For whatever reason, northern Ireland is being targeted by the “ex-gay” industry.

I guess it was not enough that they had created havoc and potential bloodshed in Uganda. Exodus International continues to obliviously globe-trot, leaving a trail of ruined lives and destruction in its wake.

Ex-gay activist Rev. Mario Bergner takes his phony road show to Belfast, Feb. 19-21. While there, Bergner, the author of “Setting Love in Order: Hope and Healing for the Homosexual,” will have a seminar named after the book. He is quite the salesman, hawking even more ex-gay gear than International Healing Foundation quack Richard Cohen. According to Exodus’ website:

Rev. Mario Bergner will visit Northern Ireland to participate in the Setting Love in Order Conference hosted by Core-issues, a ministry based in Northern Ireland seeking to empower local church congregations in their task of supporting men and women with unwanted same sex attraction. The conference is being widely promoted as part of the organization’s efforts to provide practical training for church leaders in the area of unwanted same sex attraction.

Want to bet Bergner doesn’t discuss the episode where I photographed Exodus’ former poster boy John Paulk in a gay bar? Or that two of the key founders of this fraudulent group left their wives to marry each other?

If Bergner’s propaganda does not get through, residents of Belfast will have a second chance to get the malignant message. Exodus President Alan Chambers will be in town, April 22-23, to host the “Leaving Homosexuality Celebration.” Interestingly, Chambers goes on TV in America and says Exodus does not “change” people. Yet, across the pond, he is holding a big party to celebrate his magical “pray away the gay” cure. According to the website:

Core is a ministry supporting local churches in their efforts to provide appropriate pastoral support for those with unwanted same sex attraction. The service recognizes God’s grace for many individuals making the journey out of homosexuality.

Maybe I’m just a “reality-based” kind of guy, but it sure seems, based on the promotional language, that Exodus is selling the concept of “change”.

Unfortunately, LGBT people in Ireland will find Chambers’ dishonest presentation neither lucky, nor charming. One can only imagine the mischief Exodus will cook up in Ireland, given its abysmal and violent track record overseas. Chambers and Bergner should do the world a favor and stay home before they have even more blood on their hands.

If you live in Ireland and are interested in Truth Wins Out coming over to counter Chambers’ lies with a multi-media presentation, please contact us.

Next time a Roman Catholic cleric tries to degrade loving same-sex relationships, stop him mid-sentence and say:

“The Roman Catholic Church has no moral authority to oppose loving gay relationships.”

Keep repeating this until the hypocrite walks away, head bowed in shame.

As far as I know, there has never been a huge, multi-decade scandal of gay activists molesting children. No GLBT community centers raided and shuttered. No billion dollar lawsuits against gay bars for abusing children.

Sure, one can always find a rotten apple, but the GLBT barrel – for the most-part – is stocked with the organic, red, shiny, healthy variety.

The same cannot be said of the Roman Catholic Church.

According to a new report released today that was ordered by Ireland’s government, Catholic leaders in Dublin, in collusion with the police, spent decades protecting and covering up the illegal, sinful behavior of pedophile priests.

What went on – for decades – was so incredibly sick and downright evil, that it borders on satanic. Dublin’s current Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, said he felt deep shame and sorrow for how previous archbishops handled the child abuse.

Today’s 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995. Yet, there had been at been at least 100 parish priests who had sexually molested children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop’s private vault.

The investigators also uncovered a paper trail documenting the church’s clandestine insurance policy, taken out in 1987, to cover potential lawsuits. Dublin church leaders publicly denied the existence of the problem for a decade afterward but since the mid-1990s have paid out more than $15 million in settlements.

The report cited documents showing how church officials learned about some cases only when Catholic police received complaints from children or their parents, but handed the investigation back to church leaders so they could engage in cover-ups.

It is hard to believe, but this high level of pious pathology, ethical corruption and sin occurred under the “leadership” of THREE Dublin archbishops: John Charles McQuaid (1940-72), Dermot Ryan (1972-84) and Kevin McNamara (1985-87).

The commission found that these moral luminaries eschewed public scandals by shuffling the abusers from parish to parish and overseas to U.S. churches – where no doubt a few of these heinous hypocrites are still loudly opposing the freedom to marry for gay couples.

Seriously, I refuse to hear lectures on wholesome values and the meaning of family from anyone affiliated with a church that engaged in such shocking and outrageous behavior. The Catholic Church has, indeed, lost its right to discuss such issues and expect thinking people to keep a straight face.

Just to reiterate, the Bishop’s and Archbishop’s have zero credibility to even discuss my healthy relationship. At least my boyfriend isn’t an altar boy.

My advice to these priests is to take their condemnation of my relationship and lock it in a private vault in the Archdiocese, along with the secret records of rampant child abuse.

Finally, I want to make it abundantly clear that this is not an attack on the millions of Catholics who are good people and oppose the handling of these child abuse cases. There are also many Catholics who support equality for all people, including a gay couples’ right to marry. This is not meant for the wonderful, charitable people who have clothed the naked, cared for the sick and fed the hungry.

However, the church hierarchy has surrendered its high ground on moral issues and must work to regain the respectability and trust it has clearly lost. Considering the behavior it has practiced, it certainly has no right to preach to those of us who have obeyed the law.