For a time after its founder D. James Kennedy recently passed away, there was hope that Fort Lauderdale-based Coral Ridge Ministries would go in a new direction.
For decades, the church had been a rabidly anti-gay organization that had employed attack dogs, such as the notorious Janet Folger. The church spearheaded the 1998 “Truth in Love” ex-gay campaign. (It ended badly after two of the campaign’s stars were caught having gay relations) But since Kennedy’s departure, Coral Ridge had been relatively quiet on divisive social issues.
Unfortunately, it seems their new pastor, Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, wants to reignite the culture wars. His General in this fight is Robert Knight, a veteran in these battles. Knight had recently been laid off from the Media Research Center’s Culture and Media Institute. He had also worked for Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council.
Already one can see Knight’s deleterious influence on Coral Ridge. The website’s homepage is packed with shameless lies about hate crime legislation and it also promotes theocracy in America. (This brings us back to Kennedy’s dishonest days when the pastor even flirted with Reconstructionsism – a brand of Christian fanaticism that calls for homosexuals to be stoned to death.)
Knight is best known for his paranoid – if not delusional – rantings about the gay movement’s secret desire to stamp out the free speech of radical Christians. He is one of the right’s most nefarious propagandists and is severely truth challenged. Knight is also known for his sexual immaturity and penchant to make crude anti-gay wisecracks. At one event I attended, he joked about chubby lesbians in beer halls. Knight is also obsessed with gay sex and is closest in tone to Peter Labarbera. The two men worked together in the late 90′s at the Family Research Council and were like bosom buddies.
It seems that preaching the Bible was not enough to sustain the congregation – so Coral Ridge has returned to anti-gay bile. On the sun-drenched shores of Fort Lauderdale, Coral Ridge Ministries is still in the spiritual darkness.
The president is now taking spiritual guidance from no less than five different pastors, whom he phones for advice at moments of stress or when making big decisions.
But a year after the incendiary rantings of Rev Wright threatened to derail Mr Obama’s presidential campaign, revelation of the “dial-a-prayer” sessions has prompted critics to declare that he has a new “pastor problem”.
That has enraged Obama supporter Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, a New York organisation which campaigns against the “ex-gay” movement in the church, which insists that homosexuality is nothing more than a sinful lifestyle choice.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: “I think Obama’s got another pastor problem. There’s a tendency to surround himself with these anti-gay preachers which is very offensive. These are people who believe that we are sinful and sick and that you can pray away the gay.
“The notion that Obama can’t find a pastor in America who doesn’t have these outrageous extreme beliefs is baffling to many of us.”
Campaigners say that by talking to those with the views of Bishop Jakes, the president sends the wrong message to his gay supporters who had hoped for a new tone from the White House after eight years in which George W. Bush used wedge issues like opposition to gay marriage to drum up conservative votes.
Mr Besen said: “He’s giving credibility to people who are virulently anti-gay and promoting discrimination. The president has given these homophobes his stamp of approval. He has given them a platform. By elevating these extreme elements, he’s hurting our community.” He suggested that Mr Obama should consult Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay head of the American episcopal church, whose ordination sparked a split in the worldwide Anglican union.
“Why not have Gene Robinson in that five?” he said. “There’s a person of courage and integrity and the kind of international leader that Obama should look towards. It’s very disappointing.”
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) is teaming up with various anti-gay legal groups to intimidate GLBT campus organizations in high schools, colleges and universities. They are threatening to sue if these organizations don’t distribute the bizarre theories of Richard Cohen.
It is hard to believe, but Cohen is the former President of PFOX. They still promote his books and training sessions. And, if you ask for a speaker – they will likely send you Mr. Cohen – who was expelled for life from the American Counseling Association. If PFOX tries to get into your school, simply show administrators this clip of Cohen from the documentary, “Chasing the Devil.” It is clear, based on this clip – and his record – that disseminating PFOX’s material may put students at risk. Any responsible school that protects its students will not allow PFOX near its campus.
On Thursday, TWO’s Wayne Besen appeared on FOX’s O’Reilly Factor to discuss the Pope’s comments that condoms make the AIDS epidemic worse.
On the way to Africa this week, the Pope spoke about condoms. He said they make the AIDS epidemic worse.
“You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.”
How many people is this man willing to see die to defend his outdated dogma? Can the Pope show us a population where HIV increased because of condom use? Of course not!
“There was one key point that I did not get to make during the show, due to time constraints,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “The Catholic mouthpiece Raymond Arroyo falsely claimed that abstinence was more effective than condoms. This is true, if you live in the Pope’s dream world. You know, a world where the Vatican did not shuffle around pedophile priests. But, in reality, people who make virginity pledges, usually fall short of their goals.”
