John Fea, Chair of the History Department at Messiah College said: “Getting Jefferson Right” is an intellectual and historical take down of David Barton’s pseudo-history of Thomas Jefferson by two Christian professors who teach at a conservative Christian college… I have yet to read a more thorough refutation of Barton’s claims.”

This just in and it sounds very interesting:

Professors explore popular Christian claims about Thomas Jefferson

Will the Real Thomas Jefferson Please Stand Up?

In their new book out today, Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President, two Christian college professors analyze popular Christian claims made about Thomas Jefferson.  Professors Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter use Jefferson’s correspondence, contemporaneous accounts, and other primary sources to fact check key claims made in such recent Christian works as Kirk Camerons’ documentary, Monumental, and David Barton’s new book, The Jefferson Lies .

“Unfortunately, there is often a wide gap between popular Christian speakers and writers and Christian social scientists on historical claims, particularly about early American history. Our book evaluates key claims about Thomas Jefferson and religion using primary sources, especially Jefferson’s own words. In short, reality is complicated and we expose many of these claims to be inaccurate or, at best, misleading,” said Warren Throckmorton.

Getting Jefferson Right assesses questions about the Jefferson Bible (e.g., did he make it to give to missionaries for use with Indians?), Jefferson’s view of church and state (e.g., did he sign his presidential documents, “In the year of our Lord Christ”), his religious views (e.g., did he merely question orthodoxy, or did he reject it?) and Jefferson’s purpose for the University of Virginia (e.g., did he found it as a transdenominational Christian college?). Many other claims are examined in detail with material and images from original sources, rarely encountered in works on Jefferson.

Grove City College professor Michael Coulter said “We think the first duty of a scholar, Christian or otherwise, is to get the facts right and in their proper context, and that is what we have sought to do in this work.  This is a matter of scholarly integrity.  Moreover, getting the facts right is more important than re-making an historical figure in our own image which we think some people do with Jefferson.”

John Fea, Chair of the History Department at Messiah College said, “Getting Jefferson Right* is an intellectual and historical take down of David Barton’s pseudo-history of Thomas Jefferson by two Christian professors who teach at a conservative Christian college… I have yet to read a more thorough refutation of Barton’s claims.”

Getting Jefferson Right is available on Amazon.com

Take the Jefferson Quiz.

For more information on the book, see Getting Jefferson Right.

Warren Throckmorton, PhD is Associate Professor of Psychology and Michael Coulter is Professor of Political Science, both at Grove City College (PA).

Warren Throckmorton has changed quite a bit over the years. Having become disillusioned when he realized what a motley crew of science-denying liars he was surrounded by in the Religious Right, he has increasingly spoken out against harmful “ex-gay” corporations and the anti-gay bigotry of the Religious Right. As a college professor, he was uniquely positioned to make this change, as his job description requires actual thinking, as opposed to people like Tony Perkins and Porno Pete, who are only expected to bark out anti-gay catchphrases, lie a lot, and in the case of Porno Pete, keep an encyclopedic photographic catalogue of what goes on at fetish sex events.

Porno Pete is upset that Warren has gone over to the “dark side” of thinking, analyzing and generally not being a reactionary, fearful wingnut, and he is asking him to apologize:

This morning I sent the following public letter to Grove City College professor and homosexuality-affirming blogger Warren Throckmorton, as well as dozens of pro-family leaders. Note that Throckmorton, a frequent critic of conservative evangelical leaders, has been singled out for praise by the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center — the same SPLC that outrageously labeled AFTAH, Family Research Council, American Family Association and other mainstream pro-family organizations as “hate groups.”

I am sure this letter was the highlight of everyone’s day.

In another post we will publish Prof. Rob Gagnon’s response to Richard Cohen’s new and curiously “gay”-affirmative approach to the homosexual issue.

Only a hilarious fool would consider Richard Cohen’s “new approach” to the homosexual issue to be “gay-affirmative.”

