland megachurch minister (and former Fortune 500 executive) Harry R. Jackson and others, black clergy have formed High Impact Leadership Coalition. It is affiliated with Traditional Values Coalition and is holding a series of rallies around the nation. According to Rivers: “The paleo-liberal civil rights industry leadership has come to an end. [It] represents a philosophically and intellectually exhausted political paradigm” King says her mother, Coretta Scott King, while being an advocate for some gay rights, “does not believe in same-sex marriage.” Bernice King says her mother’s views have been “twisted by the majority media” and, according to Long, she, her daughter and Martin Luther King III “laid hands on me in reference to moving forward in that which her husband started.”
The four oldest black Baptist denominations (National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., Progressive National Baptist Convention, National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, and the National Baptist Convention of America), in a first-time joint assembly, have issued a formal denunciation of same-sex marriage.
Senator John Kerry is calling gay marriage “a mistake.” He is criticizing the Democratic Party of Massachusetts for its resolution supporting the right of gay people to marry and he calls that position “wrong.” He says he doubts “it reflects the broad view of the Democratic Party in our state.”
Garret Keizer is a Christian writer who criticized the Religious Right in Harper’s magazine and “compassionate conservatism” in Mother Jones. He’s also written an essay for the evangelical Books & Culture (published by Christianity Today). He asks: “If I give way to the same desire that informs the Christian Right under the pretext of opposing the Christian Right, what have I accomplished?” He cringes at “the temptation to distinguish oneself from the Christian Right for no other reason than to preserve one’s own respectability. I mean the temptation to care more about justifying oneself than about fighting for justice.”
Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker of Harvard adds his voice to the “gay gene” debate. In an Op-Ed piece in Then New York Times (May 17), Pinker recognizes the complexity of sexual orientation but grants that “in this case nature probably does trump nurture.” Noting that “homosexuality is a puzzle for biology,” he asserts: “Just as puzzling is the existence of homophobia. Why didn’t evolution shape straight men to react to their gay fellows by thinking: ‘Great! More women for me!’ Probably the answer lies in a cross-wiring between our senses of morality and disgust. People often confuse their own repulsion with objective sinfulness, as when they dehumanize people living in squalor.”
An introduction by Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff has been added to a newly packaged DVD of “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” Lewis B. Smedes’ interview on the church and gay people. Mel White interviewed Smedes and did the original (and retained) introduction. Smedes explains why he maintains that the way the church has dealt with gay people is the worst heresy in church history. Smedes, Wolterstorff and White have all been keynoters at EC summer connECtions. The DVD and VHS are available for $20 from GIFT – Smedes Video, PO Box 68295, Grand Rapids, MI 49516.
Kristen Chenoweth, Tony Award-winning Broadway actress and television star, was featured in a Homecoming interview by Gloria Gaither (July/August). Chenoweth spoke of her career and Christian faith but her recent New York Times Talk at New York’s Gay and Lesbian Center (“Broadway Divas as Gay Icons”) did not come up.
She has sung at gay rights events and in concerts of gay men’s choruses. When some gay activists criticized her for appearing on Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club” (to promote her new Gospel CD) she said: “Anyone that knows me, knows that I do not think of homosexuals as ‘abominations; and I disagree with anyone who thinks so. My best friend, who is gay, is like my brother, and like a son to my parents. … People of faith should be more like Christ was. We should not be judgmental; but rather, open-minded and open-hearted to people of other races, religions, and sexual orientations.”
Kirk Talley, award-winning Southern Gospel singer/songwriter (“Serenaded by Angels,” “Step into the Water,” “Always Enough,” “He is Here,” etc.) was featured in GQ magazine for August. After an attempt to blackmail him as gay in the fall of 2003, the blackmailer was arrested, convicted and sent to prison. But Talley was then targeted by a hate campaign (“Burn in hell,” “I hope you catch AIDS,” etc.) and he lost most of his music ministry. Nonetheless, he says: “Everything may have been crashing down around me, but my relationship with the Lord has never been in jeopardy.” Talley is now slowly recovering from the trauma of the last two years and supportive Christians are inviting him to sing at their churches. “It’s hard,” he confides. “I think that the audience expects to hear some miraculous story.” He says: “I am lonely,” but adds: “I am never alone.” His Web site is KirkTalley.com.
The Reformed Church in America has punished the president of one of its two seminaries by kicking him out of office, deposing him from his professorial office and defrocking him from Christian ministry. His offense? He officiated at thelegal marriage of his lesbian daughter and her female partner in Massachusetts.
Dr. Norman Kansfield, who served for many years at the RCA’s New Brunswick Theological Seminary, says: “Let’s provide a pastoral place for this conversation, and not ongoing judicial confrontations. We have no right to close our hearts and our doors to those on society’s margins whom Jesus would invite to dinner.” A Web site of support is found at FriendsOfNorm.com.
Currently, 115 Presbyterian congregations are affiliated with the “More Light” movement for the welcoming and affirming of gay men and lesbians. In June, 30 of these congregations observed “More Light Sunday.” The “more light” comes from a statement by Puritan pastor John Robinson, as he bid Godspeed to the Puritans bound for the New World: “God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the word.”
The United Church of Christ has voted in convention to become the country’s first Protestant denomination to endorse civil marriage for same-sex couples. This decision was not unexpected since the UCC is the most liberal Protestant church in America. At the same meetings, delegates approved a resolution that, while continuing to grant that Jesus Christ is Lord, does not require this affirmation as a “litmus test” binding on all UCC churches and ministers.
A hundred members of the Rainbow Sash Alliance were rebuffed at the communion rail of Minnesota’s Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday. Archbishop Harry Flynn had warned earlier that the high point of the Mass was not the place for an organized protest against the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
The Los Angeles City Council refused to pay for a ceremony in honor of antigay televangelist Frederick K. C. Price, though it did go ahead with the naming of a public square in his honor. Price presides over a Pentecostal megachurch in South Los Angeles.
The FBI is investigating antigay violence around America – arson attacks on gay-friendly churches, arson attacks on the homes of gay people, beatings and killings of gay people. Meanwhile, the U. S. State Department’s latest report on human rights condemns the treatment of gay people by foreign governments and documents employment discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and deaths around the world. A spokesman for Gays & Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies said he was encouraged by the release of such an extensive survey.
The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is working with Department of the Interior’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization to increase outreach to gay-owned businesses. NGLCC members were invited to ring the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange in June – the first gay group so honored.
More than a million Americans are living with HIV. The latest figures released by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that between 1,039,000 and 1,185,000 people in the U.S. were living with HIV at the end of 2003.
The CDC estimates that blacks account for 47 percent of the cases and that gay men make up 45 percent.
AND FINALLY:
Bill and Hillary Clinton sat on the platform with Billy Graham at his New York City Crusade on Saturday, June 25. Graham joked with them, saying that the former President should become an evangelist and “let Hillary run the country.” The Graham Crusade was picketed by Fred (“God Hates Fags” ) Phelps’ followers. Their signs said that Graham and all who listen to him are going to hell. On Sunday, Senator Clinton “was greeted like a rock star” (Gay City News) as she led the Gay Pride Day Parade down Fifth Avenue. During the weekend, Graham declined to comment on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, or the Gay Pride Day festivities – though the press tried to get him to comment.