Box Turtle Bulletin

Watchmen On The Walls Conference Coming To Riga, Latvia

The Watchmen On The Walls have announced their next conference in Riga, Latvia for November 14-18. Speakers include:

• Scott Lively, revisionist holocaust author of The Pink Swastika.
• Vlad Kusakin, publisher of the Russian language “The Speaker” in the United States.
• Joseph Mattera, also from the United States.
• Alexei Ledyaev, the Ukrainian- Kazakh-born pastor of the influential “New Generation” megachurch in Latvia.
• Andrei Tischenko, a Bishop association of churches which operate under the “New Generation” umbrella in Ukraine.
• Larry Jacob, vice president of the World Congress of Families.
• Don Feder, author of Who is afraid of the Religious Right?
• David A. Sobrepeña, senior pastor of the Filipino Word of Hope Church in Manila and head of “Transformation Philippines,” a conservative political lobbying group in the Philippines.
• Anselm Madubuko, founder of an evangelical church in Nigeria.

The Weekly Standard on Donnie and Barack

Suffice it to say that I virtually never agree with the neo-conserviative The Weekly Standard. But today I’m reminded of my wise father’s saying, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.” Just about everything Dean Barnett writes about Donnie McClurkin’s appearance in Sen. Barak Obama’s Gospel tour in South Carolina elicited an amen from me. Read the recap here.

The New York Times: “The Evangelical Crackup”

Here’s a great article from yesterday’s New York Times Magazine describing the emergence of centrist side of American Evangelicalism as it begins to displace somewhat the angry, politically far right. Two favorite lines came out of this for me. One “I believe in the word of God. I am just not mad about it.” And this: “When you mix politics and religion, you get politics.”

This article is a great reminder of the heterodoxy of Evangelicalism and provides a grounds for hope for a very important branch of Christianity. I’ve always argued that no bock can be as monolithic as the stereotypes say they are. The only quibble I have with this article is its title. It seems to me not so much a “crackup” as it is the natural outcome when one’s understanding of Christ’s Gospel deepens.

Video: Inside “Love Won Out”

A Culture Within A Culture
Love Won Out can sometimes be somewhat mysterious to those who are outside the evangelical world. What’s more, homosexuality and the ex-gay movement largely exists outside the experience of the typical evangelical church-goer. This makes Love Won Out a unique culture within a culture.

Blaming Fathers For Gay Sons
Most of the Love Won Out audience consists of mothers and fathers of gay sons and daughters. Guess who Love Won Out singles out as the main culprit behind their son’s homosexuality? Don’t take my word for it — you can hear it straight from Joseph Nicolosi’s lips.

See also:

The “Love Won Out” Series:
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”

Over The Weekend

Christine Bakke and I were interviewed by ONE TV Show, a local gay program here in Denver. Once the episode is online I’ll post a link.

Gays Smoke-Bombed in Lithuania

As we have discussed before, the international anti-gay group Watchmen on the Walls has been wielding influence in Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia. They also enjoy the support of influential American preachers such as Ken Hutcherson and are seeking to import their violent brand of homophobia into areas of the United States which have large immigrant populations from those areas.

Now the BBC is reporting more violence out of that part of Europe:

An annual gay rights conference in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, was attacked with smoke bombs, after a rally in the city was banned.

The decent thing would be for those involved with the Watchmen to condemn this act of terrorism. They won’t.

The decent thing would be for those who associate with Ken Hutcherson and Scott Lively to disavow their tactics and their complicity in acts of violence. They won’t.

Cancer Linked to Oral Sex…

… in heterosexuals.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, men who have oral sex with women can come into contact with the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer in women.

Men probably obtain the virus by performing oral sex on women who have an HPV infection of the cervix. Ernster said the cancer could develop as late as 20 years after the oral sex occurred.

“Oral sex has implications that are way beyond what we first thought,” he said.

For a while, HPV was assumed to be benign – and it mostly is. But now it has been shown to be a contributer to a number of cancers. And while this observation is limited to oral sex among heterosexuals, it is likely that oral sex between men can also spread HPV.

Fortunately, there is now a recently-identified vaccine for HPV. Unfortunately, conservative activists have been fighting tooth and toenail to stop the broad vaccination of American school girls – they think it gives them permission to be promiscuous. Perhaps now that it can be shown to endanger men their objections may diminish.

The broad vaccination of all schoolchildren should be of great interest to the gay community as HPV has also been shown to play a factor in anal cancer in gay men.

