From the Spartanburg Herald-Journal via an XGW reader and also blogger Pam Spaulding:
Spartanburg, S.C.-based Truth Ministry (an Exodus affiliate) has posted three antigay billboards in the Greenville-Spartanburg region.
Spaulding points to a father’s testimonial by Bill Creech, co-director of the organization’s outreach to relatives of gay persons. Spaulding practically flays Creech, but my own assessment is mixed.
Creech acknowledges feeling initial parental guilt over his son’s homosexuality, but it isn’t clear whether he still blames himself. Creech concludes that he must continue to love his son unconditionally, but he is silent about the political ramifications — does he oppose discrimination in employment and job benefits? Does he support access to marriage or civil unions? Does he view homosexuality as something worse than his own sins? Does he treat gay churchgoers as second-class Christians? Lots of questions, which seem obvious to me, are not addressed.
The ministry’s executive director, McKrae Game, is an Exodus regional representative for numerous Southern states. His testimonial is typical of exgays who are confused or lacking in self-esteem and therefore find it difficult to reconcile their sexual attraction with balanced, healthy living and mature relationships. He claims to have discovered “all that the gay life had to offer” — but it seems to me that he discovered very little if that life consisted primarily of bars and sexual encounters. Game comments, “I simply wanted to be loved and accepted, but all I was getting was being used.” His feeling is understandable, but I believe the blame is misplaced: Instead of proactively loving and accepting, and relating to other mature individuals who do likewise, it seems that Game (like many people with low self-esteem) waited for life to love him, and when it didn’t happen, he retreated to a refuge of victimhood. Again, that defense mechanism is by no means limited to exgays.
In the end, Game got married and says he’s happy. I’m glad he’s happy. But it isn’t clear from his testimonial whether, or how much, his sexual orientation has changed.
Three of four staffers listed on the ministry staff page are affiliated with the same home church, First Baptist North Spartanburg, and one of the billboards is posted outside that church. The ministry claims to have 10 additional volunteer leaders, but declines to identify most of them. One of the volunteer leaders, Rae Jean Lipscomb, is a licensed professional therapist who counsels wives of gay men. But the ministry clearly states that it has no licensed counselors on staff.
The ministry’s statement of beliefs refers to all forms of homosexuality “whether in practice or identity” as a singular sexual addiction. But none of the staff are qualified to diagnose addiction, much less treat it; Game’s own claim to have been addicted first to masturbation and then to the camaraderie of a gay bar indicates a layperson’s misunderstanding of mental health, which (I fear) is then taught to families seeking the ministry’s assistance.
The ministry’s testimonials are all positive — and there would be nothing wrong with that if this were a retail e-commerce site. But it’s not. It’s a site claiming to improve the mental health of clients, and I believe such advertising ought to meet a higher standard of accuracy. Clients should ask to be informed of a truthful range of outcomes, not just the successful ones. And clients — paying ones, in particular — would also benefit from testimonials reflecting the diverse gender roles, types of attraction, lifestyle, religion, and self-esteem of people who are same-sex-attracted. The ministry’s current testimonials are confined to the ministry’s “experience-based” counseling tactic which relies upon counselors’ personal biases rather than objective and well-informed guidance.
Addendum/Conclusion: I have few doubts that the ministry operators are sincere and well-intentioned. However, I remain skeptical of this ministry’s assumptions, outcomes, unstated politics, and its limited understanding of diverse gay populations. Without a broader understanding of gay demographics, the ministry will lack appeal among — and may inadvertently offend — the majority of same-sex-attracted persons who do not fall within the exgay target audience of individuals with low self-esteem, gender-role confusion, compulsive behavior, broken families, and limited exposure to religious faiths.
Spartanburg is a conservative area — I’m not sure why they think they need to advertise there. It’s not like gays are wandering around aimlessly.
I noticed that some of the testimonials were nothing more than, “my child is gay but at least now he knows there are ex-gays, so cross your fingers.” No mention that some of these children have any desire or plan to become ex-gay.
I get some time to spend with Photoshop and I’d like to redo that billboard a tad… Something along the lines of “Are you Gay or Lesbian and don’t want to be? There’s Hope for change.” And a picture of the usual assortment of smiling faces, but with a slightly different message:
We learned to accept ourselves as we are. We found we could live full and productive lives, find wholesome and fulfilling romance, and reconcile our religious beliefs with our sexual orientation. You Can Too!
Sure…Alan would probably call that recruiting. But it isn’t. It isn’t a matter of trying to coax heterosexuals into becoming homosexuals, but of telling homosexuals they can reach that place of self acceptance. That isn’t recruiting, it’s affirming.
I think that the key to the ex-gay problem is education and critical thinking. Far too many Evangelicals never have learned how to think critically except to negatively criticize the outside world with a sort of cult-like doomsday worldview. The key to critical thinking is to view various options, views and to question all of them, including your own belief system as was taught by your pastor or parents. This is not disrespectful but is based in wisdom and can be very healthy in helping people grow in a respectful more Christlike faith (living as Christians instead of judging and pointing fingers)as opposed to being extreme and judgemental.
Love is the bottom line and I don’t think very many Evangelicals understand what unconditional love really is yet they expect their Savior to love them that way without their having to love others that way with an authentic love.
From the Truth Ministry site:
No one on staff at Truth Ministry is a licensed counselor, nor do we imply this in any way. We refer to ourselves as “experience-based” counselors. In this capacity we counsel out of knowledge gained from our own personal experiences in leaving homosexuality and relational brokenness as well as from the Word of God.
