Ex-gay Gregory Quinlan of Pro-Family Network says all gays can not only change their orientation, they can all become lockstep, politically correct, social conservatives too.
Hence this petition — a series of insults and strawman arguments wedded to an online marketing and fund-raising campaign.
In addition to marketing Quinlan’s ideology, an e-mail announcing the petition also marketed these ex-gay propaganda items:
–Homosexuality and the Bible
A must for your library!
One of the most complete, chronological and exhaustive resources available! Covers every verse in the Bible, chronologically, from Genesis to Revelation, dealing with homosexuality, heterosexuality, sexual behavior, sexual perversion, gender creation, cross dressing, sexual sin, marriage and familial roles. By Gerald Wright.–7 Myths and The Medical Truths and Dangers about Homosexuality
With two audio CDs from former homosexual Stephen Bennett!Is homosexuality genetic? Can a homosexual change? Find out in these CDs!
Purchase supports Stephen Bennett Ministries!–The Report: The Gay Agenda in Public Education
How is the gay agenda being promoted in your children’s classrooms?Check out this video and learn what your kids are being taught about homosexuality in their public schools!
On sale $14.70 off! Only $5.25!
Ya gotta love the ad’s tackiness, if nothing else.
Pro-Family Network is not an Exodus affiliate.
That’s just plain sickening. Takes quite a bit of confidence on his part, too. The thing is, the really big groups on either side aren’t going to “admit” anything contrary to what they’ve said before, even if it’s true. If an individual decides that s/he disagrees with the ideas, there will be more individuals to take his/her place, barring a really huge sea change. This petition is rather like getting NASCAR to admit that they’re good for nothing but polluting the environment and getting drivers killed, or getting the NAACP to admit that slavery and Jim Crow were good things. And I think sexuality can be changeable in some instances!
I have never seen a gay right’s group say change in orientation is not possible. They usually state that it is not possible using the ex-gay’s methods and no one knows how to change it. Gay right’s groups usually preach acceptance of who you are. They preach your good enough now. You don’t need to change.
My own view is that sexual orientation can change in the same way that people can change…Not easily, predictably, or likely.
Gluttony is listed as a deadly sin and it is changeable. I wonder what would happen if a church started to preach that overweight people are doomed to burn in hell until they change or if they started to preach that while being overweight is not in and of itself evil acting on the inclination to eat inappropriately is. I don’t see any laws trying to insure that overweight people not get married, despite the fact that genetics plays a part. I will bet that Weight watcher’s and other organizations that help people loose weight probably have better track records than the ex-gay ministries…and yet they have failed to rid the world of overweight people who no longer want to be overweight.
Just more evidence that these operations are nothing more than businesses.
BTW, I am always amazed–and amused–at the number of these so-called “ex-gays” who set up “christian” ministries. They are obviously trying to milk the christian conservatives. I’m amused at the latter’s gullibility. But for the so-called “ex-gays,” I guess it beats working.
My best guess about what this is about is that the crazy right is, and has been for some time, trying to promote a new rhetoric, new buzz phrases, or, if you like, a new “big lie”. This lie is that tolerance of gays equals intolerance (of conservative Christians and of ex-gays). When you want to push this lie you use various means, and the Internet is one of the best means.
So the real audience for this petition may very well be to those out there who actually listen to the Christian right. It is a means of sending them the newest message and getting them onboard.
This and the “neo-pagan threat” — the other lie the Christian right is pushing right now.
These guys really are creepy, since I believe they know that this stuff is full of lies, is, in face, a lie. Therefore, those who put this out (perhaps not their followers who just accept it) cannot be “dialogued” with. Ultimately the only way to deal with them is to make them politically impotent. The way to do that is to ensure that the Republican Party does not believe that it needs them any longer. It is telling that Log Cabin and the Republican Unity Coalition top the list of groups listed by this guy. We might see his real enemy in that.
Prediction: Especially if Bush loses the next election, or, even if he wins in 2004, in 2008 when the GOP needs a new type of candidate, there will be a big fight within the Republican Party to maintain its power. This will be between moderates (McCainites and many suburban middle class Republicans) and the unholy alliance of Big Oil/Christian Right which seized the GOP in the 2000 primary fights against McCain. The moderates, who still maintain some support among rank and file Republicans, will recognize that riding the Christian right tiger and using patriotism is not a long term strategy, especially as the US becomes more multicultural.
If the upcoming fight in the GOP goes the right way it is possible that in about 10 years the Christian right may no longer be a player. This fight, and its outcome, may be more important than anything Democrats can do in this area, although Democrats can hasten this fight within the GOP by defeating Bush in 2004, which would produce a sense of crisis there.
Has the pursuit of money brought us to a place where we no longer care how it is obtained? How it affects the world around us or our childrens growth? The “ex” gays have carved the remaining soul from me leaving nothing but a vast empty space where hope once resided. My wife just became pregnant this last summer. However, allow me to assure you the child will be aborted as I refuse to bring a life into a world filled with such depravity and sickness that adult human beings have nothing better to do than sexually molest others of the same sex! If they are ex-gays Jesus is an ex christian! thank you,
Jon –
Aborting your already present child will do nothing to help the problem. Raising a child to understand how to love his/her neighbor and be an example of such a thing, that will make a difference.
There have always been and will always be despicable people in the world. If those who have made a difference for the better in this world we live were never born, the despicable would have won/will win. Perhaps, your new child will be one of those who make the world a better place. My request, at least as it relates to your post, is to not deny the world the possibility of one more reasonable and loving person.
Bob