Month: July 2012

New Ex-gay Group Kicking It Old Skool

A new-old ex-Exodus association will hold their first conference September 21-22, 2012 at Sunrise Community Church at Orangevale, CA. The keynote speakers will be Dr. Robert Gagnon, Frank Worthen and Andrew Comiskey. The group has a statement of principles which begins with: “Sexual purity is a life-and-death matter.”

You can also follow along the developments at Restored Hope’s Facebook page.

It is fascinating to watch these developments. My guess is that PFOX and NARTH will line up with this group as a replacement for Exodus. Will Restored Hope go political? My guess is that there will be overtures from social conservative groups to attend marriage rallies, testify on legislation, etc.

The conflict between the change and congruence paradigms has been brewing for awhile. This development just makes it explicit.

 

 

 

Charisma recycles 2004 article, gets lots of attention, then goes away. Alan, at the beach, knows nothing about it

Charisma Magazine generated an internet thunderstorm today by updating and reprinting a 2004 article by Alan Chambers titled, Do We Want a Gay America? Charisma put it on the front page of their webpage with no notice that it was a reprint.

RightWingWatch (who has the article in full) picked up on it and then various gay blogs followed. I started seeing emails and tweets about two hours ago. Then ExGayWatch and BoxTurtleBulletin reported that the article was a reprint. BTB editor Jim Burroway just tweeted that a woman at Charisma told him they were looking into it.

Meanwhile, Alan Chambers tweeted that he was at the beach and didn’t know anything about it, saying

Breaking: No idea why @charismamag pulled out an 8 year old piece I wrote that doesn’t reflect my current views.

Charisma has blocked access to the article.

All of that in a matter of hours. I would say Charisma has got some explaining to do.

UPDATE: Alan just sent this note along:

I am on the beach, literally, with my family enjoying the dog days of summer.  I have no idea why Charisma decided to reach so deep, edit and republish an 8 year old article that I am embarrassed that I ever wrote.  Our PR team has asked them to remove the article and not to repost it.  When I am back in town I will contact them, as well.

Latitude News covers the relationship between Scott Lively and Uganda’s anti-gay bill

I provided comment for this series of Latitude News reports. They are worth looking at for those who are interested in the relationship of Americans (notably Scott Lively) and the Uganda bill.

Click these links for the reports:

Uganda, U.S. export anti-gay pressure (podcast)

U.S. exporting homophobia to Uganda – Part I (print story)

U.S. exporting homophobia to Uganda – Part II (print story)

The facts and players will be familiar to anyone who has followed this blog for the past three years. I think they have done a nice job of summarizing the situation and getting us up to the present.

Latitude News covered the divide among evangelicals in the United States over the Ugandan bill. This is a balanced approach I appreciate.

 

Founders’ Bible Cites Pro-Slavery Leader as Proponent of America as a Christian Nation, Part Two

On Monday I noted that a publisher associated with The Founders’ Bible disclosed on his forum that James Hammond, pro-slavery leader prior to the Civil War, would be included in that Bible as a proponent of the view that America is a Christian nation.  Read that post for a selection of Hammond’s ugly views.

In this post, I want to provide a little more information on Hammond’s views and begin with the day of thanksgiving proclamation made by Hammond which led to the quotes in the Founders’ Bible. In September 1844, Hammond proclaimed:

Whereas, it becomes all Christian nations to acknowledge at stated periods, their dependence on Almighty God, to express their gratitude for His past mercies, and humbly and devoutly to implore His blessing for the future:

Now, therefore, I, James H. Hammond, Governor of the State of South Carolina, do, in conformity with the established usage of this State, appoint the first Thursday in October next, to be observed as a day of Thanksgiving, Humiliation and Prayer, and invite and exhort our citizens of all denominations to assemble at their respective places of worship, to offer up their devotions to God their Creator, and his Son Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world.

Given under my hand, and the seal of the State, in Columbia, this ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-four, and in the sixty-ninth year of American Independence.

James Hammond

The Jewish community of Charleston was offended by the proclamation since they were obviously not included. They asked for an apology from Hammond but he refused to offer it. Hammond’s words included in the Founders’ Bible come from his reply to the Jewish community. Hammond told the Jewish minority that he would not apologize.

Here is his response in full:

Continue reading “Founders’ Bible Cites Pro-Slavery Leader as Proponent of America as a Christian Nation, Part Two”

Founders’ Bible Rewrites Exodus 18 to Fit Christian Nation Narrative

Yesterday, I wrote about the disturbing inclusion of racist and pro-slavery James Hammond in an article to accompanying The Founders’ Bible.  Although not as distressing as the Hammond article, there are other problems with articles in the Bible that have come up before. Today, I want to note just one of them – the rewriting of Exodus 18.

If John E. Peterson’s rendering is accurate (this link has been disabled, here is the Google cache), then here is one thing the Founders’ Bible says about Exodus 18 and Israel’s history.

For citizens in that era, a monarchy was the standard for government. And why not? After all, kings were featured prominently throughout the Scriptures: King Saul, King David, King Solomon, King Rehoboam, King Josiah, King Jehoshaphat, etc. So it was easy for citizens to assume that God preferred monarchies, but a closer study of the Bible indicated that this was definitely not God’s preference. In fact, God even sent the prophet Samuel to dissuade His people from monarchies (1 Samuel 8:10-18), but Israel demanded kings anyway.

Continue reading “Founders’ Bible Rewrites Exodus 18 to Fit Christian Nation Narrative”