He says that “praying away the gay” is a lazy stereotype, but I think he’s just being a spoilsport. Also, he says his only attractions are for his wife, but to say that he doesn’t have same-sex attractions would be a lie. He’s still talking out of every possible side of his mouth.
[h/t Joe]
Mindless psychological Pretzels for Jeebus should just STFU and go back to the pews.
Ya know, I get what Alan Chambers is saying – as christians – everybody has struggles, it might be with over eating, alcoholism, drugs, sex, gambling, watching too much tv, whatever….life is a struggle, whether one is a christian or not. If people are not comfortable being homosexual, why can’t gay people accept them if they want to change? Likewise. if a gay christian is happy being a gay christian, why can’t they be accepted as well?In my view, its about accepting each other as we are – and scripture exhorts that in Rom 15:7, and then when acceptance doesn’t work out, there can at least be tolerance. I see no need for the endless culture wars that never end. Lets just all aceept one another just as Jesus accepted us, and you know what, Jesus accepted us while we were all yet sinners ( Rom 5:8 ). Have a wonderful day!
Mark asks: “If people are not comfortable being homosexual, why can’t gay people accept them if they want to change?”
Because if one is not comfortable being gay it means they were the victims of deeply homophobic propaganda that labels gays sinful, sick, and inferior. That affects every gay person in society. The answer is to ensure every LGBT person is comfortable with who they are, not write them off as so damaged they should reduce themselves to becoming a sad shell of a human being.
Because Mark, the asinine myth that sexual orientation is something changable only causes harm and prevents both social and personal acceptance. The people who push that myth are also the people who refuse to accept anything less than our designation as their legal inferiors. We are not responsible for this “culture war”, we’re just defending ourselves from the constant assault from charlatins like Chambers.
Ma4rk, i can accept if they want to change. I’m a firm believer in personal autonomy.
What i can’t accept is that they can pray away the gay. alan chambers concurs.
I can’t accept that reparative therapy works. The best evidence says if it does, it doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, it is “ambiguous”, “complicated”, and “difficult”. Or trasnlating the authors’ words, it doesn’t.
So if neither god nor psychiatry, loosely defined, can effect change, then what can happen?
Why, nothing. To claim that it does is simply consumer fraud.
It then becomes apparent to anyone who has studied sexuality and transactional analysis that the cure cannot work because the problem doesn’t actually exist– as described.
If they don’t want to commit homosexual acts, then the solution is simple. Don’t. Don’t need therapy for that, nor god. Of course, there’s a price to pay for doing it that way, but hey, it’s your eternal soul we’re talking about, isn’t it?
The problem is not homosexuality, the problem is self-hatred. that can be dealt with by any competent therapist.
To claim that sexual orientation change is possible does is simply consumer fraud.
Because, Mark, the message from the ex-gay camp and from the churches that support them to all LGBT, from the cradle to the grave, from before any of us were ever old enough to know that there were other points of view, before any of us could ever walk away from the message, before we were able to escape being damaged, and even after finding that to save our own skins we must walk away from family and faith and friends, is this:
“You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself…”
…and what YOU are saying is, “well, they should be allowed to hate themselves if they want to.”
It is the message that is at fault. It is the bloody-minded abusiveness of the messengers that is at fault. On the day both the message and the messengers finally decide to STFU and some LGBT individual, raised in an atmosphere of complete acceptance and ACTUAL unconditional love (not to be confused with the current version of “love” fundagelicals mistakenly label as such), spontaneously decides to be unhappy with their spots… on THAT day, Mark, maybe I could say “to each his own.”
Until then, your little whine about why can’t we all get along – as if abuse-induced self-loathing was a legitimate life choice and not an egregious result of malicious intent – is just another iteration of
“You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself
You should hate yourself…”
No thank you.
We cannot “tolerate” a “movement” which creates and nurtures self-loathing in order to make money. As a Christian gay man, I view such a “movement” as Satan-inspired and it can never be accepted.
“For the last 37 years, Exodus has been a bright light, arguably the brightest one for those with same-sex attraction….” – Andrew Comiskey
Oh, has it now? I submit that “will-o’-the-wisp” or “ignis fatuus” would be the more appropriate term. That the deceptive light should now be flickering badly is a cause for much rejoicing.