So here is the letter. Let us correct its grammar and ideas:

Warren,

I certainly don’t think Richard Cohen or anyone needs to apologize for stating the obvious truth that “Change [away from and rejecting homosexuality] is possible.” If we were to apologize for everything that “offends” hardened LGBT activists, we’d be apologizing 24/7.

Probably should get on that then. Of course, we’re not just talking about offending “hardened LGBT activists,” we’re also talking about destroying the families of gay people who end up killing themselves, having been so abused by the messages that come from people like Peter LaBarbera and Richard Cohen.

The question is, when will YOU apologize for affirming homosexuality as an acceptable (or innocuous) identity — while claiming (falsely) to uphold biblical orthodoxy?

“When will you apologize for pulling your head out of the sand and embracing reality, Warren? You don’t seem to be taking religious fundamentalist, reality-denying, pathetic, fearful wingnuttery seriously AT ALL. I am beginning to question your commitment to Sparkle Motion!”

When will YOU repent for working hand-in-hand with “gay” activists who are diametrically opposed to the Christian worldview on homosexuality as an overcomable sexual sin (and an abomination) — by actively discrediting the need AND potential for wholesome change away from same-sex behavior and indulging same-sex desires?

“When will YOU repent for telling the truth and not having a psychological problem, like my friends and I have, that compels us to give a hateful, knee-jerk response to everything that isn’t just like us? And you haven’t come and visited my photographic leathersex archives in a long time, and I’ve been texting you about it, like, a lot!”

You should either publicly apologize for undermining Scriptural (and observable) Truth — or renounce your claims to be faithful to historic Christian sexual teachings. This request is made more urgent by your employment with an evangelical institution, Grove City College, which purports to be “authentically Christian” — something few biblically-faithful observers of your recent flirtation with pro-”gay” advocacy would accuse you of being.

“While I am aware that my reference to ‘observable Truth’ is hilarious to all but the dumbest American citizens alive, I still feel the need to stand up and attack you and shame you in front of your employer, from my dark cubbyhole in the Chicago suburbs. This is actually my job! I am the leader of a hate group of one!”

I can document all the above statements concerning your conduct and “gay”-affirming advocacy, which has caused widespread consternation and confusion in Christian circles, and within the pro-family movement. You (or anyone) may publish this if you wish.

“I have the internet, just like everyone else does! Why, why, why won’t you call me?”

Sincerely,

Peter LaBarbera

“Love,

Pete”

Cc: pro-family leaders

Cc: my various Precious Moments figurines.

Dr. Warren Throckmorton writes on his blog:

The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) Conference is this coming weekend in Phoenix, AZ and will feature, Sharon Slater, a prominent leader in efforts to work through UN delegations to keep homosexuality illegal around the world. NARTH refuses to oppose criminalization but has invited Slater who works to maintain it. Seems to me NARTH is complicit in these efforts and should be held accountable.

I agree with Dr. Throckmorton that NARTH is a political organization — not  a scientific one — that has close ties to shady characters like Dr. Michael Brown and Sharon Slater.

Conservative Christian professor and blogger Warren Throckmorton confirms what many have long suspected:

The ex-gay think-tank NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) claims to be a professional mental-health organization — but it isn’t.

Actually, according to NARTH’s operations director, David Pruden, only about 250 of NARTH’s approximately 1000 members are mental health professionals. Furthermore, some of those 250 members who have mental health degrees are academics who write about sexuality but do not provide sexual reorientation therapy. Thus, the lion’s share of NARTH’s members consist of lay people, ministers, and activists who have an interest in the materials provided by NARTH but are not scientists or therapists. …

Two prime speakers at next week’s convention in Phoenix are not scientists at all, but antigay activists.

Here’s another way of putting it:

NARTH is an organization of 750 antigay bigots who pay a token number of ethically sketchy ideologues with college degrees to pose as experts, distort the research of others, and parrot the antigay prejudice that donors pay to consume.

There are two really interesting articles in this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine dealing with the intersection of religion and sexuality, and both merit a careful look.  In another piece, I’ll examine the one about gay activist turned “ex-gay” activist Michael Glatze, but that’s going to take some time, so I’m tackling this one first.  It’s about the idea of therapists — not complete wingnuts, mind you – helping clients either stay in the closet or live lives which are completely counter to who they really are, based on the clients’ religious desires to remain “pure.”  Or something.  Let me say on the front end that this article makes me want to throw things, because it elucidates so clearly the harmful effects that fundamentalist religious indoctrination has on people.  Having experienced such indoctrination myself, it makes me furious, but simultaneously grateful that I was able to, over a period of years, to abandon that indoctrination entirely.*

The article presents us with a conundrum:  what to do when a client comes in and can’t balance their religious indoctrination/beliefs with their sexuality?  Which wins out?  How do good, well-meaning therapists treat these clients for whom tweaking the specific doctrines of their religious beliefs isn’t an option?  As it turns out, some mental health specialists have some ideas, but I don’t think they’ve found the answers yet:

“I’m a very strong believer in people’s rights,” [therapist Denis Flanigan] said one gray morning at a Starbucks in Houston. But during his early training, he encountered a few clients who either would not come out of the closet or suffered mightily when they did. Christians of the kind who earnestly believed that the Bible deplored homosexuality were particularly troubled as they tried to reconcile their faith with their sexual orientation. The more Flanigan studied this conundrum, the more he came to see it as intractable. Some gay evangelicals truly believe that to follow their sexual orientation means abandonment by a church that provides them with emotional and social sustenance — not to mention eternal damnation. Keeping their sexual orientation a secret, however, means giving up any opportunity to have fulfilling relationships as gay men and women.

“When these clash, what do you do?” Flanigan recalled thinking, and when he began to research the topic about a decade ago, he found few answers beyond the obvious. Antigay religious groups would not condone homosexuality; they thought gays should just give up their orientation, and the most extreme among them offered frightening “conversion” practices. Nonreligious gays thought the conflicted should just walk away from churches that won’t accept homosexuals as they are. “Which trumps which?” Flanigan asked himself. “Religion or sexual orientation?”

So basically, the approach they’ve taken is to focus on the client’s needs and desires first and foremost. Is the religious angle so important to them that they want to find a way to be authentic within that framework? Are they looking to keep a job in that religious framework while remaining husbands and fathers in public?

“Psychological ethics say that we’re supposed to support religious beliefs and support sexual orientation,” Flanigan told me. “But there was nothing I knew of that says what to do when they conflict.” As far as he could tell, the only choice those people had was to give up one or the other.

Here is the tragedy in all of this. They’re working with these clients, trying to meet them where they are, but they’re addressing none of the root causes of people’s anguish, which is caused by religious indoctrination. It’s sad that there are so many people brought up in those sorts of environments, where the idea of “Christian love” has a lot more to do with judgment and guilt than it does with any human definition of “love.” It should be taken as a given that this article is dealing with grown-up, reality-based mental health professionals, so the crock of shit known as “ex-gay” or reparative therapy is not even on the table. No, that has been successfully laughed out of intelligent, educated company in this country, and for good reason.

So these mental health professionals are essentially helping people stay in the closet. That might be a band-aid, but it’s not a solution. The difference here is that we’re dealing with therapists who actually do mean well and have their clients’ best interests at heart, unlike the Joseph Nicolosis of the world, who go about their work with the empathy of common sociopaths. Another therapist, Douglas Haldeman, discusses the approach he came up with to deal with these sorts of cases:

Haldeman found in his research that the vast majority of people seeking to change their orientation held strong religious beliefs; often, these were married men with families who grew up in a church and who felt that they had far too much to lose by coming out.

[...]

In other words, Haldeman was certain that conversion therapy didn’t work, but he wasn’t sure that gay-affirmative therapy — helping gay clients to see that their discomfort with their orientation might come from internalizing a prejudice — would help them find peace of mind, either. In these circumstances, Haldeman tried a different approach.

[...]

