Evidently it’s a slow news day over at AFA’s AgapePress, which decided to reprint a fluffy little interview from last month with Stephen Bennett whom, and here’s the big shocker, has absolutely nothing new to say.
(Actually I lied, he’s got a new CD for sale on his website and something that huge clearly deserves this 1,300-word AFA lovefest article.)
“But these are men and women who unfortunately have been rejected from day one — by their own families, by friends, by their peers.”
“There’s no doubt about the fact that the Bible calls homosexuality an abomination.”
“One of my favorite analogies is that the thing a smoker hates the most is an ex-smoker. It’s the same situation with homosexuals.”
*Yawn*
Bennett closes by stating that since Lawrence V. Texas and the advent of marriage equality in Massachusetts his phone has been ringing. This once again alludes to how ex-gays are utilized to deny civil rights to happy, healthy, and self-affirmed gay Americans.
“But when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas, that really jolted many pastors. And then when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalized same-sex marriage, churches really got nervous, and then our phone started ringing. It’s been nonstop ever since. Last year we ministered at over 50 churches and events.”
dan, thanks for posting this! it makes perfect sense that the spectre of gay marriage would kick the right’s interest in the ex-gay movement into high gear. ex-gays are the anti-liberty crowd’s “ace in the hole” for why rights shouldn’t be given to us sinful gays.
i also think that it will be gay marriage that eventually dooms the ex-gay movement itself–or at least makes it more marginal than it already is. once gays can legally marry, what societal impetus is there to try to change their orientation? a generation of gays will grow up knowing that they’re okay the way they are…and they’ll tell anyone who wants them to “change” to take a hike.
i can’t wait! 🙂
(it goes without saying that the option to live as an ex-gay should and will *always* be available to people who hate being gay. my point is that after gay marriage, far fewer people will choose that option).
side note: i read stephen’s interview and my opinion of him hasn’t changed. he sounds like a genuinely nice person, and is clearly happy and fulfilled as an ex-gay. more power to him!
for those who wish to be ex-gay, i’m sure he serves as a great role model. for the rest of us, it’s frustrating that he generalizes his own very dysfunctional life as a gay man as some kind of universal gay experience.
I agree with Joe that same-sex marriage can significantly reduce the ex-gay movement in numbers and influence, but I think it can also reduce the number the closeted queers in opposite-sex marriages and avoid related domestic issues in the long run. Same-sex marriage, among other factors, can increase the acceptance of queers in society and that would definately lead to more queers coming out of the closet, knowing they have a more secure future being honest with themselves and their community.
Who knows? Perhaps the future of maintream social conservatism will advocate that not only society should recognize same-sex marriages, but that gays should get married to someone of the same sex.
Bennet’s showing lots of hair. I guess that’s supposed to be an indication of virility. Or, one might ask, is that a wig?
Lest anyone wonder, yes, I’m being cheeky.
ya, I really wanted to make fun of him for that but now that I’m a co-author I hafta act a little more professional. But yes, everyone’s hair is pretty bad.
Well the hair may be odd for our tastes, but rest assured, they’ll look downright FABULOUS on Paul Crouch’s network!
I’ve never heard of Paul Crouch, but one thing that occurred to me:
(And I’m quite serious about this)
Are these people like Bennett unable to sustain their popularity with their target audience on their own talent? Or do they believe that they need to buttress themselves by claiming to be “ex-gay”? And by bashing equal rights for gay people.
If Bennett wants to sing (let me do a little German) so-gennante “Christian” songs to a so-gennante “Christian” audience” (“so-gennante” means “so-called”), who would care? I wouldn’t. If he wants to do that, fine. But that doesn’t give him authorization to bash equal rights for gay people, which is what his ultimate message is.
Big hair. Claim to be “ex-gay”–for commercial purposes, of course. I’m sorry, babe, some of us aren’t stupid. There are a lot of stupid people in the US of A, though.