The Monday Sermon: Should Certain Prayers Come With A Warning Label?

Reparative Therapy 

or 

"Re-prayer-a-tive" 

Therapy?

What is the purpose of prayer? Is it to cure or condemn? To acquire or release? One cynic has said that prayer is doing nothing while thinking you're helping. For some people, that is probably true. And when the prayer is for yourself, that maybe merely self-delusion: the power of prayer lies not only in intensity but purpose. Purpose, in fact, can define intensity, and the more minds share the purpose and intensity, the greater the power, the greater the possibility that something may happen.

Something. But not necessarily what is prayed for.

There are , of course, many different kinds of prayer - especially in today's societies and one could argue that "imprecatory" prayer is used more often than not, since whole nations under Islam are praying for the destruction of the U.S. And there's individual prayer; but is praying in a quiet corner of one's house, as Jesus suggested, just as powerful? Again, the intensity and purpose delineate the power, and in the case of self-change, the results can be good, bad ...or non-existent.

Reparative therapy - today commonly known as "pray-away-the-gay" or "re- prayer-a-tive" therapy is now under scrutiny by the California legislature.

The bill would make it illegal for psychologists in the state of California to provide gay and lesbian conversion or reorientation therapy to teens. The controversial conversion therapy, sometimes also known as reparative therapy, attempts to change the sexual orientation of a person from homosexual (or bisexual) to heterosexual.
The bill would also require adults who submit to the therapy to sign a release saying they know what they're getting into.

Most of reparative therapy involves some kind of prayer and many clinics are affiliated with faith-based organizations. Clinics like NARTH - the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality - routinely use prayer as a means of confession to the "sin" of homosexuality and instillation of hope that through prayer and following the methods of the therapist the person will be "cured." It's not as bogus as faith healing, but it deals with fearful and confused people who suffer self-loathing and will doing anything to stop the torment of being considered "vile" and "sinful" in their orientations.

It also deals with children and teens forced by their parents to seek therapy.

The stories of harm caused by reparative therapy far outweigh the stories of "cures.": most patients suffer even more depression and the number of subsequent suicides is alarming. Some of the clinics, like the one run by Michele Bachmann's husband, Marcus Bachmann are unlicensed. NARTH is licensed, but the stories of its techniques and its therapists abound. For example, the author of A Parent's Guide To Preventing Homosexuality, Joseph Nicolosi has (jokingly?) stated: “If the father drops the kid and the kid gets brain damage, at least he’ll be straight. Small price to pay.”

NARTH has also been plagued with incidents of hypocrisy and scandal: one of its founders is George "rent boy" Rekers* who was paid $300 an hour for "expert" testimony against gay adoption in Florida. Joseph Nicolosi has been at odds with the American Psychological Association, and his membership has been jeopardized several times.

And in an "alert" email sent to donors about the proposed California legislation, NARTH effectively admits to "pray away the gay":

While this is a direct assault on everyone’s freedom it is also a not so subtle attack on religious liberty. Individuals of faith often seeking to live lives congruent with their religious convictions are often motivated to seek help for their homosexual attractions. This type of legislation would in effect criminalize those formerly ethical relationships between a client and their therapist unless those interactions were supervised by agents of the state.

The State of California has never criminalized prayer, but the intent to promote a potentially harmful mode of therapy - one using prayer - is certainly criminal.

Maybe certain prayers and therapies should come with a warning label. Then again, so should some therapists.


*Rekers was spotted with a male escort in an airport, after which the escort stated that he was hired to do more than help Rekers with his luggage.

And This Is Who They Listen To

Scott Lively May Trump Beck As Prince Of Fools

But The Christian Right Still Insists On Quackery

People listen to Glenn Beck. Yes, they do. And because they do, the rest of the country has to suffer the slings and arrows of unreasoned hatred fueled by an insipid lust for power. But who does Glenn Beck listen to? Does he listen to anyone? Do the writings of some pseudo-historian drive Beck's history and blackboard shenanigans?  

They do.