The approach Haldeman used was, in the therapeutic parlance, client-centered; that is, the client’s desires took precedence over any values or opinions held by the therapist. So if John wanted to be a gay man who lived as a straight man, Haldeman would help him become that person.

I said before that this article makes me want to throw things. It still does.  I was raised in a marginally conservative home, but ended up being exposed to seriously hateful religious indoctrination in high school in two churches I was involved with.  Perhaps it was because I’ve always been strong-willed that I was able to at least put the self-hatred I had learned, along with the religious spew, in order to at least start on the journey out of the closet.  It makes me seethe knowing that there are others who truly believe what they have been taught, that who they really are is unworthy of God.

Again, these therapists are certainly well-meaning, as they try to find answers for how to treat those who have been spiritually bullied and abused into believing that self-hating religious beliefs are truly what is best for them, or worse, that those beliefs are actually true in any sense.  But the mental health community doesn’t have the real answers yet, possibly because we still haven’t wrapped our heads around the notion, in this nation at least, that spiritual abuse is itself a sickness inflicted on unwitting individuals.  And as you read this piece, you’ll see that this sort of “client-centered” therapy leads to some serious double-lives, some grade-A hypocrisy, in the pursuit of giving these poor souls a little inner peace.

Warren Throckmorton is discussed in the piece as well.  Most of you are familiar with him, but if not, in a nutshell:  Warren is a Christian psychologist who used to preach the “ex-gay” nonsense, but became disillusioned when he realized that the luminaries of the fundamentalist/”ex-gay” industries are common liars, and started to question everything he thought he knew about human sexuality and its intersection with religious faith.  In the section about Throckmorton and Mark Yarhouse, our own Wayne Besen is quoted:

Yarhouse and Throckmorton came up with what they called sexual-identity therapy (SIT). At first, Yarhouse told me, many left-leaning therapists saw SIT as a trick — conversion therapy by another name, and many remain skeptical: Wayne Besen, the founder of Truth Wins Out, an organization devoted to debunking the ex-gay ministry, told me that though he respects Throckmorton, he still believes that SIT is just another way of encouraging repression. “I think Throckmorton means well and really wants to help people reconcile their faith and sexuality,” Besen said. “However, the more appropriate way is for people to find a more moderate religion that doesn’t force them to live at cross purposes with their sexual health.”

Therein lies the rub. Some people of faith are raised to view it as a source of comfort, support, love and fellowship. The fundamentalist world is lacking in those departments, though, if you don’t easily conform to their definition of “normal.”  The sad thing, though, is that while Wayne is completely right about the best way to handle these things — find a more moderate religion, do some research and go through the long, arduous process of abandoning religion altogether, etc. — some people are just far too tortured by their religious faith to do so.  Abusers like to break their victims down until they feel that they are powerless and weak without the abuser around.  You see this with abusive husbands, child rapists and anyone else who gets off on controlling people.  These are also the hallmarks of fundamentalist religious indoctrination.  Find comfort from the pain at the source of the pain, etc.

I wish I had the answers.  Instead I just encourage the mental health community to keep working on their side of it, keep trying new things that, above all, respect people’s integrity and their true selves.  The good news is that more and more people are abandoning religious fundamentalism every day, so future generations of Americans, perhaps, won’t need such therapy as much.  Moreover, more and more people are getting the counter message of love and acceptance and equality — the It Gets Better project comes to mind — far earlier, even while they’re still being drowned in the baptismal font.  The bad news is that as they lose power, religious abusers are digging in their heels and will certainly be around to hurt a few more generations of their own gay offspring.

I quoted liberally from the article, because it’s long and hits a lot of topics, but you all should take the time to read it if you haven’t already.  We all have a lot of work left to do.

*I also abandoned religious faith in general, but that’s not the point, as there are several valid ways to unshackle oneself from religious indoctrination.  My atheism has very little, if anything, to do with my sexuality, as I didn’t actually become an atheist until age 28, nine years after I came out of the closet.

