The Rev. Steven Baines is an elder in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
In a commentary published Jan. 26 at Advocate.com, Baines cites former exgay activist and author John Paulk as one of five high-profile scandals among antigay activists working for the religious right. The other scandals include the arrest of Lonnie Latham, the political corruption of Ralph Reed, the antigay bigotry and sexual affair of Monsignor Eugene Clark, and the gambling addiction of William Bennett.
Baines says:
The moral hypocrisy of many right-wing religious leaders comes from their fundamental misunderstanding of religion as the practice of a complicated and esoteric set of rules designed to restrict human freedom, rather than a way of living that frees individuals to lives of greater compassion and personal growth.
Baines suggests that repressive religion and the resulting self-loathing are a direct cause of scandalous behavior.
I agree with that assessment — but I think John Paulk’s high-profile outing is among the least scandalous of recent exgay controversies. The abuse of families by Love In Action, the reckless orgies of HIV-infected exgay activist Michael Johnston, and the professional disgrace of PFOX president Richard Cohen are more recent and more damaging to church and society. Furthermore, Paulk and Bennett apologized for their moral failings. LIA, Johnston, and Cohen have not repented of their scandalous conduct; some even maintain that their scandals are virtuous — God’s gift to the rest of us.
“Baines suggests that repressive religion and the resulting self-loathing are a direct cause of scandalous behavior.”
I think that it’s one of the causes of scandalous behavior. Two others are basic human weaknesses, and the corruption that power, greed, and lust bring out in people. One other cause is the need by some (if not most) people’s psychological need to point out other peoples’ failings and flaws in order to feel better about oneself.
Sadly, none of the above paint a very flattering picture of basic human nature, but a phrase that Baines used, “a way of living that frees individuals to lives of greater compassion and personal growth,” speaks volumes about the potential good that people of faith can do both for themselves and others.
As far as Paulk’s outing goes, to me all the ex-gay scandals are pretty much equal, as are the non-ex-gay scandals. It’s all pretty sad.
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I’d agree that John Paulk is far from being the most outrageous scandal.What Paulk did is — it seems — actually common place among exgays (even if few are so arrogant to combine a high public profile with attempts to skulk around gay bars etc and think they won’t be noticed). Such occassions are worth making well known, but actually shoul drate high on the yawn scale because they occur so often.But… the continued use of an unrepentant Cohen several year after he was proved to be an unethical “therapist”. The hiding of Johnston’s real life — likewise known about long before the news broke. The deceptive selling of “exgay healing” when the figures say otherwise. All those rate much higher than Paulk’s personal failure to be honest.