A Queerty reader tipped us off to a mobile app, available through the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store, that provides ex-gay therapy for the confused homosexual on-the-go.
The free app is a product of Setting Captives Free, a purportedly “non-denominational ministry which teaches the biblical principles of freedom in Jesus Christ.” How a ministry can teach biblical principles and be non-denominational is beyond us, but we’ve clearly already left logic at the door. Setting Captives Free offers a number of courses seeking to free people from their vices, such as overeating, alcoholism, substance abuse, gambling and that affliction as old as sin itself — homosexuality.
Remember that door we left logic at? It’s the Door of Hope, the entranceway to a life free of homosexuality.
“First, let me just say,” Setting Captives Free founder and president Mike Cleveland writes in the course introduction, “that despite what you may have heard elsewhere, you do not have a ‘homosexual gene,’ nor were you born this way with no hope of freedom.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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The 60-day course guides those hoping to free themselves from The Gay through a series of lessons, including Biblical principles and personal stories from people who’ve thrown those same-sex shackles off their feet. The course promises that, if you follow these principles, you too can “walk through the Door of Hope into a new life with Christ, free from sexual impurity and self-gratification.”
Having gone through the Door of Hope course when he was 13 — at the recommendation of a “prayer hotline” — our reader was especially troubled to see that door still hanging onto the hinges:
I was exposed to stories of men that were dealing with issues like pedophilia when I didn’t even know (prior to enrolling in the course) what these things were, ironically because of my religious upbringing. They might have changed the structure of the class since I was enrolled (I am now 23 and in college) but at the time I took it there were lessons that said homosexuality was caused by demons, that there was a subculture that exists in the gay community that is a cult that worships male genitalia (I really wish I was making this up. I’m not.), and had graphic descriptions of how anal sex allegedly causes men to lose the ability to hold in feces.
The gist of it is that the course was very traumatic for me and I actually attempted suicide while taking it. The class was interactive and I was assigned a mentor that I communicated with on the phone so it had the effect of being more than something I was just passively reading. He made me report to him every time I masturbated, and if I did masturbate then that was used as blame for my lack of “recovery” and I was encouraged to punish myself by cutting off television, video games, etc. and also wearing a rubber band around my wrist to snap when I had a “homosexual thought.”
Luckily, he has since gone through years of non-religious therapy and has come to grips with his homosexuality. As for the Door of Hope, that’s best left unopened since it only leads down the Hallway of Denial into the Living Room of Self-Hatred, part of the House of Lies…on the corner of Shame Street and Deep Depression Drive. Gaytown, USA.
Meanwhile, why this app is available for both iPhone and Android but Dragopolis is not serves to only further frustrate us.
avesraggiana
This would be tragicomic, if it weren’t so offensive. How would they like it if someone created an “Ex-Straight App”?
dkmagby
His mentor wanted to be called everytime he masturbated….
Boytoy
It’s wrong for technology to be used for religion.Jesus did not have an iphone or a television,or an air conditioning unit,or any other electrical device.Christians should live like Christ did.
holeyone
Conversion Therapy Kills and is a fraud that needs to be stopped dead in it’s tracks. They use anti-gay Christians, ministers, etc. who are also psychotherapist who harm and terrorize LGBT people to the point they kill themselves. Stop the madness, stop Ex gay or Conversion or Repairative therapy before they kill another LGBT person.
2eo
@Boytoy: Kind of hard when jesus didn’t exist at all. Logic, intelligence and rationality are not the domain of the religious so why do we expect them to abide by the rules and facts of reality?
Sad really, it’s 2013, not 1100.
CalgaryBill
Do what I do …
1. Download it from iTunes and then you can place a review which may stop some folks from getting it out of ignorance.
2. Comment directly to Apple about how this app should be rated only for those age 900+ as it is dangerous, based on completely discredited science, and that the concept is banned in Californianand the concept is responsible for suicides.
Victor_in_PA
I’m just waiting for Apple to be sued for damages. Would we allow them to post a “DIY Appendix Removal Kit”? Or, how about an “Anesthesiologist” app that lets you anesthetize people for fun? Or, how about a “Commercial Airline Pilot” app that teaches you how to fly commercial jets without a license. Those would be just as irresponsible and I think Apple should be held liable for the damages.
CalgaryBill
Good luck on that, Victor. I’d rather be proactive and try to have action taken before there’s any true damage.
dm10003
What I love love love about the app is that every hour you input how many more times you think heterosexual thoughts and how many fewer times you think gay thoughts!
That anonymous data goes into a transparent database that is proudly posted with hourly updates on their website, Twitter, Facebook, and in The New York Times! The unequivocal progress is shown with clear and accurate charts and graphs proving how effective the program is for millions of captives of Teh Gay!
There’s also a section in the app for opposite sex partners to rate their experience by answering fun questions and making notations on wacky thermometer graphics! There’s even a photo gallery for babies born from the app users’ newly reproductive sexual practices!
Said no one never!
nipfun
Fortunately, this app isn’t on the Amazon list of apps for the Kindle Fire. Hope it dies a short death in the app world.
queerty1958
Religious bigotry…Yep, there’s an app for that!
ellogoverna
Apparently if you download the app you can access all of the course material and it’s really bad. Here are some quotes from day 24 (Idolatry)
AGAIN- THIS IS A QUOTE TAKEN FROM THE APP NOT ME!!!
“All who continue pursuing homosexuality will find that their lives will come creating down to the ground and be smashed to pieces… For some who continue to pursue homosexuality for a lifetime, the result is that they find themselves old, forgotten, and along in their declining years. For even less fortunate, their declining years occur while still young due to AIDS and other STD’s ravaging their body…
Maybe you have gone for 10, 20, or even 30 years or longer, with seemingly no, or minimal adverse side effects. But, like the giant tree that finally topples after years internal decay, if you continue on in impurity, your life will fall to pieces, because God cannot and will not be mocked…
The result of God showing you His grace will be that you begin to detest homosexuality and all forms of sexual impurity and you will rid your life of them.”
dugout
Lotta flagging going on in this thread.