"Youth crisis hotline" lures gay youth, refers them to 'Bible' ministry

[Bluebear]

Imagine trapping someone during a moment of vulnerability and then serving a dose of carefully disguised verbal abuse designed to increase the vulnerability. Once that's been accomplished you refer the individual to an unethical salesman selling some kind of 'snake oil'. That's exactly what Pastor Mike Macintosh is doing to troubled gay youth looking for someone they can trust. Macintosh operates the dishonest National Youth Crisis Hotline, 1-800-HIT-HOME.

The Houston Voice recently reported one person's experience with the "National Youth Crisis Hotline". "When teenager Jeffrey Faircloth wanted a safe place to talk about his growing awareness that he might be gay, he called the National Youth Crisis Hotline - popularized as 1-800-HIT-HOME. What he heard didn't surprise him. "I'd grown up in a very fundamentalist Christian family, so I wasn't surprised that the woman I talked to said she didn't know any gay people, but she knew they were sinners. She said she would give me the number of a group called Exodus that would help me change. I already knew the religious view, so I wasn't interested."

Years later Jeffrey was reminded of that phone call when he learned a group of Exodus, so-called 'ex-gays' sponsored by Focus on the Family would be appearing in Houston. So he called again. This time, Faircloth, now 20, was shocked and angry after the call. "I told the man who answered what I wanted and that I was gay, but it wasn't a problem. He insisted on quoting Bible verses to me, so I quoted some right back," He said.

At the end of the conversation, after an hour of dueling with Bible verses, Faircloth asked the hotline volunteer, "How would you feel if some lonely kid in the middle of Nebraska, who had never heard anything except that he is a sinner killed himself after talking to you?" He was shocked at the man's answer: "Sometimes the devil makes things happen."

http://www.ralliance.org/FakeHotline.html

[sarcasmo]

1. Imagine, Focus on the Family is behind this. These idiots must be stopped

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. That man's answer is why I am rapidly beginning to view religion as

being as dangerous as any cult.

[Bluebear]

4. One recipe I am noticing....

Religion + Bush supporter = cult behavior, plain and simple.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. Religion in itself

isn't bad and can be a beautiful thing no matter what your religion is. These people, like mentioned above, turn it into a cult. A "with us or against us" type of thing. I wonder how many people have turned away and turned to depression and suicide thoughts because of them. :cry: It's so heartbreaking.

[LiberalVoice]

5. the only difference is they have more members.

The ONLY difference.

[Toucano]

22. And we're fucked if we don't draw an line in the sand

and say "enough!"

We have to have ZERO tolerance for the irrational, no matter if it's cloaked in holy robes or American flags.

[foreigncorrespondent]

30. NSMA...

I have been saying for a ling time now that the fundamentalist religion IS exactly that, a cult. Maybe if we all begin calling it just that the theme might catch on? Kinda like Google bombs without the Google. LOL

[Bluebear]

32. Cult and radical right wing clerics

It's true and it's damning.

[donco6]

3. Ah, the convenience of Exodus.

Now churches don't even have to try to deal with kids who are suicidal because of their misperceptions about being gay. They can just pawn them off to this half-baked, amateur organization and wipe their hands clean!

[beyurslf]

I think they need to focus on their own damn famlies. Mine is fine just

the way it is... with the gay ones and the straight ones and everyone else.

[beyurslf]

6. I think they need to focus on their own damn famlies. Mine is fine just

the way it is... with the gay ones and the straight ones and everyone else.

[ClintonTyree]

7. Jebus will make them all better................

with Jebus, ALL things are possible, even a "cure" for homosexuality.
These people are fiends. Somebody needs to slap some sense back into them.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. These people don't do any good for people

unless you think like them. This shows it and it's being shown now. Look at how they treat us democrats and liberals. I wonder what my church would think if they knew I was a democrat.

[Bluebear]

17. Ask your pastor!

If you aren't welcome as a Democrat it wouldn't be any church you would want to attend, yes?

[beam me up scottie]

8. Is this an example of one of the "faith based charities"

that we are now (or soon will be) funding?
How long before they start setting up booths in public schools? I would much rather see kids have access to legitimate educational material and referrals in school than to have these vultures waiting in the wings. But of course we all know sex education just "encourages kids to experiment with their sexuality and teaches them to be promiscuous", right?

[Bluebear]

9. Brilliant question.

This probably is the Bush "model". After all, Falwell, Bauer and their gang of radical clerics have the President's ear.

[DIKB]

10. oh my god

Theses people are sick and just FUCKING EVIL !!!!!

My brother went through HELL figuring out who he was, what he was going through, and how it went against all he believed. I let him know unequivocally that I was there for him and I loved him. Why can't more people do this ?

Is accepting people really THAT hard ?

[FreedomAngel82]

15. I remember

Not long ago seeing Dobson on Scaborough's show and he had Dobson on there and they were talking about how they can't have tolerance on the video thing with SpongeBob and from what I know of the video not ONCE did it mention the word "gay." Whatever happened to the golden rule? What about "love thy neighbor" or how about "hate the *sin* love the sinner"?

[FreedomAngel82]

11. OMG

These people are sick. That should be how we reply to people like that. The question the man asked. The person who replied that the devil makes things happen is just heartless! My God! They shouldn't be doing this to people. :cry: :cry: Do these kids not have anywhere to go? :cry:

[Bluebear]

13. They can't marry one person, they aren't supposed to be promiscuous

It's a never ending hell for some gay teens. Religion tells them they are bad, society doesn't encourage them to settle down, their own President wants to amend the constitution to exclude them from marriage. Radical clerics like Falwell tell them they caused 9/11. And after learning those lessons, they call a hotline like this to reach out. :(

[beam me up scottie]

18. Yes, and millions of morons still believe it is a lifestyle "choice"

If you can manage to survive that and still find the courage to be who you were meant to be, does anyone wonder what the definition of "gay pride" is?
They have an awful goddamn lot to be proud of, IMHO.

[foreigncorrespondent]

31. Thank you!

Yes we do have a damn lot to be proud of.

Recently I showed my sister Paul Hogan's movie Strange Bedfellows. I had watched the movie several times before simply because even though there is homophobia in it, the end ofthe movie is worth the wait, but never noticed one particular thing about it.

While watching this movie I realized that the two Gay Pride flags Hogan and Caton put in their so called "love nest" were upside down. Boy did I ever get pissed about that. If I had an address to write to Hogan about this, I bloody well would.

The least he could do when making money from the LGBTIQQ community would be to at least get everything right.

[DrWeird]

16. That's got to be illegal.

If it isn't, it should be.

[sakabatou]

19. Isn't that illegal?

Referering a youth to a fake safe place. A place where he will be verbally abused until his "ways are righted"?

[Bluebear]

20. If it's "Christian" it's not

These hating fundies are so far afield from true Christianity as I understand it, yet any mention of the faith is deemed 'preferable' in America since Bush said Jesus "changed his heart". Which was a lie or at least a stunning lack of self-awareness.

[sakabatou]

27. Perhaps they should round up a bunch of athiets for this...

Or non-believers.

[Toucano]

21. Ahh, the devil kills gays.

I thought the Devil liked gays? Doesn't he need them for his recruiting effort? Why would he make them die if he's going to get their soul anyway just because they're gay?

Or was this an admission that they're the devil who "makes things happen"?

Way loco!

[Bluebear]

23. Sing it, Ella!

:)

[Toucano]

26. The gays can't get a break, can they?

First God hates fags. Now the devil kills them when they dial a telephone number!

There's gotta be a hit movie in that somewhere!;)

[bluestateguy]

24. I have a friend who was thrown out of the house for being gay

He moved to New York.Hasn't spoken to his father in almost 2 years and has only occasionally spoken to his mother.

[beam me up scottie]

25. It must have taken an incredible amount of courage

to tell his parents when he must have known how they would react.

And just think! If he had called this hotline first, he would have been spared all that! He could have either been "cured" or killed himself.
Kids (and adults) need to know that they aren't damned because they aren't "normal".
This hotline and the network behind it need to be shut down.

[smirkymonkey]

28. These people are Satanic....

"Sometimes the devil makes things happen." Yeah, that's why George W. is in office. :evilgrin:

[Runcible Spoon]

29. someone call that number and fuck with them!

my cell is dead.....