On Monday Exodus sent out an emails proudly announcing the current Time Magazine cover story on gay teens which in my opinion gives a respectable amount of time to advocates on both sides of the issue. Stephen Bennett however is all worked up in a tizzy and today’s Agapepress headlining article is filled with his inane bitching. I refuse to believe someone as whiney, prissy and emotional as Bennett’s conduct in this article can possibly be straight.
The evangelist notes, “One of the lines in there that really struck me as just an outright lie — and there are many in there — says, ‘The appearance of so many gay adolescents has predictably worried social conservatives, but it also has surprised gay activists, who for years did little to help the few teenagers who were coming out.’ That’s a complete lie. The Human Rights Campaign for years has had a major campaign helping teens to come out.”
We’re debating ONE program here which I have never even heard of. Apparently the Agapepress hasn’t either since today’s article is the only mention of it they’ve ever made. I’m sure glad the Agapepress is keeping me informed about such a HUGE program by never writing a single article about it.
[Time’s] article reports that, from young ages, “straight kids are growing up with more openly bisexual, gay, and sexually uncertain classmates.” However, Bennett asserts, “This article is filled with tons of misinformation, mocking of Bible-believing Christians, of people who have come out of homosexuality such as myself and who are happily married now.”
Time Magazine’s author makes the common knowledge statement straight kids are growing up with more openly gay peers. Bennett immediately counters by accusing the article of broad misinformation and mockery of exgays. I’m left scratching my head. Do they proof read these things for making sense?
As head of Stephen Bennett Ministries (SBM), the Christian spokesman works to combat the kind of misleading, pro-homosexual propaganda he sees in the Time article. SBM believes no one is born homosexual; that unnatural homosexual attractions tragically develop early on in the childhood; and that homosexuality can be overcome by dealing biblically with the root causes of same-sex attraction.
ALL OF THIS drivel was presented in the Time article because it included interviews with ex-gays who presented the ex-gay perspective. Why is he still whining about this? I’m sorry I can’t take any more; I need to go bang my head against a wall. Stephen Bennett just needs to deal with the fact Time chose to interview ex-gays who are rational and coherent.
Stephen, this little tantrum of yours is VERY sterotypically gay.
Dan,
Whininess, prissiness and emotional insecurity are not necessarily attributes of gay folk. You can see lots of these demonstrated by straight folks any day of the week on daytime television.
Let’s be careful that we don’t start believing the stereotypes propagated by those who seek to oppress us.
Let’s face it: the whole ex-gay and evangelical kabal is going to denounce anything that doesn’t depict gay people as sick and emotionally immature as “pro-gay propaganda.” Bennett’s carryings on only prove it.
Unless the article stated unequivocably that glbt people are all going to die, they’re not going to be happy with it.
Stephen, this little tantrum of yours is VERY sterotypically gay.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that 🙂
Didn’t the Time article comment that many of the Exodus Youth Day participants were more stereotypically gay than the very “out” kids from the Point foundation (a gay group)? Is this a trend?
Timothy,
What makes you think gays aren’t all whiny, prissy and insecure? Are you sure you’re gay?
;-D
I keep telling you folks that SB is a prancing queen, despite doubts expressed here that he was ever actually gay 🙂 I haven’t seen the Time article yet – but my son who is a 15-yr-old high school student in a small rural town told me recently that several of his male friends identify as gay, including two who are out as a couple. Things have certainly changed since I was a teen.
Stop beating your head against anything!! Don’t let this Bennett loser get to you. If he didn’t have his “ex-gay” con he’d have to go out into the real world and really pretend to be straight and forge a relationship with his “wife” instead of hanging with gay people under the pretense of “healing” us.
As a straight supporter, I don’t especially like those attributes of whiny, bitchy or anything like that to say anything about all gay folks either.
Or at least if he’s like that he MUST be gay.
For shame Dan!
I just wrote Chad Thompson.
I take issue with those on his side of the aisle saying how much they are attacked by GAY activists or GAY people, then have this wide eyed complaint that they don’t know why.
I’m also VERY tired of those who represent Exodus to say that THEIR beliefs and opinions are to be given equal share and respect as anyone else’s.
But why?
History and empirical evidence already has revealed who is right.
Yet Stephen Bennett keeps asserting that HE and the others like him are.
Well, neo-Nazis still exist too, regardless of Holocaust history. And the round house defeat of that regime.
Go figure….brain freeze maybe?
I pointed out to Chad T. that his lectures validate an already powerful and deeply held conditioning that gays can change.
And he’s forgetting that rights and freedoms are suspended on condition that gay people are OBLIGATED to change or forgo even the protections of the Bill of Rights and Constitution if they don’t or don’t remain silent.
And that this already widely accepted and prejudicial system AGAINST gay people is what has done all the damage!
We have history to inform us of this, not some unknown process yet to reveal itself.
Heterosexuals have been in brutal control, force themselves and THEIR identities on gay people and unabashedly expect gay identity to be suppressed literally by any means necessary.
So when I see a person like Stephen Bennett cut loose…or a Chad Thompson, I don’t see a person who wants to acknowlege the power of the prejudice leveled at them from their youthful first stirrings with gay identity.
I see people who deny it, and yet capitulate to it.
Stephen Bennett is obssessed in a different way and commits his energies more negatively, of course.
Chad represents someone, however sincerely and compassionately he wants to enjoin the issue, capitulated while very young to the prejudice around him.
How effective can you be to tell other’s not to do what you yourself couldn’t resist doing?
A person that lectures to do as I say, not as I do….is pretty weak, no?
Oh yeah…and lemme say something about those Point Foundation kids…
I tell you there is so much genius and strength of character in these kids, I can’t BELIEVE their parents and government would want to waste the brain trust and courage to persevere these kids have!
WTF?!
How many marginalizations of talented minorites are we going to pull on humanity before we understand that this difference is the genius of God?
Brady said:
“Didn’t the Time article comment that many of the Exodus Youth Day participants were more stereotypically gay than the very “out” kids from the Point foundation (a gay group)? Is this a trend?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if the “ex-gays” got teased a heck of a lot more for being gay than the out kids which made them to be a bit more likely to fall prey to exodus due to self esteem issuses.
Right on Jason!
If the parents or peers of a kid get a whif that he…or she…looks or acts the stereotype those peers are taught to watch for, it’s time to crusade against the ‘suspiciously gay like’ kid.
This anti gay conditioning of ALL youngsters is never addressed in Exodus or Desert Stream.
And it’s dangerous to ALL kids..if a kid who isn’t really gay, but THOUGHT to be is assaulted too.
I had a minister tell me that gays feel guilty and that’s why they hate being gay. They know it’s wrong.
I tried to say no…it’s a response to the overwhelming conditioning around them.
It’s not guilt, but anxiety regarding threat.
Fear from threat is very different from guilt.
He was black, and often repeated what growing up in Jim Crow Georgia did to his feelings.
I asked him, if white kids or the white social hierarchy had never been taught to hate your color…
would you say that YOUR response and anxiety to Jim Crow was guilt…or anxiety from the threat that white people posed?
I reminded him that heterosexuals threaten gay kids constantly, just as white people threatened black people constantly.
There was no trust involved and betrayal could be brutal.
Gay kids are at even more of a disadvantage because their OWN parents could be just as cruel as the outer society.
He didn’t want to accept those factual terms regarding guilt and threat.
Doesn’t make them any less true in context.
Prejudice is as prejudice does and no one who denies the threat against gay kids can’t deny they have no prejudice against gay people.
Yeesh, what horrendous grammar I have here.
I meant to say that anyone who denies the threat against gay kids, cannot deny they have no prejudice against gay people.