Denying your true self is unhealthy mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and even bodily. The harm to these men’s families is even more of a concern. The more they feel they have to be “secret” about their true, inner selves and lives, the more they will go off and do dangerous things (sleeping with other men they meet online, for example, then coming home to their wives).

No all-loving god would create people with ardent desires and true feelings then force them to deny who they really are. It’s the zenith of hypocrisy and irony; unless they believe their god is some kind of cold-hearted trickster.

It strikes me: Such is the mind-set of the men at C st., The Family Jeff Sharlet writes about, the tanned, bouffanted, capped-toothed Congressmen lined up with Michelle Bachmann on the Senate steps.

This was telling:

“The [camp] reinforced stereotypes about masculinity and manhood. The counselor would say: ‘Complete this sentence, ‘I feel masculine when,’ or ‘A man is this.’ And the answers that came up were: protector, provider, husband, father. A man is strong, he is a meat eater. They’re enforcing this alpha male American masculinity. ”

And this is the definition of lonely, a human totally self-sufficient, “needless”, not to be questioned, putting food on the table in an economy where jobs are scarce. The model is the frontiersman in a world where there is no longer a frontier. The real sickness is the myth of masculinity. I suppose that’s why so many guns are sold and why the week-end do-it-yourself militias are springing up in every state. Reason can’t speak to their inner phantoms. Their lonely. Children observe: walk away from this into another future.

However…

PFLAG, has rap sessions where people are given opportunities to talk about their backgrounds and motives for being there and so on. You can’t name names outside of the meetings or indulge anyone’s personal information or what you heard about their families.

However, ALL are welcome, it’s free and no one is locked in the room, nor forced to SIGN anything, and especially, don’t use any psychological counseling or make any claims contrary to simple personal education and support.

THAT’S why I found that when I said that considering the LOFTY claims that Living Waters are so strongly successful and all, what’s the big secret about their secret?
And since they are so PROUD of their success stories and advertise and recruit aggressively, then aren’t they ALSO proud of their methods, and would WELCOME access to interested parties on what they do and how they do it?

You know, FREE PUBLICITY and all.

Yeah, I kinda know what you’re thinking, goes for me too.

The Methodists are super-inclusive and rent their campsite to anyone. They only charge $8 a night per person. JiM charges participants $600 for the two night weekend so do the math. Someone is making a killing off these guilt-fests).

They probably would have been there last year but the local gay paper Q Salt Lake wrote an article about JiM, and the Methodists also found out that JiM was operating without insurance.

Not surprisingly Journey into Manhood had a new super secret Utah site this year. No idea if they had insurance but their waivers look pretty spiffy!

PS. SPEAKING OF PARANOIA, During the JiM weekends, the camp caretakers (a lovely retired Methodist couple from Texas) were forbidden to leave their RV or talk to the participants. AND the camps gates were locked from the inside, not to keep people out, but to keep people in.

Discuss among yourselves….