On Dec. 28, Truth Wins Out reported that the Cowboy Church of Virginia tried to “cure” gay people by having them pet horses. The source for our blog 
post was Gay Star News.
The Cowboy Church is now claiming in a letter to TWO that it was a “false story” and demanded that we, and at least six other publications, “print a complete retraction of their false article.” The church’s letter also claimed, “The FBI, the FCC, and several BBB groups around the country became involved on 1/2/13. We will be including your name and publication in that case file as well.”
Unfortunately for the Cowboy Church, Joe Jervis published a brochure from the group that referred to homosexuality as an “addiction.” Based on this inflammatory and medicallyy false brochure, it seems what was printed by the Gay Star News is likely to be accurate. TWO responded to the church in a letter today expressing our concerns with their content:
First, as you know, homosexuality is not considered a mental health issue, nor an addiction. If your brochure is accurate, you are engaged in potential misdiagnosis, which could involve malpractice. Our legal team has already been notified on this front and instructed to consider action if clients have been harmed, mistreated, or conned.
I am open to dialogue, however, I would like that you clarify your brochure, which does seem to be in alignment with the Gay Star News story. We will only consider retraction if there is something to retract. As of now, I have seen nothing to indicate the article is inaccurate. If we do have such evidence, we will retract immediately.
We are looking forward to hearing back from this church to find out if they are honorable cowboys, or simply rodeo clowns trying to spin their way out of a public relations nightmare.
Go get’em Wayne. I hope that a class action lawsuit is brought against these assclowns by those harmed by them.
Wayne, thank you for reporting this. These churches need to be monitored and prosecuted for the harm they have done. Religion gets too much of a free pass to inflict its hateful dogma in the USA, and especially upon LGBT folk, in the USA and worldwide. Along these lines, I saw an article at Austin Cline’s atheism web site reporting on the lack of action on the part of the IRS in prosecuting churches that practice politics. This is a scary development, and the future will be grim if churches (tax free at that!) are permitted to get involved with politics and influence public policy. The first item on their dogma-based agenda will be to impose their dark age notions upon the gay community by letting outfits like this cowboy church continue to operate unpunished.
There are all kinds of problems with dishonesty in the Cowboy Church of Virginia’s flyer. Firstly, “Equine Assisted Psychotherapy” has never been subject to rigorous scientific studies, and therefore, any claimed benefits from it are anecdotal. It follows that the Cowboy Church’s claim that “anyone” “can” benefit from EAP is untested, i.e. it is a falsehood in the context of mental health care provider advertising. Another phony, unscientific claim in the Cowboy Church’s flyer is that “Natural horse and herd behavior are observed and honored as a model for healthful human behavior.” Does that mean that, for example, a teen with an anxiety disorder, who is experiencing nocturnal incontinence, is going to have those nocturnal incontinence issues resolved by watching horses urinate freely whenever and wherever their full bladders impel them to do so? That these quacks have put “homosexuality” in a category of addictions along with narcotics and cutting demonstrates that they are out of step — wildly — with the mental health care establishment. Were this an actual legal matter being processed through the courts, the Cowboy Church of Virginia would not be able successfully to use any expert witness who alleged that homosexuality, per se, is “an addiction.” For these fatuous Christofascist gay-bashers to put the cherry of the FBI — supposedly involved in the matter now — on top of their b******t sundae says a lot more about them than it does about anybody else. Right away, the FBI would be interested in stopping blatantly fraudulent quacks from being accurately criticized by the public.
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Yep — the threats of this church are a bit comical. I’d love if we could go to court. Tons of free publicity and a chance to shine a spotlight on such bizarre crackpots.
Anything called the Cowboy Church has to give one pause to think. Silly at best and they make legal threats, too. Yippy -kai-yea, Motherf–ker!
This whole “church” thing sounds like a tax dodge to me, a way to keep horses and have the Govt. foot the bill. Perhaps the IRS might be a willing partner to the investigation.
Shades of Equus. Petting dogs or cats or any other animal probably has the same therapeutic effect as a horse but without the butch factor that horses have; I guess that’s where the absurd notion came from that they could change someone’s sexual orientation. I wonder if the Cowboy “church” would consider taking some horses to a nursing home? (sorry couldn’t resist)
As an aside, I did read that studies have shown that petting dogs releases oxytocin (a ‘bonding’ hormone) in both the dog and the person petting them. That’s why we feel like they are our babies. Mine are! ;-)))
This looks like a moderately serious case of juris blatherance to me. Wayne is so good at what he does that he does the diagnosis in the background and then addresses the specifics in the most therapeutic way. In this case some folks thought they could blather on in print in their own little bubble universe. When they got caught, they thought to blather their way out of the corner they had painted themselves into. While this does suggest that they have certain difficulties grasping the degree to which the God they claim prefers that people not bear false witness, it does put them in a fine position to be strung up and barbecued by people who have a better grasp of US Civil Law.
The clown face is appropriate for anything called “cowboy church”
Sounds like it could be a logical explaination…..maybe one of them owned a firearm! GASP! I saw a float for Cowboy Church in the Bathpage Christmas parade. They had tons of antique cars, and Tractors! My wife took me there this year. Everybody was throwing candy, it was better than halloween. The usual fraternal orders parade by dressed as clowns, in miniature semis go karts,all that stuff. My guess is that these guys probably do not rule the world.
Great comments all. Jonathan, you articulated it superbly. Wayne, I do hope you get the chance to embarrass these clowns in court.