Beck introduced David Barton as the "historian" who is "The Library of Congress In Shoes." Unfortunately, those shoes only hold a "career upon his claim that United States government was founded on Biblical precepts."

wikipedia:

Barton is a collector of early American documents, and his official biography describes him as "an expert in historical and constitutional issues." Barton holds no formal credentials in history or law, and critics dispute the accuracy and integrity of his assertions about history, accusing him of practicing misleading historical revisionism and "pseudoscholarship."

Barton's claim that ours is a Christian Nation is specious at best. His discourses on slavery dodge the bullet when he skirts around the subject by citing his friend, Stephen McDowell, whose close relationship with R.J. Rushdoony (THE Reconstructionist) shines through in his explanation: America's slavery was not BIBLICAL Slavery! In other words, "Southern Slavery Wrong -  Biblical slavery Right!"

Reconstructionism has long been a taboo subject for American Christians because it advocates "reconstructing" government to conform strictly to Biblical law. For years, pastors, churches and denominations were quick to disassociate themselves from the Chalcedon Foundation, founded by Rushdoony. But today, unreason has taken hold and Reconstructionism is hiding in plain sight: in the teachings of people like David Barton.

Barton is a fraud. Beck knows it. Groups like Tony Perkins' Family Research Council know it. But neither of them care, because they need people like Barton. 

FRC and Scott Lively

It took the "kill the gays bill" in  Uganda to bring Scott Lively to the forefront of influential "historians." His book, The Pink Swastika, was debunked by legitimate historians condescending to talk about such idiocies: Hitler was gay, he surrounded himself with gay men because they had no conscience and were the most vicious, therefore Nazism was founded by gays. Lively brought forth his precepts in Kampala, Uganda last year, along with the principle that the criminalization of homosexuality was the best way to eradicate it:

[from a statement made in 2007 in a letter to Russia]

However, homosexuality is destructive to individuals and to society and it should never [be] publicly promoted. The easiest way to discourage gay pride parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal in the interest of public health and morality. 

Wikipedia:

Scott holds a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Trinity Law School, and a Certificate in Human Rights from the International Institute of Human Rights.

Whoa! Such credentials! But with a little investigation comes a great big disappointment. For one, Trinity Law School has had an abysmal rate of its students passing the bar (only 22% pass the first time and some almuni have wound up taking it as many as six times - without success). Nowhere is Lively's bios does it say that he was a ceritifed attorney. For another thing, a Certificate in Human Rights is rather dubious, considering that the IIHR's founder was key in drafting the Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 9:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.     

The proposed "kill the gays bill" of Uganda is nothing if not arbitrary. And one more thing about Mr. Lively's credentials, his letters are all signed with "J.D., Th.D." but no other documents reference a doctorate in theology or any accredited institution that would have awarded him one - even an honorary one. Additionally, a doctorate in theology is not the same as a Master or Doctor of Divinity which Lively would have to use in labeling himself as "pastor."  

And his other books, Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Children from Homosexuality and the "Gay" Movement (1998) and Why and How to Defeat the "Gay" Movement (2000) cite no professional expertise, Lively being neither a professional child psychologist nor a psychologist specializing in gender "disorders." 

Lively is a silly fraud. But Family Research Council will support Lively, distributing his works as manna from heaven - especially in Uganda.

O.K, so I've mentioned Paul Cameron and Joseph Nicolosi before,  but it's worth repeating that Family Research Council depends heavily on the writings of these two for the "research" in its name. Along with Perkins and Lively, I've called them the Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda.

Let's face it: it's so easy  Jon Daily to poke fun at the idiocies of someone like Lively, but the likes of the Christian Right - aka Tony Perkins, James Dobson and Rick Warren - HAVE to listen and repeat. 

The only other choice they have is to listen to their consciences.

No, that would never do.

 

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Danger! Right Wingnuts! Danger! Home Depot And The Homosexual Agenda Approaching! Danger!

Danger!

Beware Of It! 

Whatever It Is!

Even If We Made It Up!

Danger!

Without a doubt, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council envisions himself as the intelligent robot (with a kind of human mind/soul) of TV campdom's Lost In Space. His latest alarm must be the 1000th time he has described the institution of marriage as being in danger. The repeal of DOMA is, of course, "catastrophic" and is yet another instance of proof of the evil "homosexual Left" and the "homosexual agenda."

