Will Illinois Be #13?
The Daily Agenda for Monday, May 20
Gay Man Shot To Death In NYC Hate Crime
The Daily Agenda for Sunday, May 19
French President Hollande Signs Marriage Bill
The Daily Agenda for Saturday, May 18
Fox News Ignores Marriage Equality Wins
The Era of Civil Unions Is Coming To An End
Featured Reports
What Are Little Boys Made Of?
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.
Slouching Towards Kampala: Uganda’s Deadly Embrace of Hate
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.
David Benkof: Behind the Mask
At first glance, David Benkof appears to be a young gay man who believes that same-sex marriage will damage the institution of marriage, that there are better options for gay couples than marriage, that the community should join him in prioritizing other more pressing issues, and that the marriage discussion is harming the efforts of gay couples in red states to get recognition for their unions. He also claims that he’s a gay columnist, that he speaks for an influential collection of gay thinkers, and that he is part of the gay and lesbian community and that he shares our goals and dreams. But none of that is true.
“Repeat After Me”: The Reparative Therapy Echo Chamber
The April 2008 edition of the pay-to-publish vanity journal Psychological Reports featured a new report from NARTH. Written by NARTH president A. Dean Byrd, past president Joseph Nicolosi, and Richard W. Potts, the report carries the unwieldy but self-descriptive title, “Clients perceptions of how reorientation therapy and self-help can promote changes in sexual orientation.” While the title describes what the authors meant to show — how clients describe the benefits of reparative therapy — the report itself actually illustrates something very different: the ex-gay movement’s remarkable ability to instill an almost robot-like parroting of ex-gay rhetoric among their clients.
Testing the Premise: Is MRSA The New Gay Plague?
The Toronto Star said that a new study “discover[ed] a new strain” of a super-bug “hitting gay men.” Headlines in Britain screamed, “Flesh-eating bug strikes San Francisco’s gay community,” and anti-gay extremists across America spread the alarm that gays were introducing another plague into “the general population.” But there was a small problem with all of this: None of it is true!
Paul Cameron’s World
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.
From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”
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"
The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing The Myths
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.
Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?
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.
Straight From The Source: What the “Dutch Study” Really Says About Gay Couples
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.
The FRC’s Briefs Are Showing
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.
Review: The Gay Report
When Karla Jay and Allan Young published The Gay Report in 1979, it quickly a favorite source of statistics for many anti-gay extremists. But before you accepts these statistic at face value, you should examine the inner workings of this survey very carefully. What you learn might surprise you.
Daniel Fetty Doesn’t Count
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.
News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric
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Bernie
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Ha-ha, what a farce of a person he is.
Aaron
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
It’s very simple theology; pastor means shepherd. If there is no flock, then there is no shepherd. On a slightly deeper level, Christian leaders generally must act in a collegial manner, as they are to represent the Church in her entirety. Because of this, it is quite impossible for someone to declare themselves a leader in the church. A person who wishes to be a leader must stand in continuity with those who went before them, ideally through a physical laying on of hands.
BlackDog
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Eh, it’s been my experience that the different Pentecostal churches and movements are overflowing with self-declared Apostles, Pastors, Prophets, etc. All you have to do is get some people to believe that you are what you say you are. So yes, it’s quite possible.
BlackDog
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Someone should call Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and ask if they’ve ever even heard of this guy.
I’d laugh if they hadn’t.
Timothy Kincaid
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Ordination is a process and an event, not a matter of approval or mentoring. Either one has been ordained or one has not.
Thus the term “ordained minister” which differentiates between a guy who preaches and someone who has been reviewed and vetted (to a greater or lesser extent) by a denomination or organization.
There are no doubt some churches that grow up around a preacher who has not been ordained (perhaps in the Big Sky), that would be a disqualifier for consideration by most church boards.
John
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Why is he claiming that gays are responsible for his legal troubles? You put that in the headline and then give no further information.
occono
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
See the linked article in the last sentence. He hasn’t given any explanation, we just “are”.
