Day: October 3, 2011

The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality claims to be a scientific organization. However, a review of their website finds lots of anti-gay advocacy. In the past, when I bring this up with NARTH supporters, what I have been told is that they do it because the APA does it.
While I don’t deny that the mental health groups lean left and this bias comes out at their conferences at times, I wonder why NARTH makes any pretense of being distinct from the APA when they feature non-scientists in prominent speaking spots. Cases in point: this year’s conference features advocate of keeping homosexual criminal Sharon Slater who will speak in an applied workshop (I wonder what application NARTH wants participants to take from Slater’s workshop?). In addition, minister Michael Brown will speak in a plenary meeting to all participants. Brown has a book out called A Queer Thing Happened to America. It is not a science book.
You can hear a little of what he might have to say next month here, courtesy of Right Wing Watch.

Really?
There will always be extremes in any social group who want to say, ‘off with their heads’ to people not in the club. We got our reconstructionists and dominionists and the gays may have them some gay dominionists somewhere. I don’t really think I should be judged by the reconstructionists. Should we judge all gay folk by Brown’s gay dominionists (if they exist)?

The whole article is up at Religion Dispatches.

The American Family Association has taken aim at fellow religious conservative Brannon Howse over his criticism of the AFA’s recent sponsorship of GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s The Response prayer meeting. Earlier this week, Jim Stanley, program director of AFA’s radio network, American Family Radio, sent notices to two talk show hosts who are associated with Howse, informing them that continued presence on the AFA’s radio network was conditioned on severing ties with Howse.
The talk show hosts, John Loeffler and Todd Friel, have shows aired by American Family Radio and also speak at Howse sponsored events. According to Tim Wildmon, president of the AFA, “we identified two people with programs on our networks and told them, ’you have to make a choice.’” In defense of the move, Wildmon said “AFR is under no obligation to run programs of individuals who are going to help Brannon when he is attacking our friends. We make programming decisions all the time.”

Todd Friel and John Loeffler are two guys who were doing their own thing and then out of the blue they get an email from American Family Radio telling them to make a choice. Neither one of them had taken sides with Howse against the AFA’s involvement in The Response. Still they must pick a side now. Loeffler chose to leave the radio station. No word from Friel as yet. He has until Wednesday to cancel with Howse or else the AFA will remove his show.
On a broadcast last week, Thursday I think, Howse said an unnamed evangelical figure wrote to him to say that he had large “megaphones” to use in order to “decimate” Howse’s ministry. The only other evangelical I know who has mentioned Howse in a critical way is David Barton, using the megaphone of Wallbuilders Live.
This is a kind of internecine war where the ideological issues are complicated. Howse is a social conservative speaker who has worked with Barton and the AFA. However, Howse believes it is wrong for Christians to partner with the New Apostolic Reformation. From Howse point of view, the NAR is not apostolic nor a reformation. Most of the teachings are heretical and the AFA and other social conservative groups are selling out to NAR for a mess of right wing political pottage.