Who are the worst sinners of all? The answer may surprise you. According to the fourteenth-century writer Dante Alighieri, the most egregious sinners are traitors, or those people who have betrayed their families, nations, guests, and leaders. As punishment, these individuals are frozen in ice and are condemned to the ninth, or lowest, circle of hell, where Satan himself resides. All this is vividly described in cantos XXXI through XXXIV of Dante's Inferno.
Theologically speaking, betrayal is the worst of all sins (according to Dante, anyway) because not only does it involve the infliction of violence -- physical or spiritual -- upon others, but it also involves the active use of the faculties of the intellect in order to turn against those very individuals who have trusted and relied upon you for help. Indeed, as John Milton describes in the first book of Paradise Lost, Satan himself was a fallen angel who had committed betrayal by rebelling against God.
The recent fall of George Alan Rekers, the virulently anti-gay Baptist minister and long-time advocate of reparative therapy, has highlighted the ways in which the "ex-gay" movement has profoundly betrayed lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Rekers, a founding board member of the anti-gay Family Research Council and a former officer of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH), was photographed in April by the Miami New Times returning from a ten-day trip to Europe with a 20-year-old gay escort who had advertised his very explicit services and physical attributes on Rentboy.com.
Rekers, a married man and father, has denied the fact that any sexual activity had occurred between him and the escort. He also denied that he has ever been gay. Specifically, Rekers claims that he hired the escort to be his "travel assistant" for purposes of handling luggage due to a back injury (despite the fact that Rekers was photographed handling own his luggage at the Miami airport while the escort looked on), and that he used the trip as an occasion to bring the gospel to such escort.
The escort, on the other hand, has told the Miami New Times that his duties during the all-expense paid European vacation (and twice before the vacation) included giving Rekers daily nude massages with provocative names such as the "long stroke." He also said that Rekers instructed him to "just say no" to the press about the allegations. In fact, reporters from the Miami New Times were physically present at a post-vacation speakerphone conversation between the escort and Rekers, during which Rekers asked the escort several times not to speak to the press, and the reporters have documented the conversation.
The Rekers scandal would simply be a humorous occasion for schadenfreude but for the sad fact that Rekers has made a career of making life a living hell for numerous LGBT people who have been told that they can and must change their sexual orientations and gender identities. As early as the 1970s, Rekers conducted Pavlovian-like experiments to encourage gender non-conforming children to abandon their behaviors. One such experiment involved directing the father of "Kraig," a four-year-old "effeminate" boy, to "swat" or spank the boy after he had engaged in gender non-conforming behaviors. Sadly, "Kraig" tried to commit suicide at the age of 18.
Just recently, Rekers was paid over $120,000 by the attorney general of Florida to testify in favor of upholding the State of Florida's categorical ban against adoption by LGBT people. (Ironically, Rekers is himself an adoptive father of a young man who is around the same age as the "travel assistant" that he had hired.) Rekers had testified as an expert witness in a similar lawsuit in Arkansas. And just before leaving on his European vacation with his "travel assistant," Rekers was involved in a mass mailing to school superintendents across the country about the purported effectiveness of reparative therapy for LGBT youth.
Rekers is not the only fallen angel of the "ex-gay" movement to have betrayed his family, clients, benefactors, and the LGBT community. A few years ago, John Paulk, a self-proclaimed "former" gay man and drag queen, was caught in another "ex-gay" scandal. Paulk, along with his "ex-lesbian" wife Anne, had proclaimed to the world in the late 1990s that he had been cured of his homosexuality. The Paulks appeared in full-page ads and on the cover of Newsweek as part of the "Truth in Love" campaign sponsored by Focus on the Family. Unfortunately for Focus on the Family, Paulk was photographed while cruising gay men at Mr. P's, a well-known gay bar in Washington D.C.'s very gay Dupont Circle neighborhood, which ultimately led to his forced departure from the "ex-gay" movement.
Ironically, the "ex-gay" movement has been quick to cannibalize its own. The movement has rapidly turned on people like Rekers and Paulk, causing such anti-gay groups to fall even deeper into the sin of betrayal. For example, Rekers' name already has been scrubbed from the websites of a number of organizations with which he was formerly associated, despite his decades of work with such organizations. And yet these groups continue to spread their toxic "ex-gay" propaganda that results in the spiritual -- if not physical -- deaths of numerous LGBT people. Wayne Besen, in his book Anything But Straight, and his organization, Truth Wins Out, have documented many of these examples of betrayal by the "ex-gay" movement.
The good news, however, is that Christian theology teaches us that it is never too late to repent. Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, the two founders of Exodus International, one of the earliest and most prominent "ex-gay" organizations, ended up falling in love with each other. They have acknowledged that, as a result of their "ex-gay" ministries, many of their former clients had become "suicidal" or resorted to "self-mutilation." They repudiated their views publicly, separated from their wives, and abandoned Exodus International. They exchanged vows and remained together for another nine years until Cooper passed away.