Gay Worms

Yet another study has come out which supports the notion that at least some factors playing into the determination of sexual orientation may be genetic. From the Salt Lake Tribune

The researchers isolated the nerve cells responsible for sexual attraction in nematode worms, then “flipped” a genetic switch in the brains of female worms so they became attracted to other females.

Naturally, we aren’t worms (well, most of us) so this does not say too much about the etiology of human sexuality. Nonetheless, it does add the ever-growing pile of evidence that genes play a part.

“It seems possible that if sexual orientation is genetically wired in worms, it would be in people, too,” biology professor Erik Jorgensen said in a news release.

McClurkin – perhaps not so Ex-Gay after all

Clay Cane claims to have an exclusive interview with an ex-lover of Donnie McClurkin. I don’t know if it’s legit, but here’s a bit:

How long were you guys being sexual?
Off and on for three years, 2001 to 2004.

During this time to 2001 to 2004 is really the height of his anti-gay rants. The book came out, he made comments, he told the New York Times in 2002 he’s counseling adolescent boys to convert them from homosexuality. Would you hear about these rants?

Every time I’d read an article in Ebony or Jet, or whatever, I’d just hear it—I’d get upset and we’d always have an argument about it. He said, “I told you.” I said, “It’s crazy. What you’re doing is crazy. You’re writing this stuff, but yet you’re still doing it.” I said, “I have a problem with that. What’s wrong with you?” He said, “I have a problem.”

What do you think he meant by “I have a problem”?
It’s something he just can’t control. He feels that he has to say that to please people. He said, “I don’t want people to believe that I’m still doing it.”

I know that McClurkin has said some things that are pretty nasty about gay people, but he’s far from the worst. And he’s not – to my knowledge – lent his name to political campaigns or supported draconian laws.

If the claims in this interview are true, McClurkin has my pity. That does not sound like a happy way to live.

Church of Sweden Tentatively Supports Gay Marriage

It is fairly certain that Sweden will soon replace the Registered Partnership laws they have had in place since 1996 with legalized same-sex marriage. If they do so, then gay citizens will have the same rights to church weddings as heterosexuals.

The Church of Sweden is trying to determine their response. Although the church is decidedly pro-gay, some ministers balk at providing same-sex marriages. One option would be to separate the legal officiation of civil wedding from the blessing of couples.

Although the decision is not final and the question is likely to arise again after the law is changed, the Church voted 161 to 74 to retain it’s legal officiating capacity.

Archbishop Anders Wejryd said he expects the issue to resurface if there is a change in the law.

“Those who voted did so on the basis of current legislation. If the law changes, the issue will return,” he said.

But the Archbishop added that he was not unduly worried by the prevailing differences of opinion.

“I think the type of discussion we have had contributes to our cohesiveness. It has been an honest discussion that shows our great willingness to live together within the church. So it doesn’t worry me.

Austria to Consider Civil Unions

Many of Austria’s neighboring states have some form of recognition for the rights of same-sex couples. German has Life Partnerships, Switzerland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic have Registered Partnerships, and Hungary has limited inheritance rights recognition. Only Slovakia and Italy have no recognition and most observers believe that Italy will soon join the rest of Western Europe.

Austria will now consider providing recognition for same-sex couples.

SPÖ Justice minister Maria Berger’s proposed new partnerships law will be considered by a bipartisan working group.

The People’s Party announced earlier this month that it would support civil unions similar to those in Switzerland.

It is too early to make predictions but it is encouraging that there is support from within both of the coaltion ruling parties.

Watchmen Wrap-up

The Watchmen On the Walls are trying to get their last impressions in on their conference last weekend in Lynnwood, Washington. While they had anticipated that about 600-700 people would attend the conference at the Lynnwood Convention center, only about 100 people actually showed up.

Now, ordinarily such a dismal showing would be seen as something of a failure. According to news reports, there appeared to be more protesters outside the conference hall than inside. But the Watchmen are gamely putting a triumphant face on the whole thing.

Latvian pastor Alexei Ledyaev put it this way:

I am very pleased with the way in which the conference took place in California and Washington. Surprisingly, the news media attack on the Watchmen in Washington has made us popular, and has brought us many new friends. … I am sure that next year there will be an even better Watchmen conference.

Taking the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity, they appeared to have been especially pleased to have been on television this time. Sergei Prihodko, US Coordinator for the Watchmen, claimed that “according to some estimates,” the publicity was worth half a million dollars.

