PFOX President Richard Cohen appears to have suffered a meltdown following a televised debate with Wayne Besen. Wayne is author of Anything But Straight which devotes an entire chapter to Cohen’s bizarre antics. Following the debate Cohen sent out “prayer request” via email which is excerpted here:
MY SOS CALL RIGHT NOW IS THIS: WOULD YOU PLEASE PRAY FOR MY FAMILY AND MYSELF. I FEEL OVERWHELMED BY THE PRESENCE OF EVIL WITHIN AND AROUND ME. It’s hard to ask you for this, I feel a bit selfish, but it’s imperative, and this is war!…
…Right now, it feels like I can’t breath. THEREFORE, WOULD YOU PLEASE PRAY FOR PROTECTION. There is great spiritual warfare happening, and I really need your loving prayers to surround myself and my family. I’m not saying this to be selfish. I’m asking this so I might continue to battle, stand up and crack this puppy wide open.
Coming back home on the train, I cried as I prayed and I promised God that I will not rest until I figure out how to deck this immoral, paper tiger. That is my commitment.
To view Cohen’s entire email please see Besen’s post.
From the look of it, “this puppy” has already cracked wide open.Perhaps he has a conscience after all — deep down somewhere — and all that buried guilt and shame is about to explode outwards as he implodes inwards.Rather than prayers and donations, I’d suggest a therapist. A real one, and one who hasn’t been thrown out of their professional body for an ethics violation. And preferably one who will not pander to his unreal world in which people are demons and the lie is a truth.
In an ideal world, there would be a transcript of the actual show.
Watching both guests call each other liars afterward doesn’t tell me much — though at least Besen’s book documents his allegations in depth. Cohen offers nothing to substantiate his assertion that Besen was lying, nor does he offer any facts to substantiate his extreme (and irrelevant) claims that same-gender attraction is not in any way inborn and that anyone can “change.”
I read Cohen’s email on Wayne’s site, and I see a lot of indications of serious mental illness there– panic, feelings of persecution, bizarre language (“bust this puppy wide open”), incomplete thoughts, convoluted logic. It’s really disturbing. He needs help.
In a lot of ways, people who get really deep into the ex-gay culture remind me of people in abusive relationships, and one thing you see in abusive relationships all the time is that the victim lives in the abuser’s reality. That is to say, the abuser creates a completely illogical, absurd worldview and imposes that on the victim (“I drink because you nag me about my drinking.” “If you weren’t so stupid, I wouldn’t have to beat you.”)
I look at someone like Richard Cohen, and I see somebody who’s living in that world that his abuser created for him, and his abuser is the ex-gay movement.
And one thing I learned from dealing with people in abusive relationships, is you start breaking down that world that the abuser created, and the victim panics. I mean, really panics! Because that’s the only world the victim knows.
Please continue to keep on top of this, I would really appreciate updates as to what is going on with this guy… He has my prayers.. that He will still feel God’s love no matter what identity he finally chooses… I just hope he stays alive through this…
Mike A.I checked at Comcast Channel 8 and it appears neither transcript or even an online of the show is avail. I’m hoping someone in a C8 area will do us the honours… It would be good if Besen could do that, but we know how busy these celebs are…Even without that transcript, Cohen’s email makes rather disturbed reading — and, jeepers, I’d personally love to know how to make grown men weep and wail on public transport 🙂 I’m afraid I’m never going to cause it on my looks alone…
Does anyone find the use of the metaphor “bust this puppy wide open” to be really gross? Or is that just me then?
No SarahS, it’s not just you. I’m not even sure what it means.The whole email is full of violent symbolism that, while I know it’s commonplace in some “tent revivalist” traditions, I find rather alarming to witness. It suggests someone about to lose their mind completely — I get the same queasy feeling when “trouble” starts at a bar room pool table… hence a reason for avoiding such places 🙂
In reading about Cohen, the bio provided by Wayne Besen…and others.
Cohen was ripe for a breakdown.
And the analysis above seems correct. Cohen has been a victim of his abuser’s reality and the walls around him are crumbling and he’s in a panic.
Without homosexuality to blame for all your failures, then he’s got to be wondering why he’s STILL so messed up.
Ricky boy….we tried to warn ya.
I’m shocked to see Cohen’s full email. Amazingly unGodly in my opinion. I agree with Mike. It’d be nice to see Cohen substantiate some of his allegations against Besen.
I agree Cohen’s email is bizarre. And I agree the violent imagery is out of line for someone who believes he’s working on behalf of Christ. I do not agree that this constitutes a meltdown. In my opinion, he’s simply using the language and emotional punch his audience/financial backers respond to.
Cohen is one of the worst of the worst in the ex-gay business, and his Sterns appearance and recent email prove it.
SarahS “Does anyone find the use of the metaphor “bust this puppy wide open” to be really gross? Or is that just me then?”
One of the funniest things about the anti-ex/gay movement is their constanst misuse of metaphor. They just aren’t very structured in their thinking. The most recent example, from the FOTF article about CDC is:
“This is like pulling back the curtain so the whole world can see that the Wizard of Oz is really just a man and that the Emerald City is really a house of cards.”
Did this guy even see The Wizard of Oz? The first half of his example is literal (the Wizard is just a man) and the second half is a metaphor that doesn’t even apply.
However, I agree that “bust this puppy wide open” has got to be the king of really truly bad imagery.
Of course if we had said it, James Hartline – or some other kook – would have issued a press release about how gays all want to torture puppies.
Yeah, Timothy. And what’s even more sickening (although this is going totally off-topic, sorry XGW) is that Dr. Dobson wrote about abusing his own dog in his book The Strong-Willed Child.
One quote:
“What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed. As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!” […]
“But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. JUST AS SURELY AS A DOG WILL OCCASIONALLY CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF HIS LEADERS, SO WILL A LITTLE CHILD — ONLY MORE SO.”
It was so fun to grow up with parents who read only Dobson for their parenting information, and who considered me “strong-willed”…
Thanks for reminding me Annika…I remember reading that part of the book and having a flash of my grandfather telling me that only a coward would abuse an animal (and before you ask, nothing I had done — it was in a story in a newspaper.)To beat a small dog (or, a child — given the tone of his book about child rearing) suggests a repressed but raging violence at “the World” that is taken out against the weak, the vulnerable and the invented enemy.Ugh, I think I just described Dobson to a T…
I find this article post a little pathetic… this email was obviously private, and paints Wayne Besen in a negative light. Big deal. I love to read Wayne’s private emails about ex-gays and see what parts of his unconscious he’s projecting. As for a ‘meltdown’, WRITING IN CAPITALS DOES NOT EQUAL MELTDOWN. IT JUST MEANS HE’S BEING EMPHATIC. Believing in evil and sin? Well, considering that Richard’s a follower of the Christian faith. this doesn’t surprise me. So being a person of faith and writing in capitals equals meltdown? Give me a break.
Nope. It was a meltdown.
Playah – you seem to be quite involved in the ex-gay movement. Are you ex-gay? Are you part of an ex-gay ministry?