Here is the truth about the Arroyo’s abstinence fantasy:
* * A January 2009 study reported in Pediatrics, shows that such programs are a fraud, with teenagers who pledged to avoid sex until marriage as likely to have sex as other students. The teens that took virginity pledges were also less likely to use birth control pills or condoms than those making no promise. (Janet Rosenbaum, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of population, family and reproductive health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.)
** Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a report in 2004 that found 11 out of 13 curriculums that preached “abstinence only” were rampant with scientific errors. In another study, researchers found that those who took so-called “virginity pledges” refrained from sex merely eighteen months longer than those who had not made such a pledge. However, the pledge-takers were six times more likely to engage in oral sex. “The Values Virgins” were also much less likely to engage in protected sex when they finally broke their pledge or to be tested for an STD. Disease rates between the two groups were similar.
Maybe the dogma works for the Pope and Arroyo. But, it apparently is not very effective for the rest of the world.
Exodus International’s “Love In Action” residential ex-gay program in Memphis, Tenn. promises to free participants from shame, sexual temptation, and spiritual doubt.
But survivors of the program know that LIA often worsens participants’ shame, their feeling of separation from God, and their sexual temptations. For all that trouble, LIA fails to change most participants’ sexual orientation — and it subjects family and friends to weekend “retreats” that consist of verbal and emotional abuse against parents.
Survivor Peterson Toscano is thinking about LIA’s latest round of participants, as they begin a 28-day to three-month residency.
Although some people turn to programs like Love in Action for assistance dealing with compulsive sexual behavior, many of us actually learned more about where to find sex in unexpected public places after hearing other participants spill some of their own stories. In suppressing and demonizing our desires, many of us reinforced the deep shame we felt, which caused some of us to do harm to ourselves.
The heart of LIA’ message is that it is wrong, abnormal, sinful to be gay. This is the message we heard loud and clear in so many ways from the many many stringent and invasive rules to the disturbing Family and Friends Weekend. (For over a year, senior leadership at Exodus, which oversees LIA, have been aware of the bizarre and unethical nature of the Family and Friends weekend yet have done nothing to address the situation.)
After spending a tremendous amount of time and money and energy while also leaving key relationships and careers and homes, most people who have attended the LIA program came to the conclusion that it is fine to be gay, a healthy expression of one’ self. Joy, self-control, love and peace came with understanding ourselves and accepting how we are wired. Being gay or lesbian or bisexual is simply a part of the wonderful design of what makes us who we are. Once we apprehended this truth, then were able to better assess how to live our lives from there with integrity and openness.
Toscano spotlights the narrative of Mark, one survivor whom LIA tried to transform with a lifestyle of loveless and sexless monotony.
I always begin my traveling presentation on the “ex-gay” industry with a Daily Show segment (view video at bottom of this link) featuring Richard Cohen, former president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX). No matter the audience — activists, university students or medical professionals — his antics are sure to bring uproarious laughter. This is because the “therapy” promoted by Cohen and PFOX is outright bizarre. Even conservatives in attendance will often admit they are witnessing quackery at its finest.
Unfortunately, PFOX is nothing to laugh about these days. It is teaming up with an anti-gay legal organization to bully GLBT university groups. This unholy alliance is ordering these gay resource centers to hand out ex-gay materials or face possible lawsuits.
If PFOX and their lawyers are harassing your GLBT Center, Truth Wins Out advises you to do the following:
1. Contact Truth Wins Out and let us know about your situation. If you can provide us with the materials used by PFOX, it would be most helpful. (wbesen@truthwinsout.org)
2. Immediately contact Lambda Legal for advice on your specific legal circumstances. (hgorenberg@lambdalegal.org)
3. Make sure that all students in your group and relevant administrators are aware that PFOX’ therapy models are rejected by every major medical and mental health organization in America. This includes the American Psychological Association, American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The American Psychiatric Association says that attempts to change sexual orientation can lead to anxiety, depression and self-destructive behavior.
4. Because PFOX practices a fringe therapy considered potentially dangerous, it should be rejected, unless legal counsel specifically and unequivocally says otherwise. In the rare instance that such material is displayed, consider stamping it with the following words: WARNING: THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION SAYS THAT ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE SEXUAL ORIENTATION CAN CAUSE ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR. Ex-gay literature should be treated like a package of cigarettes and those exposed deserve to be warned of the potentially harmful side effects.
5. University groups should consider rejecting PFOX’ materials because it puts students at risk. This is because the organization refers clients to Richard Cohen, who founded the International Healing Foundation. Mr. Cohen was expelled for life from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for multiple ethics violations.
His work includes a controversial method called “touch therapy.” (See Video) This technique includes lying in the lap of a person of the same sex while they caress you. It is supposed to be non-sexual, but some consider it a gateway to sexual abuse. There have been several instances where this method has been exploited to harm vulnerable clients. Based on PFOX’ promotion of this technique, we strongly advise universities to keep all PFOX materials off campus.