Are you going to surrender to the homosexual agenda?

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is in danger. ...

The homosexual Left will be able to bring the weight of the federal government down on anyone who refuses to go along with counterfeit marriage and the rest of the homosexual "rights" campaign.

UPDATE: Perkins and Byran Fischer (American Family Association) have lambasted Home Depot for advancing the "agenda.":

Is it Home Depot or Homo Depot? After the month of sponsoring gay pride parades, no one's sure. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. People who shop at Home Depot ought to drill down on where their money's going. In June, a big chunk was spent promoting homosexuality to children. At gay pride events in five states, the hardware chain hosted special kids' workshops.

So now the AMA has called for a boycott of Home Depot.  Ho Hum. Then again...

It all seems so ridiculous, but ... when you get to the heart of the matter, the actual danger  rests in the relentless drive of Christofascists such as Perkins in demonizing people: Tony Perkins and his band of merry malcontents become more like "The Four Horsemen of The Homosexual Agenda."

Perkins & Company build most of the Christian Rights' illusions on the "homosexual agenda", but what is it exactly? None of my friends know. I tried looking up the term, and, oddly enough, only came up with Right Wingnut references to it, but not anything substantial on its actual definition or origins. Frustrated, I finally went to that bastion of unbiased truth, Conservapedia.com:

The Homosexual Agenda, or homosexual ideology, consists of a set of beliefs and objectives designed to promote and even mandate acceptance and approval of homosexuality, and the strategies used to implement such. This article notes that the goals and means of this movement include indoctrinating students in public school, restricting the free speech of opposition, obtaining special treatment for homosexuals, distorting Biblical teaching and science, and interfering with freedom of association.

Among all the liberal belief systems, the homosexual ideology is the most self-centered or selfish. Liberals generally give much less than conservatives to charity, but gay charity work in particular is virtually non-existent. 

That reaction you've just felt from reading the last sentence is treatable with a prescription drug called Granisetron, but please see your doctor before using it.

To be fair, the writer of the definition was probably on another plane of consciousness during the Age of AIDS; while Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were thanking God for the "gay plague" hundreds of thousands of gays were giving their money, their time, and their very lives to help the plague's victims. They even made quilts (see below). And ribbons. Yeah, the ones that got trendy and morphed into other colors for other diseases.

So now we know that (in the minds of Perkins et al) what drives the "homosexual agenda" is pure selfishness and that its basic tenets are to mandate acceptance, indoctrinate students in public school,s restrict free speech, obtain special treatment and "interfere with freedom of association" (whatever that means). The homosexual agenda means gays are out to recruit your children into a totally decadent lifestyle and if you say one word against it, you'll be thrown in jail. In other words, it means the end of the family unit. It means the end of the world. And the Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda come as a warning of man's potential destruction.

But how was this "agenda" exposed? Well, don't strain the brain too much: it was documented in an oh-so-reliable-and-educated way, with a documentary produced by... The Family Research Council! But back then it was simply called "The Gay Agenda."

wikipedia:

In the US, the term "the gay agenda" was first used in public discourse in 1992 when the Family Research Council released a video series called The Gay Agenda as part of a pack of materials campaigning on homosexual issues and the "hidden gay agenda".

So the Family Research Council, armed with a video and a Bible, set out to destroy homosexuality - and homosexuals in the process. And the inspiration for violence might have come from the Book of Revelations. Hence the Four Horsemen.

The Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda:  

Perkins (Fear), Cameron, (Deception), Nicolosi (Hypocrisy) and Lively (Malevolence).

So the homosexual agenda was fabricated  by the Family Research Council in 1992. The FRC also featured a rising star for their anti-gay agenda: Paul Cameron.

[Cameron] appeared in the video, wherein he asserted that 75 percent of gay men regularly ingest feces and that 70-78 percent have had a sexually transmitted disease.

He also taught that Alfred Kinsey's studies were skewed because he believed Kinsey to be gay. The gay agenda was stretched into a trilogy (of terror) and Paul Cameron made the rounds of Christian Right organizations and churches. It has survived because of the milking by people like Perkins and James Dobson (Focus on the Family). BTW: Cameron fully supports Uganda's "kill the gays bill" INCLUDING the part about capital punishment.