They can refer to themselves as whatever they want, but they appear to be amateurs doing what can be just as life threatening as a lay person performing medical procedures. If they really believe in what they are doing and how important it is, why don’t they get the training and become licensed to do the work? Or hire someone who already is? And what is their liability should someone commit suicide while under their care?
And you bet there needs to be a higher standard for these kinds of claims. Can you imagine a similar organization set up to treat bipolar or schizo affective disorder? How long would that be tolerated?
PS: No, I’m not equating being gay with being schizophrenic, but the people seeking help from these places may have any number of genuine problems.
David
James at January 9, 2006 09:30 PM
Spartanburg is a conservative area — I’m not sure why they think they need to advertise there.
Maybe because they are advertising for adherents who will give them money. You may believe that I am beating on this money issue out of spite, but I can assure you that I am not. Religion in the US is a retail operation, and the only way that these “establishments of religion” will increase their particular income is via advertising. That is the purpose of these bill-boards. Advertising to prey on the rubes’ fears.
BTW, Spartanburg is the location of BMW’s American assembly plant. I would never consider buying a BMW. BMW stands for Bayrische Motoren Werk, a car manufacturer headquarted in conservative Catholic Bavaria. The heck with them.
ReasonAble at January 10, 2006 02:18 AM
They have absolved themselves of liability by admitting that they aren’t licensed. Anyone can become a counselor: a couch and a chair and voila! a counseling session. If you believe I am kidding, I assure you that I am not. Freedom of speech, freedom of association, what more would you expect? The admissions on their website that they have no licensure absolves them of any liability. Truth in advertising.
You may have a point, raj. A lot of older people live there, and the younger people who didn’t move away are probably somewhat conservative. I don’t know how much money they have though. To me South Carolina is just such a strange choice for this. Financially the state is not doing well, so they won’t be getting tons of financial reward from these billboards, unless they bring in some wealthy fundamentalists who are attracted by the ads. You would think those people were already supporting them.
I just feel sorry for the gays and lesbians who have so little to count on and now they might see their relatives disown them and try to guilt them into brainwash therapy.
South Carolina has a ban on marriage/civil unions/who knows how much more on the 2006 ballot. This site is trying to help defeat the amendment.
https://www.scequality.org/
“The ministry’s testimonials are all positive — and there would be nothing wrong with that if this were a retail e-commerce site. But it’s not. It’s a site claiming to improve the mental health of clients, and I believe such advertising ought to meet a higher standard of accuracy. Clients should ask to be informed of a truthful range of outcomes, not just the successful ones.”
“I have few doubts that the ministry operators are sincere and well-intentioned.”
Posted by Mike Airhart at January 9, 2006 06:41 PM
Mike, I can’t see how ministry operators can be considered sincere when they knowingly and consistently grossly exaggerate their success rates.
Ben said “The key to critical thinking is to view various options, views and to question all of them, including your own belief system as was taught by your pastor or parents.”.
I think this is extremely important Ben, one cannot have the most accurate perception of reality possible if one does not regularly ask themselves “How might my beliefs be wrong?”. If one’s view of reality is intentionally biased from neutral consideration of the evidence (one is opposed to the ill-named religious concept of “moral relativity”) that person will make faulty decisions.
David, Raj – powerful and important points you both raise.
ReasonAble at January 10, 2006 02:18 AM
“If they really believe in what they are doing and how important it is, why don’t they get the training and become licensed to do the work?”
David,
I’ve found that often conservative Christians have a strong aversion to the psych profession. They are suspicious of trained therapysts and consider bible-based counselors to be better than godless human secularists.
For that matter, some avoid medical professionals as well. It’s trusting in the hand of man instead of the hand of God.
Yeah, it’s a little nutty.
Randi Schimnosky at January 10, 2006 11:33 AM
“Mike, I can’t see how ministry operators can be considered sincere when they knowingly and consistently grossly exaggerate their success rates.”
Randi,
I agree with you partly. But I don’t think all of the local ministry operators make the nutcase claims. I’ve seen some articles quoting local ministry leaders in which they pretty much admit that they have no idea how successful they are because they don’t follow up once people leave them.
They also seem to believe the propaganda themselves. In many ways they are as much a victim of the deceit as are the gays who come to them.
I do fault Chambers and the other national leaders – they know better. The locals just trust what they are told – and if they have to decide what’s true between good Christians and those evil homosexual activists, of course they’re going to believe Exodus’ lies.
It would be ironic if exgay ministries claim (more or less) to trust God and the Bible over reputable and knowledgeable therapists:
The exgay groups’ beliefs about homosexuality are tied to the claims of the reparative therapy movement. RT, in turn, is based in the dated and often-erroneous guesses of Sigmund Freud, who spent much of his career criticizing religion.
Timothy Kincaid at January 10, 2006 01:31 PM
I’ve found that often conservative Christians have a strong aversion to the psych profession.
Just to remind you, there are two psych “professions”. One is the psychologists, and the other is the psychiatrists. There is a difference, but I do not know by how much. The psychiatrists maintain the DSM, but that’s about the only distinction that I can discern.
Just to remind you, there are two psych “professions”. One is the psychologists, and the other is the psychiatrists. There is a difference, but I do not know by how much.
My understanding is that the discipline of psychiatry embraces the physiology of mental illness, as well as mental processes and behavior, verses psychology, which only deals in the latter. For that reason, I think, only a psychiatrist can prescribe psychiatric drugs.
It may be a moot distinction among fundamentalists though.
Bruce, psychiatists are medical doctors, who have gone on to extra training. Psychologists are not medical doctors.
I have no idea whether psychologists can prescribe drugs.