Via Dr. Warren Throckmorton

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill author, David Bahati, plans to attend a trade conference in Washington DC next week, Dec. 6-8. But conference organizers for the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management have told the genocidal madman to take a hike.

Dr. Throckmorton spoke to Bahati who said that he was still planning to show up and be a rude, uninvited guest with no manners. Conference organizers say that if Bahati crashes the event they will call in the muscle.

“…his attendance is not consistent with the mission of the organization….He [Bahati] will not be admitted into the building,” an event spokesperson said.

Good for the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management. It is wonderful that they stood up to Bahati and not allowed this blood-thirsty tyrant to present himself as an honorable human being who belongs among polite company.

His entire piece is worth reading.  Throckmorton has been evolving in the past couple of years as he has done honest research and come face to face with the fact that his erstwhile ideological allies are craven liars.  This section is particularly interesting:

The more I have researched these claims [from the SPLC's list of myths perpetuated about homosexuality by hate groups], the more disillusioned I have become with the credibility of the groups recently placed on the list. Even though I agree with some positions held by some of the groups on some issues (e.g., pro-life), I now investigate any factual claims for myself and accept nothing at face value.

Ultimately, this is a real problem for American Christianity. One should be able to trust Christian groups to provide accurate information and nuanced analysis. However, on issues relating to sexual orientation, I cannot trust them. For me, this lack of trust spills over to other domains as well, creating a significant problem with credibility. I hope my fellow believers will not defend these claims simply because those making them are Christians.

This is a truth I’ve noted for some time. It only takes a minute of research to realize that most everything said by Family Research Council, American Family Association, National Organization for Marriage, Focus on the Family, and all the others, are flat out lies. Meanwhile, the majority of the people who support those organizations are, I believe, essentially well-meaning people, but because they have been trained to believe that their fellow Christians are more credible than the rest of the population, they NEVER QUESTION what those groups say, and indeed have been convinced to write off anything said by scientists, researchers, grown-ups, etc. But yet if they just Googled for sixty seconds, they’d get a taste of what Throckmorton has been realizing for some time: Fundamentalist leaders lie about gay people without remorse. It is that simple.

I don’t agree with Warren Throckmorton on many things, but he’s on the right track here.

I guess some people on the Religious Right are starting to figure out that their actions have had awful, awful consequences:

A national Christian organization will stop sponsoring an annual event that encourages school students to “counter the promotion of homosexual behavior” because the event has become too divisive and confrontational, the group’s president told CNN on Wednesday.

“All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they’d like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not,” said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the group that sponsored the event this year.

Called the Day of Truth, the annual April event has been pushed by influential conservative Christian groups as a way to counter to the annual Day of Silence, an event promoted by gay rights advocates to highlight threats against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

The Day of Truth, held on the same day as the Day of Silence, “was established to counter the promotion of homosexual behavior and to express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective,” according to a manual for this year’s event published by Exodus International.

[...]

It’s unclear how other conservative Christian groups will react, but an expert in evangelical responses to homosexuality says Exodus’ decision is likely to be criticized by some conservatives.

“This is a very significant move, a very real break,” said Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College. “Some will say that simply naming sexual orientation provides legitimacy for homosexuality.”

APPLAUSE.

Now stop lying to your clients, Alan.

The fact that people come to you semi-voluntarily does not mean you’re not still bullying them with the anti-science methods of self-loathing promulgated by groups like Exodus.

From Newser:

A controversial condom burning Ugandan pastor, Martin Ssempa, who is a supporter of the homicidal Anti-Homosexuality Bill, is being financially supported by the 6,000-strong Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas. Today, Canyon Ridge pastor Kevin Odor says that Ssempa is being “misrepresented” . “His heart is not to kill people,” says Odor.

Odor tells NPR. “His heart is to redeem people. We want to help the AIDS problem in Africa, and we found somebody who is making a difference, so we support him.”

Warren Throckmorton, a professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, has a different take. “The church wants to be viewed as moderate and outreach-minded and compassionate, and yet they’re supporting a set of values and principles elsewhere that are very harsh and deadly, frankly, to the very community you say you want to reach”.

