Monday, February 13, 2017

Commentary Tidbits

The Conversation: Trump’s vow to ‘destroy’ Johnson Amendment could wreak havoc on charitable world

The Atlantic: These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—and Suffering the Consequences

Washington Post: A blueprint for resistance to Trump has emerged. Here’s what it looks like.

New York Times: Taboo Italian Thinker Is Enigma to Many, but Not to Bannon

HIV Plus: How Long Before the Muslim Ban Becomes a Brown Ban?

Huffington Post: Betsy DeVos Poses Immediate Danger To LGBT Students

Huffington Post: Frank Worthen, the ‘Father’ of Ex-gay Ministry Love in Action, Dies at Age 87

Santa Fe New Mexican: Conversion therapy created self-hatred, self-destruction


4 comments:

  1. That piece on Frank Worthen was an interesting and sad read. As is the case with other fundamentalists who have lived to ripe old ages (eg Jack Chick, Fred Phelps, Duane T Gish and Tim LaHaye), it's a pity Worthen seemed to waste so much of his long life peddling ignorance. I found it hard to wrap my head around the contradictions between his apparently kind, loving nature and hate-filled theology, though have a feeling he wouldn't have seen any conflict between the two things himself. After all, if you truly believe in an eternal hell of unimaginable pain and horror, then any earthly cruelties you might inflict on someone to try and keep them from ending up in such a place must seem positively merciful by comparison. That'd have to be one of the most pernicious things about the fundamentalist Christian worldview, in my opinion.

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    1. Zosimus -- It's unfortunate that fundamentalism tainted his view of other sexual orientations and prompted him to do so much harm. In another life, minus the fundamentalism, perhaps he could have done a great deal of good.

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  2. The Santa Fe New Mexican piece was interesting too. I found it funny how the people running the first conversion therapy program the author tried went so far as telling him what kinds of underwear he should wear, and also tried to force him to like football, though I'd imagine the reality of having people attempt to control your life to such an extreme degree wouldn't be quite so humorous!

    I remember first learning of conversion therapy many years ago, when adolescent curiosity had me checking out my local branch of a group called the Festival of Light (or Lies, as its detractors often preferred to call it!). They're a conservative Christian group who have been around in Australia (and maybe the UK too) for a long time, and, yeah, conversion therapy is one of the things they're into. Since I first checked them out, they've changed their name (to the rather innocuous-sounding Family Voice), but a recent search of their website revealed that they're still promoting conversion therapy. They're even still plugging the writings of "ex-gay" therapists who have long since been revealed to be utter frauds and hypocrites (George Rekers is one example that springs to mind).

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    1. Zosimus -- As conversion therapy proponents grow old and expire, and as more conversion therapy/ex-gay organizations fold, let's hope such quackery comes to an end.

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