Child sex suspect once was in `ex-gay' ministry

[kweerwolf]

The former Summit Christian School teacher arrested last weekend after admitting having sex with a teen boy was enrolled in a controversial "ex-gay" ministry whose adherents believe people can change their sexual preference through the power of Christ.

Love in Action International in Memphis, Tenn., is the oldest and best known of the ministries that try to counsel people away from homosexuality through spirituality. With a mission at the heart of one of the nation's culture wars, it has been praised by Christian conservatives and criticized by gay-rights advocates since its 1973 inception in California.

The ministry drew scrutiny last summer when a 16-year-old boy complained on his Web site about his parents forcing him into the center. Now, Love in Action is back in the spotlight after the March 3 arrest of former Summit Christian School teacher Chad Stoffel of Palm Springs.

The "ex-gay" movement is led by Exodus International in Orlando and its some 120 North American affiliates. The ministries promote a hotly disputed concept: that people aren't born homosexual, they're made that way, often by poor parenting or sexual abuse. Since being gay is not innate, proponents say, people can change and have healthy heterosexual relationships.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-plove12mar12,0,7427829.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Having had no success with it's "pray away the gay" programs, maybe Love in Action, Exodus, et al. need to focus their energy on creating an "ex-pedophile" program so they can turn pedophiles away from choosing that lifestyle. I bet it would be almost the same success rate as the "ex-gay" movement.

[Bluzmann57]

1. But but but...I thought homosexuals were all child molesters

And if a person was "ex homosexual", and a godlike person they were good. Another hole in that theory.

[kweerwolf]

2. Would the "ex gay" programs have claimed success ...

... if the perv would have molested a 16-year-old girl?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[sam sarrha]

3. dont they just hand out Play Boys and a bottle of hand lotion..!! and yell

JESUS.!! at the appropriate monent and they are saved..

well whatever they do i resent my tax dollars paying for it..

[jwirr]

4. It should not surprise any of us that people who support the

lawlessness of the * criminal also follow the same lack of decency in the private lives. They claim to be Christians but they also believe they are exempt from the law because they are ALREADY saved - thus they can do anything they want not matter how disgusting.

[ruggerson]

5. So following the logic of the fundies

this guy is no longer gay, because you can change, right? So, he's straight, and as soon as he turned straight he became a child molestor.

Maybe God is trying to tell the fundies something.

[sakabatou]

6. I guess it doesn't work

So much for love winning out...

[sui generis]

7. I had great parents and didn't get diddled not even once

damn the things you can get me to blurt out after just one beer.

It is unfortunate that Oklahoma wants to execute pedophiles now that they've just started associating pedophilia with homosexuality. Oh wait, my bad! They've been doing that since Leave It To Beaver, and before.

Wonder where that's going? :shrug: