On 2009-11-17 20:55:00 -0500, Dysperdis <dysperdis at (no spam) gmail.com> said:
BE-VA wrote:
On 2009-11-07 17:41:47 -0500, "Mr. B" <not at (no spam) supplied.com> said:
BE-VA wrote:
On 2009-10-23 07:55:52 -0400, "Mr. B" <not at (no spam) supplied.com> said:
Perhaps if you don't believe what I tell you, you'll pay
attention to a
marriage analyst. The bottom line is that same-sex marriage is
corrupting America's children.
"Affect" does not mean "corrupt." Personally, I agree that it will
affect children -- in a positive way, by opening their minds.
And in a negative way by exposing them to and encouraging their
participation in a life-style
Homosexuality is not a choice, end of story.
Of course it is. That's been well proven by the number of people who
have willingly abandoned the homosexual lifestyle and return to the
normalcy of heterosexual life.
-- B
http://www.beyondexgay.com/article/apology
Statement of Apology from Former Exodus Leaders
Darlene Bogle, Michael Bussee, and Jeremy Marks
June 27, 2007
Los Angeles, CA
"As former leaders of ex-gay ministries, we apologize to those
individuals and families who believed our message that there is
something inherently wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or
transgender. Some who heard our message were compelled to try to
change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and
their families. Although we acted in good faith, we have since
witnessed the isolation, shame, fear, and loss of faith that this
message creates. We apologize for our part in the message of broken
truth we spoke on behalf of Exodus and other organizations.
"We call on other former ex-gay leaders to join the healing and
reconciliation process by adding their names to this apology.
"We encourage current leaders of ex-gay programs to have the courage
to evaluate the fruit of their programs. We ask them to consider the
long-term effects of their ministry."
From Michael Bussee's personal apology
(http://www.beyondexgay.com/article/busseeapology):
"[N]ot one of the hundreds of people we counseled became straight.
"Instead, many of our clients began to fall apart – sinking deeper
into patterns of guilt, anxiety and self-loathing. Why weren’t they
“changing”? The answers from church leaders made the pain even worse:
“You might not be a real Christian.” “You don’t have enough faith.”
“You aren’t praying and reading the Bible enough.” “Maybe you have a
demon.” The message always seemed to be: “You’re not enough. You’re
not trying hard enough. You don’t have enough faith.”
"Some simply dropped out and were never heard from again. I think
they were the lucky ones. Others became very self-destructive. One
young man got drunk and deliberately drove his car into a tree.
Another (a fellow leader of the ex-gay movement) told me that he had
left EXODUS and was now going to straight bars – looking for someone
to beat him up. He said the beatings made him feel less guilty –
atoning for his sin. One of my most dedicated clients, Mark, took a
razor blade to his genitals, slashed himself repeatedly, and then
poured drain-cleaner on the wounds—because after months of celibacy he
had a “fall.”
"In the midst of all of this, my own faith in the EXODUS movement was
crumbling. No one was really becoming “ex-gay.” Who were we fooling?
As one current EXODUS leader admitted, we were just “Christians with
homosexual tendencies who would rather not have those tendencies.” By
calling ourselves “ex-gay” we were lying to ourselves and to others.
We were hurting people."
Of course it was later revealed that he received a VERY LARGE sum of
cash from the Homosexual Defense League (HDL) for saying that. He
admitted to a number of close heterosexual friends that it was all a lie
and done for no other reason than to cop the money.