PLAINTOM
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
The gentleman has a causality problem, he is facing charges because of his alleged criminal actions not because of his political positions. Christianists have a real problem accepting personal responsibility. I have seen this mindset repeatedly among groups opposed to equal rights.
Charles
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
He is an obvious nutcase, ignore him.
Jim Burroway
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
John, I can’t read his mind. He’s blaming gays but doesn’t say why. Your guess is as good as mine.
Christopher
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
Well, I’m NOT responsible for his hair.
Jerry
September 30th, 2011 | LINK
He’s like most fundamentalist preachers. Too lazy to get an honest job because he’s too stupid to be able to make the amount of money he can make by scamming the sheeple.
dave
October 1st, 2011 | LINK
[tk: comment removed due to violation of Comments Policy]
Scooby Doo
October 1st, 2011 | LINK
And he would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling gays!
San Diego Rob
October 2nd, 2011 | LINK
I bet he could make more money if he were to go about the bible mentioning death to those who commit adultery.
Timothy Kincaid
October 5th, 2011 | LINK
Jerry,
Have you met any fundamentalist preachers? Most are sincere, honest, caring and doing what they do because they believe that they are helping people.
And a good many of them left a job with far more income to work at an occupation that is mostly poorly compensated and in which the work day starts as 12.01 am and ends at midnight.
Pastors – especially in small towns – have less privacy than a movie star. Any minor misbehavior of a family member is an indictment on God and religion. It is not off limits for a parishioner to invite themselves to Christmas or a family function.
They don’t get paid well and yet are expected to help out when anyone else is in need. Many continue in ministry into their 80s while the congregation drifts away to the younger more in-touch preacher because, frankly, they can’t stop. They never made enough to save.
And even those who do make enough to consider educating their kids or saving for retirement have to walk a fine line between appearing so poor that obviously God isn’t blessing him and appearing so rich he can drive that fancy-pancy new (second hand) car.
A pastor is never not on-call. When the phone rings at 3 am he answers, gets out of bed, comes over, and gives marital advice. When your husband is in an accident, he’s at the hospital before much of the family – even if your husband called him lazy and stupid just yesterday.
He has to be nice and friendly when he feels grumpy and sick. He has to be approachable to the lonely non-stop talker, the socially inept person who could use a more frequent bathing schedule, the angry person ranting about his spouse when he’s the one at fault. He takes verbal abuse and doesn’t get to lash back – or even write that person out of his life.
A good many people enjoy being part of some good-works ministry at church. But the pastor is part of all of them. Every week. Even when he doesn’t really want to be in the park serving soup. It’s his job.
And when elderly women on a budget are afraid of being taken advantage of by service people (or simply don’t have the money), his job also includes roof reshingling, clearing plumbing blocks, and minor electrical repairs. Or sometimes delegation of younger folk who really need to learn to respect the life experiences of their elders – a task more frustrating than doing it yourself.
And a minister has to keep up on his studying, to find something relevant, meaningful, and appropriate to the lives of his congregants and originality isn’t easy when there’s 2,000 years of others doing the same. He has to know a little about history, science, philosophy, physics, current events, and especially the often excruciatingly nuanced and complicated theological positions of several dozen distinct denominations at any time.
But by far his hardest work is therapist. If you truly care about people (and the vast overwhelming number of pastors do) then you take a little of their burden on you. You feel and worry and care and pray about them. They go away a bit happier, he has another thing to be concerned about. And pastors are seldom afforded the dispassionate response of a licensed therapist; while no one expects the woman who charges you $250 for 40 minutes and not a minute over to “really care about me” the unpaid pastor must.
I do not shy away from criticizing hurtful theology or arrogant presumptions of spiritual superiority or theocratic impulses or dogmatism or cruelty or abuse of power or many many other failings that can find home in religion.
I have little pity for Bishops or denominational leaders. Theology professors must earn my respect. And religious activists, for the most part, are a scourge on society and an insult to decent people of all faiths and none.
But small town pastors uncomplainingly do work that most other people would not stoop to, and usually couldn’t even if they were willing. You may see jerks like this one – they make the news – but don’t foolishly assume that he is representative of pastors.
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