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"ex-gay" Conference Coming To Town


ArmadilloUCC

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Hi everybody.

This week my pastors got this envelope delivered to them in the church mail. Turns out it's an invitation to a breakfast by Focus on the Family about how ministry leaders can "convey the truth about homosexuality compassionately and without compromise". TRanslation-----"Love the sinner hate the sin"

The breakfast is also a preview of the Love Won Out conference which is coming to town in June. Love Won Out is one of those "ex-gay" conferences where they talk about aversion therapy and praying your way out of being gay.

Our pastors gave the invite to my partner and me. They said we should call about 500 of our gay pals and descend on the breakfast like locusts and overwhelm those people. I thought the image of that was very funny but it got me to thinking. What if we did go to this breakfast or the conference. What if we stood across the street and held up a banner that said "Just As I Am" or "You can come to our church now you don't need to get aversion therapied first".

DO you think anyone would come over to us and talk to us? Would it do any good or have most people made up their hearts and minds? Have any of y'all done anything like that?

Thanks

Dillo

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ArmadilloUCC, is there a Metropolitan Community Church near you? From my experience, they are great at organizing and supporting civil protests/demonstrations. Might be a good resource.

 

Good luck and God Bless

 

~Sophia

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Hello Armadillo :-)

 

Your suggestions sound WONDERFUL.

 

I would caution against your pastors suggestion of taking up room inside the conference, as that could be twisted in the media very easily into the headline "Gays Are Against Free Speech" etc. etc. etc. and only hurt your message.

 

However, I think holding a totally peaceful protest would be a wonderful idea. I have some suggestions myself:

 

1) Besides contacting the MCC as Sophia suggested, check out your local Soulforce group as well. They are the kings and queens (and intergendered royalty :D ) of nonviolent pro-gay Christian protests.

 

2) Get Soulforce or MCC or Quakers or some other experienced nonviolent action group to train you guys in how to respond to violent reactions. If you feel secure that your group can abide by nonviolent principles, contact every local newspaper including/especially the independent ones and let them know what's going to happen. Make sure about the nonviolence, though, because a shock-value-loving media may twist whatever it can get its hands on.

 

3) Make banners utilizing Bible verses. This will get the attention of conference-goers and perhaps inspire/anger some of them to come over and talk to you. For instance, you might put the following "interpreted" Bible verse on a sign:

 

Romans 8:38-39 For we are persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor ... [being gay] shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

4) Have tons and tons of educational material to pass out. My personal suggestion is that it in fact leans towards your Christianity and not your pro-gay or I'm-gay identity. Here's why: I've once again re-realized from my anti-gay parents how much they think your faith is just a cover-up. For instance, I only recently got my parents to attend a open and affirming church for Christmas and Easter. I really think my mom was expecting an orgy on the altar! But now that they saw how quote-unquote "normal" - now that they saw "Hey, these people are Christians too, who sing the same hymns and read the same Bible I do" I think that made a difference. Whereas, if one of the sermons had even touched on their gay-affirming stance, I think it would've pushed my parents further away. Its certainly not your responsibility to prove your Christian faith to others, but I think it is better to win over an enemy by disproving their false ideas with actions than with words. Again, this is just a personal suggestion of mine.

 

5) Let us know on this board how it went! :P

 

~ Lib

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  • 5 months later...
You mean all the ex-gays who go off and hang with the fundies for a few years and then later come back admit that their orientation has really been gay all along?

I don't know if it right to make such a mistake,

 

 

If I quote the logical levels from R Dilts (NLP)

 

We know that behaviour comes in a

- Context

- Behaviours

- Skills and Habilities

- Beliefs and Values

- Identity

- Mission and spirituality

 

"To be Gay" doesnot belong to the Identity area, /As "To be Straight" in the same time..

 

A behaviour is an answer to expectations/experience of live and relates to beliefes and values..

 

And have not to be mixed - Even if a part of the identity resolves in a behaviour, it cannot be confused, identity cannot be confused with the behaviour.

 

Some people could say "and the Bible" .. We can talk about it but we could be surprised by biased translations.;

 

The main texts :

- "Romans" relates to former monotheistic believers who have been involved in fecundity cults

- "Timothy" talks about homosexual rapes and abduction (very common in the roman and greek world - especially for slaves)

- OT Talks about the fecundity cults and homosexual prostitution widely spread in Isreal before exile..

 

Do these texts help the spiritual seekers ?

 

Is it normal to be shocked when leaders of fundies churches say "churches are not for you .. go away"

 

or demanding people make changes in their lifes they have never asked to the other members..

 

Spirituality doesnot take the place or a therapy,

 

But therapy addresses the sufferings problems, when people suffer they have to be heard..

 

If people suffer from rejection , so we have something to do..

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Hi! IT's good to be back on the boards. My computer was messed for a while.

First let me thank everyone for their support and ideas, and tell everyone that the protest at the confernce went well. There were about 50 of us, holding up signs and smiling and waving at people who drove up to the church where the conference was. One guy had a little dog with a sweater on that said "ex-cat" he was a big hit, and very disarming.

A friend of mine from my church is a reporter for Indymedia and he went in as a press person. He came out and told us about it. How packaged and slick their material was. I had a luagh with him about it being "power point Jesus"

Armadillo

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