Bryan Fischer, douchebag |
"I have made it my mission in life to never be alone in a room with a woman other than my wife. I've never ridden in a car with a woman. I've never had coffee at a restaurant with a woman. I've never had lunch -- not even a business lunch, not even a professional lunch with a colleague...have never done it, and never will do it."Apparently, if you don't want gay things to happen, you should make sure you are always alone, or in a crowd.
Fischer is thrilled about a new study that suggests "religiously-mediated sexual orientation change" is possible. He writes
All it takes is one man to prove that homosexuals aren't inevitably trapped in that lifestyle, and that sexual orientation is not an immutable characteristic like race. As the saying goes, it's impossible to meet an ex-black, but it turns out that it is not impossible to meet an ex-gay.How did the study work, exactly?
In fact, there are a bunch of them out there.
And the research proving that change is possible has now been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, which takes that snide and snarky objection away from the deviancy cabal.
Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse have published a longitudinal study of "religiously-mediated sexual orientation change" in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy. It's found in Volume 37, pages 404-427 for any doubters in the crowd.
Jones and Yarhouse followed 61 individuals over a 6-7 year period who completed reparative therapy work with Exodus International. Of these 61 men and women, 53% had successful outcomes. Twenty-three percent reported a successful conversion to heterosexuality, both in orientation and functioning, while an additional 30% achieved behavioral chastity as well as substantive "dis-identification" with a homosexual orientation. (Twenty percent of the subjects abandoned the process and fully embraced a homosexual identity.)The most amazing quote in Fischer's piece is this gem:
The left is profoundly anti-science and will be predictably anti-science in responding to these findings.Wow. That's rich, coming from Fischer, who categorically denies evolution and climate change.
Exodus International, for the uninitiated, is a Christian ex-gay therapy organization which promotes "the message of Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."
It's important to note that Michael Bussee, one of the founders of Exodus, and Gary Cooper, a leader within the ministry of Exodus, left the group to be with each other in 1979. Bussee has been a long-time critic of Exodus.
In 2007, Bussee, along with Jeremy Marks, the former president of Exodus International Europe, and Darlene Bogle, the founder of Paraklete Ministries, an Exodus referral agency. issued an apology to those who had been misled by Exodus. The three stated that although they acted sincerely at the time of their involvement, their message had caused isolation, shame and fear. The three had, in time, become disillusioned with promoting gay conversion.
"Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," stated the three in the apology.
Another Exodus Chairman, John Paulk was removed by the board of directors when he was identified drinking and flirting at Mr. P's, a Washington, D.C. gay bar, Paulk was introducing himself to patrons of the bar as "John Clint," a name he had used in his previous life as a hustler in Ohio. Paulk was the author of "Not Afraid to Change; The Remarkable Story of How One Man Overcame Homosexuality," and was on staff with Focus on the Family, where was manager of their Homosexuality and Gender Department.
According to the press release for the study Fischer cites, "the results do not prove that categorical change in sexual orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful shifts along a continuum that constitute real changes appear possible for some."
So, the study shows that some people can actually deny their impulses through religion, guilt, and shame -- we all know how well chastity has worked out for the Catholic Church.
Personally, I'm a little blown away that the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy published such garbage. The study proves nothing, except that religion-based bigotry and coercion therapy can shame people into living dishonestly.
How many more participants will eventually reach a breaking point, like 20% of the study's participants, and like Bussee, Cooper, Marks, Bogle, and Paulk --- five higher-ups in the Exodus organization -- and eventually admit that they were simply buying into a lie?
Certainly, the likes of Bryan Fischer will simply shrug any such instances off as cases who were not strong enough in their resistance to deviant impulses. Perhaps they ended up having coffee with a member of the same sex and it all went to hell.
Listening to this guy is just about as bad as watching Fox news..quite revolting. What disturbs me most about this is you know this report will be circulated and used in a negative way that could be damaging. As a mother of a lesbian daughter and Straight Ally, it pains me to know more now than I ever realized how far some will go to hurt our friends and family who are gay/bi/transgender. Thanks for sharing, I try and educate myself with things like this so I can do more to support our LGBT community.
ReplyDeleteYou know what really pisses me off is that there is an assumption that I should WANT to change. I don't. I have a good life with a good man. Even if I could change, why the fuck should I. Because what WE do in bed makes others uncomfortable? Why are you thinking about it? I do not see a straight couple and think about what they do in the privacy of their own bedroom. And talk about oversexed. He does not trust himself with another woman to have a meal. Dude, you got a real problem with your impulse control obviously.
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