Let’s see… Half a million, divided by a hundred people…

But despite all the attention, the Watchmen could not avoid their ominous rhetoric. The Stranger’s Eli Sanders observed:

Next Lively offers a disclaimer: “We do not promote or condone violence.” It’s quickly followed by more defiance: “We do not apologize for opposing homosexuality because it is morally, physically, psychologically, and socially wrong, unnatural, and harmful.” Technically, Lively’s statements do stop short of explicit calls to violent action, but they clearly lay the foundation upon which an impressionable and/or agitated mind could come to the conclusion that violence might be necessary to defend the Watchmen from their “enemies.”

And while it’s true that Lively, Ken Hutcherson, and others issued statements claiming that violence was not being promoted, there were some glaring inconsistencies. For example, Hutcherson said this about violence:

We have law enforcement, we have the police, and we have those who would say no that is wrong. And we have the responsibility if anyone is trying to take it that far to tell them that is absolutely wrong. That is not what the Bible teach. We’re not going to stand on anything the Bible doesn’t teach.

But holocaust revisionist and Watchman co-founder Scott Lively himself twisted the facts about Satendar Singh’s murder to paint the assailants in a sympathetic light before a Watchmen conference last August in Novosibirsk. What’s more, Lively has shown a violent streak himself. The SPLC reports that Lively was ordered by a court in 1991 to pay $20,000 to a lesbian photojournalist who he dragged by the hair through the halls of a Portland church.

And then there’s this ominous statement from another prominent Watchman, Vlad Kusakin:

“All of the events that happened during the week before the conference look like a filthy provocation. There was an incredible stir in media. We were accused of everything. Of hatred, of ties with the KKK, of incitement to murder! Someone has thrown this hoax in to gain political points. So far I can not tell for sure, but it looks like the root of this provocation lies somewhere in Latvia, and soon we will make all efforts to find this source and present to the public those real instigators and racists who wanted to provoke a conflict in Seattle.”

But if Mr. Kusakin really wants to find the “source” rather than a scapegoat, he needs to look no further than the Watchmen’s own web site.

The Heterosexual Agenda: Blood Sports

Crazy heterosexuals. There’s just no telling what they’ll think of next:

Tiffany Lachelle Sutton, who turned 24 on Friday, apologized to the court Tuesday for stabbing her lover with a knife and drinking his blood.

…

Robert McDaniel, 45, and Sutton were lying in bed naked when Sutton asked McDaniel if he wanted to be tied up, and he consented, Tempe police reports stated. Sutton told police she made McDaniel sign a book promising not to prosecute her for when the “sex got crazy.”

“You, Robert McDaniel, swear that no wrong will come to me, Tiffany Lachelle Sutton, due to tonight’s events,” read the document, provided by the court. “You also pass me all your earthly powers, wealth included.”

Once she had his signature, Sutton pulled out a knife and cut his leg, court records show. McDaniel asked to be untied but Sutton refused and stabbed him in the back, neck, abdomen and through the arm.

Then she drank some of his blood.

Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

See also:
The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing the Myths

Donnie McClurkin at the 2004 GOP Convention

We mentioned earlier that ex-gay Donnie McClurkin will be featured on Senator Obama’s gospel concert tour in Souther Carolina. McClurkin has denied having made anti-gay sentiments. Here’s his testimony on the Exodus web site. I’ll let you read it and decide for yourself. I personally have trouble with the prayer, “Every enemy of God is an enemy of mine” — having been labeled an enemy of God on more than one occasion in my life.

Just three years ago, McClurkin appeared at the GOP national convention. You can catch the video of his appearance at that convention here.

California Wildfires Bring Out The Crazies

San Diego ex-gay “Christian” activist and gadfly James Hartline knows why California’s burning:

They shook their fists at God and said, “We don’t care what God says, we will issue our legal brief to support gay marriage in San Diego!” Then Mayor Jerry Sanders mocked the Christian vote and signed off on this rebellious legal document to support same-sex marriage. And then the streets of La Jolla under the Mt. Soledad Cross began to cave in.

They shook their fists at God and said, “We don’t care what the Bible says, We want the California school children indoctrinated into homosexuality!” And then Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the heinous SB777 which bans the use of “mom” and “dad” in the text books and promotes homosexuality to all school children in California.

And then the wildfires of Southern California engulfed the land like a raging judgment against the radicalized anti-christian California rebels.

Yes, Harline’s a crazy old coot. That why the only attention he gets is accompanied with laughter. Unlike CNN’s Glenn Beck:

I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.