Focus on the Family’s Mike Haley and National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality founder and president Joseph Nicolosi have participated in the making of a DVD called “The Condition of Male Homosexuality.” It is described on the NARTH website as “an excellent introduction to the conditions that lead to male homosexuality, and how to begin the journey toward wholeness.” Presumably one must spend the $12 to find out just what “wholeness” means, but we can probably take a guess.
While NARTH often claims to be a secular, scientific organization, this would seem another example of their heavy collaboration with James Dobson’s politically active Focus on the Family. According to NARTH, the DVD was “recorded at a Love Won Out conference.” Love Won Out is the Focus sponsored traveling conference where members of Exodus, NARTH and Focus on the Family spread their message that being gay is abnormal, unnatural, unchristian and unhealthy – not to mention unnecessary because “change is possible.”
Since Focus on the Family is not only in agreement with NARTH but is indeed an active partner, we have to ask what James Dobson, et al, have to say about this. Would they be so silent, so distant if the Schoenewolf paper had made insensitive, trivializing remarks about the struggles of Christians and, instead of NARTH, had been posted by GLSEN?
From 101 FAQ’s about Homosexuality — Mike Haley:
#12 My son just told me he is gay. He says he’s finally accepted who he is and that he’s never been happier. Can this really be true?
–“The key…is for him to realize it is not too late to turn back…In the meantime, I advise you to pray that he becomes as miserable as possible, as soon as possible, and that God will protect him through it.”
(Mike Haley’s idea of infinite Love and infinite Power.)
In the meantime, I advise you to pray that he becomes as miserable as possible, as soon as possible, and that God will protect him through it.
This is important in that it explains the category in which Mike Haley places being gay. However, to be fair this is not necessarily as sadistic a concept as it might seem. For those unfamiliar, the idea is that a believer is subject to correction by God, not so much as punishment but as a way to make sinful or wrong behavior unpleasant and in so doing cause the believer to turn away from it (hitting bottom is a similar concept). If the son in the question had been involved in criminal or other immoral behavior, the prayer that God make the person miserable quickly is actually a way of asking for mercy, i.e. help him hit rock bottom quickly and protect him along the way, in the hope that he can turn around before getting seriously hurt or destroying his life.
Some may disagree with that sentiment, that’s not the point. Mike Haley obviously considers being gay a very immoral thing.
Obviously at $12 it’s not going to be produced in the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray version? I probably will see it as a perfect stocking stuffer for Christmas from some of my relatives. Oh joy.
Mike Haley’s kind comments remind me of the quote from my sainted mother, bless her soul:
“I’ve been praying that God would kill you before you have the [GRS] surgery. But… [begin tears and sniffling] …I am afraid He isn’t going to.”
I felt so loved, I can’t tell you.
When someone loves you enough to ask God to slay you, well then, you are REALLY loved.
David I agree with your sentiment to a point. The bigger issue as I see it – and I’m sure you already get all this – is that the focus is on the experience of misery, not on seeing that the misery is the consequence of accepting one’s homosexuality.
If my child says they accept their addiction to drugs as part of who they are, my turning them in to authorities may cause them to be miserable, but the fact remains that their misery would be the result of me and not the result of the drugs they were doing.
The illogic expressed in his “advice” drives to the heart of the issue. That sin is arbitrary and the only thing necessary to see something as wrong is the belief in the Bible.
The real issue lies in his ignoring the need to establish the causal connection between action and consequence. In so doing he circumvents the very logic necessary to establish that homosexuality itself is indeed wrong, and thus the cause of the misery being experienced.(homosexuality=misery)
It’s the motive of the prayer that is immoral, to oppress as opposed to empower with understanding. Ignorance of their own authoritarian mindset is not an excuse for the negative consequences of it.
He very easily could have said to pray that her son become miserable to see HOW that misery IS-THE-RESULT of accepting his homosexuality. Perhaps the implication was intended, but personally I find the lack of clarification at best to be an inexcusable and egregious oversight.
So in accordance with what you wrote, this doesn’t just explain the category he places “ being gay” in, but explains the category in which he places the very nature of right and wrong itself in, and ultimately, his idea that “God is love, absolutely.” -also from the book.
SharonB: “When someone loves you enough to ask God to slay you, well then, you are REALLY loved.”
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-And how much more so when they’re actually willing to share that sentiment with you…
What was that newspaper ad campaign against hate-crime legislation? Something like “gay activists think that we ex-gays are more important dead than alive.”
It’s so ironic, all the hell they CREATE for others in order to avoid it for themselves.
Someone should get a copy so that we can do a line by line rebuttal just in case some poor kid or parents actually tries to search the net for more information.