I have written elsewhere about the sin of the closet and the grace of coming out. For me, it is high time that the leaders of the "ex-gay" movement come out of the closet -- both metaphorically and literally -- and repent of their sins of betrayal. It is time that they publicly acknowledge the incredible harm that they have inflicted on numerous LGBT people and their families and loved ones. It is time that they publicly repudiate the junk science and dubious theology upon which the entire "ex-gay" movement is based.
Nobody knows for sure if traitors are in fact consigned to the lowest circle of hell, as Dante vividly described in the Inferno. I am certain, however, that the grace of God is available even to those who have betrayed their loved ones, the LGBT community, and even themselves through the "ex-gay" movement. It is time for people involved in the "ex-gay" movement to repent of their sinful ways and to proclaim the real "truth in love," which is that all authentic love between people -- queer, straight, or in-between -- should be supported and encouraged as a wonderful blessing and unmerited gift from God.
The gospel teaches us that true repentance and conversion is always possible through God's grace. I believe that this holds true even for the most hardened of sinners, including those deeply closeted and self-loathing people who have betrayed so many people through their involvement in the "ex-gay" movement.
Follow Rev. Patrick S. Cheng, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/patrickscheng
Wayne Besen: The Top 10 Ex-Gay Stories of 2011
Fleischman's attorney denies allegations
October 13, 2007
The chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County faces criminal charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old Ethan House runaway and providing the boy with beer and marijuana late last year.
Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, was charged last month with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child.
He was summoned to Brown County court for his initial appearance on Sept. 28. He is free having posted a signature bond as his promise to return to court.
(more)
(Nov.29, 2007 follow up:)
(...)
Then, this past September, Brown County prosecutors accused county GOP chairman and treasurer Donald Fleischman of masturbating on a 16-year-old boy’s feet, and supplying the boy with marijuana and beer in 2006.
Prosecutors dropped the charges weeks later after the boy failed to show up at a hearing. But Fleischman already had resigned his party positions.
Source:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x814
Spokane Mayor Jim West, 53, a rabid anti-gay politician, was found to be trolling gay chat rooms and having sex with teenage boys he befriended there. He also offered to find these boys jobs with the city of Spokane in exchange for sex.
For 25 years, West used his positions of public trust (sheriff's deputy, Boy Scout leader and powerful politician) to develop sexual relationships with boys and young men.
While I couldn't agree more, I'm certainly not holding my breath. I'm sure these guys are making a lot of money off of this sham, because there are far too many people who have a need to believe in it.
By insisting that "gays can change", these ministries offer social conservatives the rationalization "relief valve" that they need - the ability to cast gay people as second class citizens without feeling guilty about it.
The alternative, admission that sexual orientation is not necessarily mutable, would make it much more difficult for many social conservatives to rationalize their restrictive positions regarding the civil rights of gay people.
I thought the greatest sin was hubris or false or overweening pride.
There will always be a small percentage of the population who identify as gay. And there will undoubtedly come a time where humanity finally embraces the full spectrum of human sexuality. Throughout our lives we encounter thousands of people and thousands of feelings that are as varied as stars in the night sky. Denial of those feelings that are unpopular is a testament to the lack of human consciousness.
George Rekers, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Dreier, thousands of Catholic, Mormon, and Evangelical priests, heads of state, government employees all in positions of power, have done their best as closeted self-loathing homosexuals to ruin the lives of openly gay citizens.
Ironically, it is the hated homosexuals and their struggle for equality who are slowly waking us up to the madness that is homophobia. The virulently homophobic are, time and again, pathological homosexuals living in denial.
It's disappointing that you view my comments as hyperbole, but the plight of gays and lesbians exists for this very reason. And don't think for a minute, we haven't felt the condescension and attempts to marginalize that you are trying to feed me here. Your attitude is exactly why this continues to be a struggle.
Scott Lively, the former head of the virulently anti-gay Oregon Citizens Alliance who routinely gives hate speeches in Africa to convince countries like Malawi to sentence people to 14 years hard labor for being gay is spewing true hyperbole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp_cZK4vXpM
Uganda is now considering the death penalty for gays and lesbians , yet you glibly lecture me about exaggerations. Don't bother responding, there's nothing you could say to me that I need to hear that I haven't heard time and again from ignorant people.
Sure, he's hurt our civil rights, and his 'work' will still be used as such, even if like the other 'ex-gay' leaders exposed as actively-gay, they just remove his name and keep spewing the same hate and lies and selling the same tortures to divide families and hurt people.
I'm sure it keeps the price of their prostitutes quite reasonable, though, not that these liars are short of cash.
Fanned & Faved!
In others words, "Come out, that we may know them"? That's from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, chief. But before you start on homophobe, I'm not even religious. That's just for reference, See, my father was a devout Baptist deacon, so I picked it all up. I just have two points to make. One, How is it theologians has become so twisted in their thinking that they are so far from Biblical doctrine even secularists like me are stunned?
Second, you should be tending to your flock, Reverend. Not swimming in this political sewer that will only get you dirtier the longer you swim in it. In summation, it is up to men to seek forgiveness from God, Reverend. It is your job to arrange the meeting. Stick to mens' souls and climb out of the fleshpot, why don't you.
Err, what? What are you talking about, and to whom?