Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMay 12th, 2010
Mike Goeke is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Exodus International. He is also a counseling pastor at Stonegate Fellowship, a Southern Baptist church in Midland, TX.
He and some of his fellow parishioners prepared a video patting themselves on the back for their out-reach to same-sex attracted people. But as you listen to this amateurish (and creepy) advertisement, a theme emerges.
Seven times they mention “people with same-sex attractions”, five times they talk about those who “struggle” and another three times about those “impacted” by homosexuality (which is, itself, mentioned six times). There was even one self-congratulatory outburst of compassion for “people with same-sex attraction who are struggling with homosexuality.”
And there was talk about “wounded people” and “the problem” and even unwanted attractions. There was comparison to alcoholism and heterosexual adultery. Indeed, they had a ministry to those who are “hurting”. And they offer “hope” and even once wonder at those who “overcome same-sex attractions in their own marriage”.
But you? Real gay people? Those who don’t “struggle” or “hurt” or who are not “impacted”? You who aren’t trying to keep together a heterosexual marriage, or who aren’t feeling rejected by your condemnatory brow-beating church?
You don’t exist.
Oh, there was one use of the word “gay” by a fellow who was judgmental of his gay friends as a youth. But don’t worry, he soon learned to them of them like a woman caught in adultery.
This is not accidental. Exodus – and much of the rest of conservative evangelical Christianity – are quite aware that they don’t use words like “gay” or “sexual orientation”. And they never ever acknowledge that there are happy, healthy, joyful, vibrant, gay men and women who have full rich lives, loving spouses, doting families, and especially peace or spiritual fulfillment.
If they did that, how could they pat themselves on the back for fighting against your civil equality and freedom?
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Lindoro Almaviva
May 12th, 2010
If they did that, how could they pat themselves on the back for fighting against your civil equality and freedom?
Or for being understanding and “compassionate” or for following Jesus admonition to love ALL…
Candace
May 12th, 2010
See how compassionate and accepting they are of gays who don’t spend their time groveling on the floor, “struggling” against same-sex attraction. They’ll kick you out of their church so fast it will make your head spin.
They will lurve you as long as you “know your place–” which is with the drug addicts and alcoholics and spousal abusers and adulterers and assorted other dregs of society.
But not the divorcees, nope– you can’t be with them because they’re all up in the pulpit or being deacons or Sunday School teachers.
Dan
May 12th, 2010
This is an interesting development. It seems they’ve gone from saying that homosexuality can be “cured,” or that gay people can turn straight, to not admitting that there are gay people in the first place.
Erin
May 12th, 2010
I have news for Mike Goeke; Nothing changed. You are still gay. You set my gaydar off the second you began speaking in this video. You have a wife, eh? Shame on you for dragging her into your self-hatred. It will be her life that falls apart when your marriage fails, and it will. Unless of course she is an “ex-gay” too, as is often the case. Then she’ll be relieved once you’re divorced and she doesn’t have to fake heterosexual desires anymore. What a joke. When will people wake up and see just how many lives are destroyed by religion?
Maurice Lacunza
May 12th, 2010
I wish that the senior pastor could discuss the church members who are gay and happily involved in his ministry. He seems to assume that we are all hurting and struggling with the impacted life.
Does anyone know if the church is addressing the impact of discrimination against gays, or, is it the assumption of a destructive same sex attraction?
Maybe the church is willing to accept gay people as gay people. I didn’t get that from this video though. I suspect that they want to pray away the gay. Does anyone know more about this church?
justsearching
May 13th, 2010
This video shows great progress. These people used to hate and despise gays, now they just pity them and couch their dislike for homosexuality in more “acceptable” terms.
I guess, in a way, I’d rather have brittle outright open bigoted opponents, than these squishy reserved sorta-friendly opponents. The former is a dying breed and help new generations see the foundation of anti-gay thought for what it really is. The latter help maintain and continue some of that same foundation wrapped up in some niceties.
klaus
May 13th, 2010
“we all have some junk in our lives.”
the junk is right in your brains, darling.
what a pityful flock of loonatics.
brista
May 13th, 2010
It’s *very* self-congratulatory. I found the theme of personal benefit very telling. “Working with them has helped me more than I helped them,” says one man. Why am I not surprised?
AdrianT
May 13th, 2010
So long as these people keep their nonsense inside their ridiculous church, and nowhere else, that is fine.
I’ve said it before – but it needs repeating so much: it’s time to reach out these poor deluded people with the good news of Charles Darwin and Thomas Paine, among others – and the message that they can walk away from superstition, any time they like.
Mark F.
May 16th, 2010
Can we stop these comments that somehow you can “know” if someone is gay because of the way they speak or act?
Priya Lynn
May 17th, 2010
Mark, your dislike of reality won’t change it.
Leave A Comment