Pray the Gay Away

[kweerwolf]

Pastor Jim Venice practices the Lord's work in near-obscurity, tucked away in a church basement several dozen miles west of St. Louis. In fact, so guarded is Venice about the location of Pure Heart Ministries that his Web site fails to include its physical address. When arranging a first-time meeting, the pastor furnishes visitors with two hand-drawn maps: The first navigates them through a labyrinth of access roads and St. Charles County subdivisions; the second steers them to the church's side entrance and the stairs that descend to his workplace.

"I'm busy, really busy," Venice announces as he plops his bulky six-foot-one frame onto one of the two overstuffed couches. "It's a double-edged sword, really. It's bad that so many people need help; it's good they're seeking it."

Bent on a mission to turn gay men straight, Venice gets his fair share of hate mail calling him a crackpot and a fraud. But on this autumn afternoon, an agreeable smile creases the pastor's clean-shaven face. He's dressed in faded blue jeans, sturdy brown shoes and a casual oxford-cloth shirt. He keeps his blond hair buzzed short, a look he describes as more "butchy" than the slightly longer coif he used to sport.

The 39-year-old Venice speaks in a hushed, soothing voice that all but conceals his nasal twang. Around his midsection he's added a good twenty pounds in recent years, lending him a sort of teddy-bear softness. His cell phone rings to the Peanuts cartoon theme song.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2005-12-14/news/feature.html

Yet another crackpot fundie heard from. No doubt he will be busy, seeing as how "Brokeback Mountain" is starting to turn straight men gay!

[freesqueeze]

1. If There Were No Gay People

The NeoCons would have to invent them.

The hate must be funneled somewhere.

[Maat]

7. You're right. They need to keep the hateful fervor whipped up..

so that the $ will flow into their wretched coffers.

[Maat]

2. This ex-gay 'counseling' is the most unconscionable thing going on

out there.

I refer anyone even considering the ex-gay movement to the movie, "Fish Can't Fly."

http://www.fishcantfly.com/

[kweerwolf]

4. That's a great movie, Maat

and a wonderful resource for exposing all the pure, unadulterated crap being spewed by the "ex-gay" charlatans!

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in understanding the underlying moral bankruptcy of the "ex-gay" movement.

[Maat]

5. Yep, we are going to organize showings through our PFLAG chapter.

I loved it.

Take care and peace,

[NewWaveChick1981]

3. Uh, I don't think so...

The ignorant crackpots out there who think gayness can be "cured" and that someone can either "become" gay or straight just make me very sad and very sick. I have many gay friends and my brother is gay; they could no more become straight than I could become a man. And why, oh why, do many of the ignorant crackpots feel it is their mission in life to "cure" someone of gayness??? Yet another example of fundies trying to inflict their beliefs/convictions on others.

[Maat]

6. It is sad.

I agree that the leaders of these hardright churches are really shameless shills for the Bushies. They struck a deal with the devil, so-to-speak. "We" Hardrighties will be shameless shills for you, and focus the yokels on 'the War on Christmas' and 'the Gay Agenda,' and the yokels won't even notice that you are decimating the Veterans' Administration and social security and foster parent-related budgets. And, in return, "you," the Bushies, will get the media deflected, and get our pundits to spread the word about Stephen Bennett Ministries and the American Family Association, so that the $ will keep flowing in.

Shameless.

[RedXIII]

8. as in the words of the late ann landers and abby van buran

gays can't change it's best you look up pflag.Because let me tell you both of them saved my life.