December 13, 2006--Same-Gender Eroticism
So another mega-church Evangelical minister, Paul Barnes, got caught with his pants down in the men’s room and had to give up his lucrative gig. This follows by just weeks a similar fate that befell the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals who kept finding himself driving to Colorado Springs to get soothing, “full-release” massages from a male prostitute.
They’re dropping like flies. Pun intended.
But there is some good news—Reverend Ted, according to the NY Times, is being helped by Minister H. B. London, Jr. to “restore the health and wellness” of his family. He believes this restoration is possible because homosexuality is a choice or an affliction that is likely the result of “a childhood trauma” and is thus curable. (Article linked below.) No word yet about what Mrs. Ted feels about all of this.
At least London’s not saying, like the Rev Dr. Tony Campolo, professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University, who is opposed to “same-gender eroticism” (those professors have a phrase for everything, don’t they) because to choose to be gay is to “choose to be evil.” Though he disagrees with those right wing talk-show folks who claim that homosexuals are “insatiable, promiscuous” people. The problem, as he sees it, is just that they opt to be evil.
There is even more good news—as a result of the fall of these esteemed leaders some evangelicals are beginning to show some semblance of compassion for men with this affliction. The new president of the National Association, the Rev. Leith Anderson, in spite of his ambiguous first name, said, “When you discover people you know and respect are struggling with homosexuality [poor Rev Barnes confessed, after he was outed, that he often cried himself to sleep, “begging God to end his attraction to men”], suddenly you’re more compassionate because they are real people [my emphasis].”
So he’s saying when you find out about just regular folks who are doing the same kind of struggling you don’t feel compassion for them—you just condemn them and relegate them to the eternal fires of hell—but when one of the big boys gets nailed (forgive me) and as a result maybe messes up the take at one of the big churches, then you’re moved to feel badly for him.
Well, at least it’s a start.
They’re dropping like flies. Pun intended.
But there is some good news—Reverend Ted, according to the NY Times, is being helped by Minister H. B. London, Jr. to “restore the health and wellness” of his family. He believes this restoration is possible because homosexuality is a choice or an affliction that is likely the result of “a childhood trauma” and is thus curable. (Article linked below.) No word yet about what Mrs. Ted feels about all of this.
At least London’s not saying, like the Rev Dr. Tony Campolo, professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University, who is opposed to “same-gender eroticism” (those professors have a phrase for everything, don’t they) because to choose to be gay is to “choose to be evil.” Though he disagrees with those right wing talk-show folks who claim that homosexuals are “insatiable, promiscuous” people. The problem, as he sees it, is just that they opt to be evil.
There is even more good news—as a result of the fall of these esteemed leaders some evangelicals are beginning to show some semblance of compassion for men with this affliction. The new president of the National Association, the Rev. Leith Anderson, in spite of his ambiguous first name, said, “When you discover people you know and respect are struggling with homosexuality [poor Rev Barnes confessed, after he was outed, that he often cried himself to sleep, “begging God to end his attraction to men”], suddenly you’re more compassionate because they are real people [my emphasis].”
So he’s saying when you find out about just regular folks who are doing the same kind of struggling you don’t feel compassion for them—you just condemn them and relegate them to the eternal fires of hell—but when one of the big boys gets nailed (forgive me) and as a result maybe messes up the take at one of the big churches, then you’re moved to feel badly for him.
Well, at least it’s a start.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:24 AM
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