I don’t think it has to be that twisted. I think most gay people are born gay, most straight people are born straight, and then some significant minority is born with both tendencies. They have an option to choose what gender they want to be with, so they do. And then there are people who have one-time encounters inspired by curiousity or pure horniness. They may “choose” to be gay for that instant, but I don’t anger is making them do it.
I hope what you say is true about Focus on the Family. I don’t know anything about the organization, but just the name skeeves me out.
Perhaps you are right. But I have known a few people who appear to have chosen to become “gay” in order to “stick it to” their parents. Because they were bone deep angry with them and perceived that “being gay” was the thing that would wound said parents the most. Maybe I saw the situation wrong, but it sure seemed that way to me.
Maybe I saw it that way because two of those people eventually (when they grew up a bit) decided that they weren’t “gay” after all, married and had children and seem blissfully happy being heterosexual.
It’s interesting that you went to a focus on the family seminar. Are you saying that the seminar dealt with only the “gay” issue? They may not be as hateful as Phelps {who doesn’t concentrate on deceased gays BTW, but deceased soldiers, gay or straight} but IMO when they focus on the “gay” issue and make an attempt to present this issue as more important than this awful war and the many other social issues we need to face then I think their priorities are really messed up They in essence are saying gay marriage is a more serious problem than this war and the freakin liars in our current admin. If you’re willing to ignore blatant dishonesty because a president claims to support your cause then that is hypocrisy IMO.
My parents once went to a conference about homosexuality, and I believe it was affiliated with FOTF. They brought back some pamphlets, and I read a few and they were full of disgusting lies. There was one about the supposed medical problems with homosexuality, and it claimed that gay people stuff gerbils. They actually cited this column to back it up.
Scotticher, I used to feel the same way about James Dobson that you do, but after seeing that along with some of the other things he’s said made me decide he’s not as honest as I thought.
I need to clarify my last post. The way I worded it makes it look like Dobson wrote the pamphlet in question, and he didn’t.
I spent some time trying to do a little research so I could find out how much he was affiliated with it. Apparently it was written by Paul Cameron, a notorious anti-gay researcher. He works with the Family Research Council, which was originally part of FOTF. FOTF has also spread some of his lies around.
However, apparently Dobson and Cameron haven’t exactly been getting along lately: http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/archives/2006/02/dr_cameron_resp.php (ignore the opinions of the blog writer, the information itself is interesting).
Yeeesh - Cameron is truly one sick fuck. Methinks he needs to take some time off from his “research” to read the bible one more time. I think people like him are not truely Christian as they pay no attention to the words of Christ. Perhaps a Levite would be more accurate.
The seminar was not about gay marriage, it was concerning the issue of Homosexuality. They had several speakers discussing their views on Homosexuality as they feel it is addressed in the Bible. (This Paul Cameron person was not one of them.) This was several years ago and I have no idea whether they are still presenting it at this time, and if so? how it might have changed. I went because I was struggling at the time with my perceptions about the way many churches view homosexuality and my own feelings about it. As I said, I eventually came to believe that they are wrong in what they believe. If you are saying that the only seminars a person should attend are about the war and etc, then I guess I just have to disagree with you. It is important to have a good understanding about WHY you believe what you believe, and it was a valuable seminar for me in that it helped me to understand WHY I don’t agree with their stand…why I believe they are wrong.
And JFYI, I think GWB is a warmonger and a very bad man. His feelings on this or any other matter are not likely to change my opinion.
It doesn’t sound like the same seminar I attended, however as I said it may have changed. From what you and a few others have said, maybe I need to start paying more attention to Dobson’s current teachings before I defend him in the future. I haven’t really listened to FoF for quite some time, it airs while I am at work.
Oh, and cosmosdan? Fred Phelps picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the young man from WY who was a victim of hate crimes because he was gay. I saw pictures and it made me feel like throwing up. He may have begun to focus on dead soldiers now…after seeing the Shepard pictures I try to avoid anything about him like the plague.
