Faith-Based Quackery...

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melon

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Congressional Subcommittee To Hear From 'Ex-Gay' Group
by Paul Johnson

Posted: January 23, 2004 12:02 a.m. ET

(Washington, D.C.) The House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources has scheduled a hearing on faith-based initiatives Friday and reportedly will hear from extreme rightwing groups including one promoting "converting" gays to heterosexuality.

Among the groups to testify before the Republican controlled sub-committee is Focus on the Family and an organization it sponsors, Love Won Out.

"This could mark the beginning of a faith-based fiasco where the right wing pressures the government to get into the business of destroying lives through support of ex-gay programs," said Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.

Gay civil rights groups are calling on the committee to rescind its invitation to the groups to appear.

"It is unconscionable that our federal elected officials would even consider using the hard-earned tax dollars of millions of parents to fund the denigration of their children," said David Tseng, Executive Director of PFLAG.

The Love Won Out website (www.family.org) states, "Focus on the Family is promoting the truth that homosexuality is preventable and treatable ... We want people to know that individuals don't have to be gay."

FOF says it plans to have five of their representatives testify at the faith-based funding hearing.

"Ex-gay therapy" was publicly decried in 1999 as unethical by both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. At best, ex-gay groups fuel prejudice and homophobia; at worst, they put their 'clients' at great risk of depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior, including suicide.

"There is nothing reparative about this destructive and psychologically harmful practice, which is based on outdated and disproved pseudo-science and fundamentalist religious prejudice," said PFLAG's Deputy Field and Policy Director, Roy Gilbert- Higginson, PhD., a former clinical psychiatric social worker.

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Ah...you have to love our "compassionate extremist" president. And to think? My tax dollars might end up funding this repugnant pseudoscience. Now you can see why I was opposed to that faith-based crap, because now its clear that all this administration was interested in was funneling tax money into religions, which are the most hateful and discriminatory groups in America, second only, perhaps, to Christian "white supremacist" groups.

Melon
 
:tsk:

Isn't that quack "Dr" David Hager also involved in this Focus on the Family?

I posted something about that group "Courage" a while back, which deals with the same subject- becoming "ex-gay." I made some comment then and I'll make it again how it's so upsetting people are told they are not enough, or they as a person are wrong... and extremes are gone to to try and "change" them.

It also says a lot that the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association both deem these types of group hazardous and unethical.

:sigh: :mad:
 
We want people to know that individuals don't have to be gay."

That's my favorite line. These people are so delousional it's almost funny.

Nothing good will come out of these "faith" based legislations. I see a country that's abusing religion and moving closer and closer to extremism. You would think with everything going on in the world right now it would open up people's eyes, but it doesn't, we move closer to where the people we're in struggle with are.
 
:banghead:...arrrrrrrrgggggggggh...

This really pisses me off. Okay, let's say, for a minute, that homosexuality is a choice. I personally don't think it is, simply because every homosexual I've come in contact with have said it was not a choice, and I figure they'd know better than anyone else whether or not this was a choice for them. That, and I don't see why anyone would choose to live a life that gets this kind of hatred, harassment, and the potential in some cases to be killed.

But maybe I'm wrong, and it is a choice ('cause I have also heard stories from people who said that it wasn't, so who knows). Fine. Why in the hell, then, are people so adamant about trying to turn them to heterosexuality? If homosexuality makes them happy, so be it! Why people care so much about something that harms them in absolutely no way, shape, or form is beyond me.

If it's not a choice, these people can just give it up now, 'cause their attempts to change these people won't work.

And if it is, they still should give it up, 'cause it's none of their beeswax, it won't hurt them, so leave these people the :censored: alone.

These right-wing extremists frighten me. They really do. And I sincerely hope to god that my parents' taxpayer money won't go to support these people. Our money should be put to much better uses (*cough, cough...AFRICA & AIDS...cough, cough*).

Whew. Rant over. Sorry 'bout that. It's all due to the many homophobes I've encountered as of late in other debates.

I just feel so bad for homosexuals, I really do. I honestly can't believe some people still feel they can treat you this way and it's perfectly okay.

Angela
 
hmmm if you can become ex-gay, then by the same logic you can become ex-straight too :hmm:. I wonder what those groups would say about that
 
I'm frightened of the term "faith-based" b/c these sort of "faith-based" groups are an embarrasment to everyone else that shares the same faith, but thinks this converting gays idea is utterly rediculous, not to mention inhumane. Imagine joining a group and everytime you go people there try to convince you that your eyes are a different color... :no:
 
Hmmm, so let's see, assuming being homosexual is a matter of free choice then by definition gays are simply exercising their (using right wing parlance) "god-given free will" to chose a lifestyle of their own choice, does it offend the religious right, sure but it isnt their place to interfere. Perhaps they should start acting on some more offensive things in the world (such as global poverty and AIDS) then they could earn the right to be heard.
 
I don't see what business these quack groups have in ppl's private sex lives, gay or straight. These zealots sound straight out of the dark ages. Homosexuality isn't a disease to be cured ffs!

Actually, I have studied both history and theology and I have come to my own personal conclusion that religion (man made religion, not God Himself) often breeds intolerance. If you look at societies both past and present where religion is allowed to run the state, whether Christian or Muslim or whatever, you'll see intolerance, oppression and the loss of freedom. This group of nutters and bigots only highlights the judgmental piousness of those with the 'right' viewpoint who insist on cramming it down everyone else's throats.

And lmao at the typical euphemistic touchie-feelie names these groups give themselves. 'Focus on the Family' indeed. Its not the gay members of society who account for 50% of sanctified heterosexual marriages ending in divorce, nor hostels being filled by battered wives and children. If they really want to focus on the family, why not help impoverished families back on their feet or something truly worthwhile?

and lol, that if gays can be turned straight then straight ppl can be turned gay :lol: ladies, please let me know your a/s/l and I'll give it the ole college try. :wink:
 
A_Wanderer said:
Hmmm, so let's see, assuming being homosexual is a matter of free choice then by definition gays are simply exercising their (using right wing parlance) "god-given free will" to chose a lifestyle of their own choice, does it offend the religious right, sure but it isnt their place to interfere.

EXACTLY! Ooh, I should point that out to the religious right the next time they start in on this stuff.

Originally posted by A_Wanderer
Perhaps they should start acting on some more offensive things in the world (such as global poverty and AIDS) then they could earn the right to be heard.

Precisely.

Also, well said, LCK. "Focus on the Family"-pffft. I guess I must've missed the point where it was decided that it was good family values to be prejudiced. Yeah, there's a lesson we want to pass on to our children!

My dad's watching a show right now about how people spread their hateful views and everything...it just makes me sick. Where in the hell did the human race go wrong?

While I really hate it when people condemn people to places like hell, this just hit me: if there is a heaven and a hell, these extremists who think that they're making God happy and will get to go to heaven when their time is up are going to be sorely mistaken. And that would be irony at its greatest.

God would never accept such hatred. Never. He's got to be fuming somewhere.

Angela
 
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