Peterson Toscano posted a beautifully written narrative yesterday. He describes the almost prison-like atmosphere of the Love in Action program where physical and spiritual sustenance were strictly regulated.
The staff demanded all participants to attend Central Church, an Evangelical mega church with its own fitness center and congressman. No matter if you were Catholic, Adventist or Methodist, the program required each participant to assimilate into the white Evangelical Church semi-Charismatic tradition.
Peterson’s experience clarifies the need for rehabilitation and healing after having participated in this sort of “recovery” program.
No matter who you are, the program requires each participant to assimilate heterosexuality in the end!
Strict control is absolutely necessary. That is the fundamentalist way. Control the environment, the message, the behavior, all that goes in and–to the fullest extent possible–all that comes out. Break the person’s spirit and re-mold them in your own twisted image. Care not what damage you do in the process.
There was a Love Won Out symposium in my area this weekend and a number of us went to protest it. What really gets me now is seeing blog posts by people who seem to have genuinely bought the notion that the LWO people want to help LGBT people, and despite efforts to educate them otherwise remain blind to the truth.
This one in particular, which is a two part piece, is daunting. This type of person is almost worse than the frothing hater, because they truly think they’re doing good whereas the frothing hater at least knows what they’re doing.
https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/surprised-at-love-won-out-the-church-and-homosexuality-pt1/
https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/surprised-at-love-won-out-the-church-and-homosexuality-pt2/
Things like that don’t mean I won’t keep trying though…
Buffy, I’m not entirely sure I understand what you mean in relation to the blog you posted. As much as I disagree with the purpose and methods of LWO, I couldn’t in good conscience categorize them as “frothing haters.” (not that there are not plenty of them out there). Maybe I just misunderstood your comment.
How did your protest go?
I didn’t mean to imply that LWO were “frothing haters”. I save that pejorative for more radical groups. As to the blog posts, those were examples of one of the mindsets I have the most difficulty dealing with. That person truly believes that “Ex-Gay” ministries are beneficial for gay people, and that by going to symposiums like LWO one can learn to help LGBTs. Any attempts to explain the truth to
them seem to fall on deaf ears. It just seems, to me, more frustrating to deal with this sort of person than with one who is actually hateful (whether they openly show it or not).
As to our protest it went quite well. You can read about it here: https://gaytheistagenda.lavenderliberal.com/2008/04/12/truth-wins-out-trumps-love-won-out/
And the local paper did a piece also:
https://news.lavenderliberal.com/2008/04/13/mercury-news-covers-truth-wins-out-protest/
Pam, I also thought Peterson’s article was beautifully written. This part floored me:
Homoquotable!
Homoquotable! hey, that is my new favorite word!
I was working as an extra in a new Will Smith movie and I was sitting in a small knot of women. Three of us were black, one of mediterranian and ex-Jew (now Christian) background. It was this woman who mentioned an old friend who had convinced her he’d changed, but that his wife and two daughters mocked him because he wasn’t that masculine. She also said she fought with her daughter who is gay.
However, she firmly and tenaciously believed that changing was possible (as the ex gay industry also asserts), and that it was PREFERABLE than being gay is, after all and her religious belief confirmed that.
Alright, once she picked up on the fact that I was strongly (not loudly) confirming what it meant to be confronted with such an assumption and determination.
When she realized that I could articulate WHY in no uncertain terms how foul and insulting said assumption was…she couldn’t handle it. And since I wanted the situation to remain civil, I backed off.
But I warned her that she hadn’t considered her changed friend’s situation as a whole, nor that of gay people and that the love she felt she was showing because she wasn’t hostile to HIM, showed definite hostility after all.
She tried to appeal to the other two ladies to somewhat referee and see if I was the wrong one…but as it turns out…the other ladies told her also that she WAS assuming the other person’s feelings about themselves and what they were invalid, unimportant or necessary and that IS disrepectful.
I think she was truly surprised at their reaction.
And this is where ex gays like W. Throckmorton and his supporters cannot possibly say that they don’t get enough respect or opportunity to speak or that their position isn’t asserted enough.
W…T…F?!???
First of all, that such change occurs is waved LIKE A BIG FLAG in front of us by people who have known someone who renounced their homosexuality or went back and forth with it while married.
You can hardly EVER have a conversation about homosexuality without SOMEONE bringing it up and using it as a primary example why gay people DESERVE to have troubles if they are too stubborn and selfish NOT TO change.
Warren Throckmorton is the Neville Chamberlain of this situation.
I know I can come on strong in person, and I think that there are parents of gay children out there who won’t likely feel it necessary to be civil or patient any more if their kid comes home with bruises or doesn’t survive at all.
I won’t stand between those parents and Dr. T or that woman I met yesterday.
I gave them fair warning about what could happen next and why.
So if they get torn a new one, they couldn’t say I didn’t warn them, and I won’t say they didn’t deserve it.
There is life and death in the abstract for those who support ex gay ministry.
And there is life and death in reality….
And that makes the ex gay’s insistence that they require and deserve MORE attention (or support) they don’t think they are getting sound not only selfish….but a serious distortion of reality.
After my conversation with this woman yesterday, I could tear Nicolosi, Cameron and so on a new one myself!
LET ME AT EM!
That is SO true. It was one of the first responses i got from my mother, “THE BIG FLAG”.
You can’t speak with christians without addressing that at some point. Or the conversation will be moot and the proselytization will be indefinite, imho.