Having trouble combining your sexuality and your love for Jesus? Do those verses in the Old Testament that call for your stoning leave a bad taste in your mouth? Well, Exodus International and Focus on the Family have you covered. These two conservative Christian organizations together represent the central monolith of ex-gay ministry. And their Love Won Out conference is making its way across America, un-gaying one Jesus praiser at a time.
The conference ostensibly aims to, "help the global Christian church better understand and more effectively reflect biblical truth and Christ-like compassion to a hurting world." Er, what? No mention of homosexuality in your mission statement? That's odd. Or maybe it isn't. Clearly, the Love Wins Out website is inundated with perplexed members of the public. FAQs include, Are you here to "cure" gays? ("Absolutely not... We exist to help men and women dissatisfied with living homosexually understand that same-sex attractions can be overcome."); Doesn’t God love everyone? Even homosexuals? ("Absolutely, [but] God designed human sexuality to be enjoyed solely within the bounds of one-man, one-woman marriage. Any sexual relationship outside of that design – heterosexual or homosexual – falls short of God’s standard").
It seems the movement has wisened up and dropped the old tactics, such as "you chose homosexuality" (they now focus on the environmental "causes" of homosexuality which, even if valid, would not prove homosexuality wrong or unnatural, but I guess that's a technicality). They are merely reaching out, they say, to those who desire not to live the same-sex lifestyle. Forgive me if I don't stand up and cheer. Your bronze-age religion instills deep guilt, fear and self-loathing in otherwise healthy individuals, and then helps them deal with those emotions by encouraging their denial of self-identity? Onward, Christian soldiers!
Even a new documentary about homosexuality outreach is now circulating, teaching America that God loves you, no matter what... as long as you realize that your natural desires are dirty, filthy sin. Fortunately, the preview features a creepy slow-motion scene of a father tickling his son between his legs, as the over-voice tells us how to prevent homosexuality in our children.
But if you think the ex-gay movement is just a big downer, fear not! They are not all condescension and self-hatred. I leave you with this video of an ex-gay therapist, beating a chair with a tennis racket. Now that's good TV.
And it really helps to get the gay out.
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Comments
Look, we're not saying being black is wrong. Black people didn't choose to be black (environmental causes!).
We exist to help men and women dissatisfied with living black understand that being black can be overcome. It is not easy, but it is possible, as evidenced by the thousands of men and women who have walked this difficult road successfully.
God designed skin to be enjoyed solely within the bounds of a narrow, pale range on the color spectrum. Any tone outside of that design – from yellow to brown to black – falls short of God’s standard.
Common sense says homosexuality is a natural condition, passed along the evolution of the human genome for thousands of generations. However, why it has not been bred out long ago as an undesirable trait (from a Darwinian point of view) is puzzling. The driving force of evolution is passing along beneficial mutations through breeding across the species. But since the homosexuality trait refuses to jump into the gene pool by avoiding breeding (in general), then logically it is undesirable by sidelining potential breeders from procreating and passing along their other potential improvements for the species. So homosexuality should have disappeared centuries ago as adherents died off without leaving many progeny. But that is obviously not the case. If anything, homosexuality is making advances (at least in the non-Muslim world). So maybe there is something else at work besides genes in the expression of homosexuality?
Croce, three things to consider:
1. Same-sex attraction is almost certainly not ONLY a biological phenomenon, just as other-sex attraction isn't. We are all affected by our surroundings, upbringing, and culture.
2. If something is not entirely biologically based, that still doesn't mean we've chosen it or have any control over it, or should be ashamed of it, or should find it "unnatural." For example, my whole life, I have loved animals. I don't know if I have a gene that makes me like them, if it was my upbringing, my culture, or anything else. But I could not wish it away if I wanted to. It is me, no matter what caused it.
3. One can pass on same-sex attraction without being in the habit of only having sex with one's own sex. Bisexuals would pass on such a gene, homosexuals who feel culturally bound to
"be straight" would too, homosexuals and bisexuals who choose to have biological children would, and so would people with sexualities which change over time.
Good points, Carrie. I still think homosexuality must be more environmental than genetic. The ruthless gleaning by evolution to filter such a trait (that generally avoids procreation) suggests it can no longer survive in our genome, let alone thrive. So environment logically would be the decisive factor for homosexuality. But God alone knows the truth on this one.
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