Good news! The ex-gay group Evergreen International, sponsored by the Mormon Church, has shut it’s doors. Bad news! It’s merging with another LDS ex-gay group, North Star, that is every bit as bad.
Apparently, the Mormon Church realizes that it can’t support two ex-gay groups, particularly in the face of increased self-acceptance and increased bad press. So the church decided to put two wrongs together and make an even bigger wrong, creating what it calls “the largest single faith-based ministry organization for Latter-day Saints who experience same-sex attraction or gender-identity incongruence.”
Former Evergreen members have horror stories to tell. One of the most memorable came from Justin Utley, whom Evergreen tried to convince was molested as a child.
North Star isn’t any better, of course. Truth Wins Out has chronicled the group’s bizarre beliefs, which include defending the Mormon Church ban on African-American leaders prior to 1978. North Star spokesman Jeff Bennion likes to reiterate how sinful homosexuality is and has argued in favor of conversion therapy for minors.
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As for gay marriage, Bennion is for it, in his own warped way:” In one sense of the word, we have had gay marriage for some time. I should know. I am in one. I experience same sex attraction, and yet I am married. In my case, however, I am married to a woman.”
With increased self-acceptance and increased bad press, ex-gay groups are having a hard time of it these days. The most notorious, Exodus, shut down last year after 37 years. However, unlike Evergreen, Exodus went out in a blaze of apologies for the harm it caused. Too bad, Evergreen (and North Star) couldn’t follow its example.
hyhybt
As with Oldsmobile/Buick, they kept the one with the worse-sounding name. (And isn’t that the name of a gay comic book character anyway?)
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2eo
ALL mormon groups are bad, these are sickening.
Rob91316
There the Mormons go again — digging a deeper hole for themselves than they already have. Keep digging assholes — and don’t stop until you’re all dead and buried and the planet is rid of the scourge that you have imposed upon it.
Harley
The Mormons by far are the wealthiest congregation on earth. Too bad they ignore the fact that Jesus said it was easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle then it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Bible thumpers always focus on a single quote from the bible and ignore all the other quotes that come before and after. I’ll be going out to have my shrimp and bacon BBQ, get a tat, beat my slave, then go rape a girl and murder her family so we can be biblically married. I’ll just throw her in with all my other wives and concubines. Isn’t the bible wonderful?
Billysees
These ex-gay groups will always be around, simply because there’s money to made from gay folk who don’t know any better.
They can spin any yarn they want and if it sounds good then some are going to be attracted to it.
The unwise and unlearned in every gay generation are going to have to learn the hard way.
2eo
@Billysees: Sadly charlitanism is a professional as old as science itself, perhaps older.
NateOcean
I need a scorecard to keep track of it all, but when Mitt Romney ran for president it was easy to cite to his supporters that “Mormons hate Jews, Gays, Blacks, Women (except for fucking), Catholics, and Latinos”.
Please update me; has any of that changed?
2eo
@NateOcean: No, however the largest slip from the right is womens rights, they’re rolling them back everywhere, yet to meet a conservative who doesn’t loathe women.
jimbryant
I don’t have a problem with groups whose aim is to guide gay men away from the promiscuity and sleaze of the gay male social scene. No problem at all.
However, I do have a problem with groups which claim to be able to change your sexual orientation.
NateOcean
@jimbryant: Conversely I wouldn’t have a problem with a group that attempted to lead 50-year-old men away from taking on 15-year-old girls as brides, or likewise from taking multiple sister-wives. Both common Mormon practices.
Maybe I’m just funny that way.
AuntieChrist
@2eo: They removed (he who must not be named) from the Schock article. The managing editor sent me an email that he would look into it and I looked and it was gone. Just the one though.
AuntieChrist
On a happy note, some morman nut job is on a hunger strike til they ban gay marriage in utah.
enlightenone
@Billysees: Sad, but true!
Billysees
@2eo:
Charlatanism is a good word to apply here. Hogwash is better.
But there’s a simple principle that’s being violated here also.
“Freely you’ve received, freely give” the Book would say. So why are these so called efforts to change somebody so costly?
The answer is that “deceitfulness or hypocrisy”, when using scripture, is nothing more than “peddling the scriptures for profit”, which is also a profession that is very old.
Billysees
@enlightenone:
It is sad. I think about the confessions of the guy who ran one of the big ex-gay operation that ceased. Chambers I think his name was. He said that he though the same sex attraction thoughts would go away. What an incredible lie and he knew that all along.
Whenever money is in the picture, a big lie is a great motivator to continue no matter what.