Isn’t it odd how the brutal, draconian laws pushed by Ssempa are in complete contradiction to his supposedly redeeming heart? What a partnership – Canyon Ridge found a crackpot and Ssempa hit the jackpot. It’s a Las Vegas dream come true!

Much more from Dr. Throckmorton, who has done a terrific job staying on top of this issue.

The motto for anti-gay conservative leaders lately seems to be, “When in backwards Third World societies, relax and be how you really are.” Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family, just got back from Uganda, where he was researching his new book, and apparently was able to spend a lot of time with the authors and supporters of Uganda’s genocidal anti-gay bill. He also went to see the Uganda touring cast for Lou Engle’s thoroughly bizarre performance art piece, “The Call.” In a post at Warren Throckmorton’s blog, he shares some of his experiences:

Either Lou Engle isn’t telling the whole truth, or some of his key allies in Uganda aren’t. I attended his rally in Kampala in the company of Member of Parliament David Bahati, the author of the bill. After the rally, I rode with Bishop Oyet and Bahati in Bahati’ car to the Sheraton hotel, where I interviewed Oyet for about 45 minutes, recorded. I’ll be writing about what I learned in Kampala in my forthcoming book, but Engle’ latest statement prompts some points worth making in the meantime:

1. Both Oyet and Bahati were ecstatic at what they perceived as Engle’ strong support of the bill. They felt his rally and his statements would be a turning point for the bill, reassuring their Ugandan allies that they had support abroad.

2. Both Oyet and Bahati told me that Engle had explicitly expressed his support for the bill, telling them that he had to lie to the Western media because gays control it. They said he said one thing to the BBC and then walked over to Bahati and said that he really supported the bill. Either Engle isn’t telling the whole truth, or Oyet and Bahati aren’t. I tend to believe Bahati here, since Engle didn’t mean anything to him until he met him that day. He hadn’t heard of him and decided to attend the rally only after I’d told him a few things about Engle. In other words, he left the rally thrilled with Engle based on that encounter with Engle alone. Clearly, Engle did something to please him.

We are so surprised that Lou Engle lies when he’s around the modern, educated people. Really, we are.

Here, the backwards bishop decides to tell the world how backward his country really is:

5. Here’ Oyet on the death penalty: “There is not the death penalty at the end for everybody. There is the death penalty at the end for aggravated homosexuality.” He explained that the death penalty already applies for four crimes in Uganda (child rape, treason, murder, and causing death by female genital mutilation) “So I want the world to understand,” Oyet continued “that homosexuality is not the first death penalty in Uganda. I think that U.S. journalists should make that known. It is not the first one, it is going to be the fifth one.”

They’re not just ignorant, cloistered and backward. They’re FIVE TIMES ignorant, cloistered and backward!

Also, the brainwashed bishop has swallowed Martin Ssempa’s unhinged lies about gay peoples’ sexual practices:

6. Oyet seems to be quite confused about what homosexuality actually is. After he explained that he was engaged in spiritual warfare with homosexuality, I asked whether he believed homosexuals are demonically possessed.

Oyet: “Um, because it is abnormal. It is abnormal sex, you would say yes. You would say yes. Because one drives you to that. Because homosexuals, they would now eat their own feces. They would eat their own waste. That is what they call golden shower where you lick the anus of someone. Isn’t that demonic?”

That’s a dumb demon if it is, because he’s doing it wrong. Do demons not have access to Urban Dictionary? I mean, really.

There is so much more that I didn’t excerpt, and you should read it all. These people are weird, easily led, and obviously brainwashed. They live in a society where few have access to correct information, and those who do are hellbent on making sure their population stays as stupid as possible. It’s quite sad, really.

And Lou Engle, American, is all too willing to help.

I’ll update when Peter LaBarbera starts bitching about how Warren Throckmorton is being mean to genocidal demagogues by letting an actual journalist like Jeff Sharlet report via his blog. So, about thirty minutes?

(h/t Kyle)