Well, to my recollection Polycarp will generally dance a jig when some Fundies make a mis-step so this is pretty par for the course. Do you mean ironic because Polycarp likes to throw around the Pharisee example and talk of “modern Pharisees” all the time yet doesn’t think to apply it to people he honestly doesn’t like? Yeah, I guess that is ironic - or hypocritical.
And Scotticher, what is all this about researching your beliefs? Just say “homosexuals good, fundies bad” like a good little sheep. We need more “me 2” posts in here. Paging Guin!
Actually, thinking it over the biggest irony is right in the title of this thread. Is there a bigger “Self-Styled Expert on Christianity” than Polycarp? Certainly not on the SDMB. Where precisely did you gain your expertise Poly, to be doling out Bible lessons to a Christian preacher?
Cite?
I’m glad someone, who’s not me, said this:
This:
And this:
Does Focus on Family have seminars focusing on “the gossip issue?” Shoplifting? Disrespecting parents? The fact that they have seminars dedicated specifically to this one “sin,” the fact that the entire purpose of the organization is to combat any attempt at equality or legal recognition of homosexuality, argues very strongly against the idea that they think it’s a sin just like any other.
I’m curious, is that a rhetorical question? Are you actually saying that “Focus on Family” only has gay issues seminars?
With an organization supposedly centred around family life and the issue of gay marriage being a big current US political issue, it seems obvious to me they would take a public stand on the issue. While it does have a section in their “Social Issues” page, it doesn’t seem to be their sole or major focus. Do you think otherwise?
I don’t think that offering an opinion in the pit is the same thing as being a “self-styled expert.” What would cause you to confuse the two, Carnalk?
But I am guilty of the same things Dobson is being criticized for. It is hard for me to muster much mercy for him or Phelps or others who are both self-righteous and ignorant. It’s a failing. I wonder if Dobson ever gets disgusted with himself.
Nah-his self-righteuosness is too thick.
I highly doubt that Dobson et al would have enacted the role of the good Samaritan to Haggard. Offering help is one thing-stepping aside when you realize that this will taint you is quite another. I don’t buy for a second that Dobson doesn’t have the resources to help Haggard. Every pastor I’ve ever know has a least a list of counselors and therapists for personal issues, AA numbers and the like etc. It would have been just as easy for Dobson to give him the information and to state that he had done so (I don’t think it’s anyone’s business but Haggard’s what the information entailed), but the good doctor did not do so. Kinda like stooping to help that poor man to his feet, only to drop him when you realize his wounds are great. He ain’t heavy, well, but maybe he is, and I have a bad back and I’m running late already…sorry, “brother”.
Re polycarp new title (not claimed by hime btw). Since when is he a self styled expert on Christianity? Who among us can claim such a title? Who would want to? So much for the whole judge not, eh, carnalk?
I’m going to have to agree with CarnalK on this one.
For instance, they have a category on education:
Another category on Worldview and Culture:
They also have a category on Abstinence:
They even have a category on the Law and Courts:
As you can see, their interests are quite broad, and gay issues are just one small category of the many categories that they cover.
Nicely done, DMC
I think it’s cool that you went. Any effort to explore our own beliefs and clarify the beliefs of others is worthwhile IMO. I was venting a little at Dobson and I’m sorry if it seemed it was directed at you personally. That was not my intention. I’ve had discussions with a friend who is a conservative christian and has a gay sister just to try and understand what she thinks. Trying to justify denying civil rights to a particular group because of your interpretation couple of passages in a two thousand year old book, and calling it God’s will is just wrong IMO.
I agree. I worded that badly. The “You” was aimed at Dobson and his group. What I find hard to reconcile and what irks me aboout focus on the family is what I indicated. They , based on Dobson’s teaching primarily, seem to focus on gays rights and abortion as the two most important issues of our time. I just don’t understand their priorities. My own dear brother and his wonderful wife are useing some of his materials for teaching and we got in a heated discussion about Bush this summer. I was flabergasted. I couldn’t believe they were defending him.
I see. You were referring to a specific incident. He’s been all over the news for going to the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and holding up his “God hates Fags” signs.
He’s a whack job who has infected his whole family.