6. Caleb Brundidge is a protege of Richard Cohen. Brundidge is also affiliated with Extreme Prophetic ministries, which takes groups to mortuaries to attempt to raise the dead. Clearly, any university or affiliated groups should be very careful before they place students in the hands of people with such extreme views.
7. Please refer all relevant college and university staff to videos of Richard Cohen. It is crucial to see this man in action before deciding if PFOX materials are appropriate for campuses. Administrators must be asked point blank: “Do you want our students in Richard Cohen’ hands?”
8. PFOX is already represented in all schools, since so-called ex-gays are allegedly heterosexual. There is no “ex-gay” sexual orientation in the medical or psychological literature. It is a term invented by anti-gay activists whose goal is to pass anti-gay legislation. Indeed, PFOX was founded in 1998 with an $80,000 grant from the Family Research Council, a Washington, DC lobby group.
9. Another primary resource of PFOX is the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). This organization has been accused of distorting research. It also published an essay that claimed gender variant children should be “ridiculed” and another one that seemed to justify slavery. NARTH has also widely quoted Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively.
10. If someone at your college or university has been harmed by the ex-gay industry – including PFOX – there may be legal options. Please download “Ex-Gay & the Law” to find out more. Or, request that hard copies be sent to your school.
Finally, this is not about free speech as PFOX contends. This is about rational people studying the medical and psychological literature and concluding that PFOX’ methods are peculiar and possibly dangerous. The first role of a college or university is to protect its students. Based on the methods promoted by PFOX and the dubious people associated with the organization, it is reasonable to conclude that their content is unfit for schools.
George W. Bush longed to escape his daddy’ shadow, while Barack Obama has turned to shadowy preachers in his long search for a father figure. His filial approach to faith began with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and has now taken a sharp turn right.
The New York Times reports that the president has surrounded himself with a cadre of clerical crackpots known as the “Circle of Five.” These holy men are: Rev. Joel Hunter, former head of the Christian Coalition; anti-gay Bishop T.D. Jakes; the ex-gay loving Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell; and Jim “waffling” Wallis, a protean progressive. The only Obama shaman who isn’t shameless is the civil rights era preacher Rev. Otis Moss Jr.
Rev. Jakes refers to homosexuality as “brokenness” and has claimed that he wouldn’t hire a sexually active gay person. But it seems T.D. can’t even keep his own son off the D.L. (down low). His “sexually broken” heir was arrested earlier this year for cruising a Dallas Park in search of gay men. (Read More)
Exodus International continues to affirm its participation in a Uganda conference 10 days ago which advocated life imprisonment and ex-gay detention camps for Uganda’s gay and transgender population.
At the conference, Exodus board member Don Schmierer yielded the Exodus soapbox to Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, who yesterday defended his ongoing proposal to force Ugandans into ex-gay therapy. Conference organizer Stephen Langa added that Uganda’s life-imprisonment sentence for same-sex-attracted persons is not harsh enough.
Exodus refused to disavow Langa’s or Lively’s views in Uganda, leading the conference attendees, Ugandan media, and Ugandan legislators to believe that Lively enjoyed Exodus’ full support. Exodu also refused to disavow the promotion of ex-gay witchcraft by Caleb Lee Brundidge, who is an associate of longtime P-FOX president and disbarred counselor Richard Cohen.
Since then, Exodus has done nothing to inform Ugandans of Exodus president Alan Chambers’ belated and unofficial statement that Exodus does not support imprisonment or forced therapy.
Exodus officials clearly wish for Ugandans to support imprisonment and forced therapy.
Furthermore, Exodus remains eager for Lively to capitalize upon Exodus’ support — even if these Exodus leaders lack the courage to state such politically unpalatable convictions themselves.
The ranks of antigay activism may be divided into three castes:
1. Intellectually honest anti-liberty scholars, such as David Blankenhorn
2. Illogical and frequently dishonest political spin artists such as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, both of which set lower limits on unethical tactics that might backfire upon them
3. Defamatory, profane, and indecent activists including Fred Phelps, Scott Lively, and Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern
As Box Turtle Bulletin discusses in depth, Exodus International has abandoned the second caste for the third.
According to the conservative Christian Post, Exodus International President Alan Chambers applauds board member Don Schmierer for collaborating with Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and with Stephen Langa, Ugandan leader of a campaign to imprison gay people, force gays into ex-gay re-education centers, and foster vigilante violence against gay people whom Langa falsely deems to be pedophiles because they oppose violence against gay youths.
One pro-exgay pundit is quoted protesting Exodus’ support for the conference.
George W. Bush longed to escape his daddy’ shadow, while Barack Obama has turned to shadowy preachers in his long search for a father figure. His filial approach to faith began with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and has now taken a sharp turn right.
According to the conservative 
