The Summer of Our Discontent
The Churches on Homosexuality
by David Kyle Foster
There he was, wife at his side, on the August 17 cover of Newsweek. Ex-gay John Paulk is the new “Homosexuality & Gender Analyst” for the Legislative & Cultural Affairs department of Focus on the Family. Wife Anne’s picture had already dominated a full-page ad in the July 13 New York Times, with the words, “I’m living proof that truth can set you free” (from homosexuality). They have been at the center of a freshly ignited debate over homosexuality from both inside and outside the church. Para-church groups, such as Focus on the Family, have finally considered the issue of homosexuality important enough to create a staff position specifically to address it.
The Center for Reclaiming America, associated with Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries, became the linchpin for a coalition of more than a dozen evangelical ministries that financed and produced a series of full-page ads in newspapers, including USA Today (July 15), The Washington Post (July 14), The Washington Times (July 21), The San Francisco Examiner (August 16), The Chicago Tribune (July 28), The Los Angeles Times (July 27), The Miami Herald (July 29), The New York Times (July 13), and The Wall Street Journal.
Pro-gay activist groups responded with ads of their own, charging that the conservative ads were politically motivated and harmful to homosexuals.
Defending the ads, Campaign Coordinator Janet Folger says they were designed for two purposes: “(1) To express a message of hope for change for homosexuals, and (2) in response to the animosity from gay activists over remarks made by professional football player Reggie White and Senator Trent Lott that homosexuality was a sin, to make a statement that the First Amendment of the Constitution is not just for the ‘politically correct’.”
Frank Worthen, one of the founders of Exodus International (a Seattle para-church organization that for more than 20 years has offered help for those who want to be healed of their homosexual confusion), says he’s never seen anything like this summer. Worthen says, “We [ex-gays] have been ignored by the church and the culture for 25 years, so it’s about time we are being allowed to let the world know that Jesus Christ can transform the homosexual. The media, in particular, has had a conspiracy of silence about the presence of ex-gays. This recent firestorm may also be the last call—God’s final attempt to return our nation to moral Christian values.”
Yvette Cantu, a former gay activist with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the ACLU, now serves as a policy analyst for the Family Research Council (one of the sponsors of the ads). She comments: “I had thought that religious moral convictions were repressive, something which served to impose some people’s beliefs on others. That is the homosexual activist view, and it is increasingly the view of modern America. It is also completely wrong.”
Steve Schwalm, Senior Writer and Policy Analyst for the FRC, added: “The reason for the focus on homosexuality is not because it is worse than other sexual sins, but because this behavior has an aggressive lobby of activists trying to influence public policy and ultimately redefine the family.”
The Gay Activists
The appeal made to the very notion of “ex-gay” is understandably an affront to gay activists, since it directly challenges their portrayal of homosexuality as biologically determined. Recently they were supported in their antipathy toward the claims of ex-gays when the American Psychological Association seriously considered a resolution that would have designated any attempt to heal homosexuals as malpractice.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on sex from the online archives
27.6—Nov/Dec 2014
Tales of Forbidden Stereotypes
Real-Life Men & Women & the Tragic Loss of Human Comedy by Anthony Esolen
33.1—January/February 2020
Speaking Truth About the Sexes Is Not Optional by Anthony Esolen
28.2—March/April 2015
Man, Woman & the Mystery of Christ
An Evangelical Protestant Perspective by Russell D. Moore
more from the online archives
22.8—November/December 2009
on the Real Men Behind the Christmas Carol by Michael Baum
28.2—March/April 2015
Man, Woman & the Mystery of Christ
An Evangelical Protestant Perspective by Russell D. Moore
29.2—March/April 2016
The History of Family Strength in America May Reveal Good News by Allan C. Carlson
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