But Cameron is an honest psychological researcher, is he not? We-e-l-l-l-......no. He has been expelled or censured by: The American Psychological Association, The Canadian Psychological Association, The American Sociological Association and the Nebraska Psychological Association. (Of course, if you lived in Lincoln, NE, perhaps the most exciting thing going is getting kicked out of an association.) In addition, his group - the Family Research Institute - is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The next two men who made the term homosexual agenda equivalent to Satan, are Joseph Nicolosi and Scott Lively.

Nicolosi heads up the ex-gay movement with his National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality. He espouses something called reparative therapy. If you feel that he thinks of himself as a repair man, you're not far from the truth. Unfortunately, his form of therapy has been debunked by even more associations than Cameron has been ejected from (a race?): the National Association of Social Workers, The American Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, The American Counseling Association, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Nicolosi's attitude towards homosexuality is positively toxic:

I remember Dr. Nicolosi telling me, in response to the question of whether one could easily contract HIV from semen, that if this were the case then gays would be “jerking off in hamburgers all over” to infect people.

For an interesting exchange of parental love meets the rude & the crude, click on  this segment of Dr. Phil. 

But of the four, Scott Lively is definitely the most extreme. He has been living almost exclusively on the fame of his first book, The Pink Swastika. Long out-of-print, it is now self-published and printed "on-demand." It's purchased by people who devour hate prose and who salivate at the thought of using it as a reference. Needless to say, historians have had nothing good to say about the book because it simply isn't true:

From SPLC:

In 1942, the death penalty was instituted for homosexuality. Offenders in the German military were routinely shot. "That wasn't a punishment," Himmler explained, "but simply the extinguishing of abnormal life. It had to be got rid of, just as we pull out weeds, throw them on a heap, and burn them."

Lively's organization, Abiding Truth Ministries, has a website describing Lively as "one of the most articulate opponents of the Homosexual Agenda in America."

No wonder Lively is among the people responsible for Uganda's "kill the gays bill". Here's part of the address at the (now) infamous conference in Kampala just before the proposed bill reared its ugly head:

You must be ready to stop this gay agenda. And don't think that fighting the gay movement is the solution-you will be fighting a losing battle because this movement has come to stop humanity. They have a clear vision, mission and strategies. The only way to defeat them is to compete with them. Their movement is 70 years old and that's why they don't care about you. They know you will die soon and they will replace you and take over the nation. They have decided to recruit the youth.

Besides Abiding Faith Ministries, Lively is also the founder of the virulent (and violent) Watchmen on the Walls, based in Riga, Latvia. Lately, Watchmen has captured attention due to a homophobic homicide of a man in Sacramento. 

BTW: Lively's cohort in homophobia is Reverend Ken Hutcherson:

“God hates effeminate men... If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end.”

All men of God should be so macho.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council plays the other three "horsemen" like a puppeteer, using their rhetoric and skewed logic to demonize everyone who is gay or who  might indicate a slight leaning towards support of gay rights:

"It was her [Elana Kagan's] rabid pro-homosexual views that led her to restrict military recruitment on Harvard Law School's campus, and, as Solicitor General, to sabotage the defense of our federal marriage law. In both instances, she favored her personal ideology and political calculations over the law.

"Rabid pro-homosexual." The Four Horsemen of the Homosexual Agenda are definitely leaning towards a Ugandan sensibility by making it a sin (crime) to be supportive of the LGBT community.

There are more people who can articulate what the Homosexual Agenda means to them, but the Four Horsemen are at the top of the list as self-appointed ministers of righteousness. 

Additional Note:

I know that it seems I  take things cavalierly sometimes. The headline of this article, for example, was written to introduce a subject with levity. That was in the way of attracting attention, then leading you to the real cause of my concern. Please remember: these people are real, their actions are real and their motives are real. And even though some people dismiss them as "wingnuts," they must be monitored. Their influence is not to be underestimated. You've heard it said that their rhetoric can kill. That's not a silly hyperbole - it's a fact. The sad part is that they know it and just chalk it up to God's will. In other words, God gave them each a conscience, but they sacrificed them to God on an altar of self-righteousness.