Straight to Jesus. Tanya Erzen

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      To live lives that may serve as good examples to others.³³

      Tracey, the office assistant, tried an Exodus ministry in Canada, but she thought the group focused too much on heterosexuality and marriage. The whole purpose of evangelical ex-gay ministries is to recover heterosexuality through a relationship with God, but Father Harvey believes that there is no way a person will ever eliminate temptations, and his or her goal should instead be to live a chaste Christian life. While Exodus's philosophy agrees with Father Harvey's ideas about celibacy as a necessity on the path to change, it places more faith in the possibility of total conversion and marriage. Father Harvey is skeptical and cautious about the idea of change and marriage, even as he believes in heterosexual marriage as the fullest expression of healthy sexuality, and he is opposed to the idea that if you pray enough, you will “come out” of homosexuality. “I'm not denying that God can work miracles, but many people may not ever come out of their condition. You can't tell someone that he has an obligation to come out of homosexuality—you just put it there as an option.” While he believes in the idea of a relationship with God to heal homosexuality, he ultimately does not think this is enough and believes that individuals must grapple with their sexuality by renouncing their sin and electing to lead celibate lives.

      Courage is small, underfunded, and less organized than Exodus. Exodus members do not invite Father Harvey to speak at their meetings, even though he has inquired about the opportunity to talk about the Catholic version of celibacy. Although some Exodus speakers attend the annual Courage conferences, they will not collaborate directly, which has more to do with theological differences than their view on homosexuality. While Father Harvey explained that he had faith in ecumenism, he is certain that the Exodus board is unwilling to hear his message. Unlike the evangelical vision of a personal, unmediated relationship with God, Courage believes that priests have the power to eradicate sins, including sins of homosexuality, if a person is truly repentant. Frank Worthen, on the other hand, believes that priests and sacraments are unnecessary intermediaries between believers and God. He refers to the Catholic focus on the Virgin Mary as “the cult of Mary.” Despite these underlying theological differences, Father Harvey aligns himself with groups like Exodus rather than Dignity, a pro-gay Catholic group that he calls “Catholic dissidents,” because he lacks other options for allies.

      In contrast to the theological suspicion of Catholics from people like Frank, Jewish people occupy a more exalted but ambiguous status in the ex-gay movement. Because of the long relationship between evangelicals and Israel, Frank and others consider them God's “chosen people.” Evangelical and conservative Christians believe Israel will figure prominently in the events of the apocalypse.³⁴ For this reason, Exodus has been eager to build alliances with conservative Jewish organizations. Just across the Hudson in Jersey City is the headquarters of JONAH, an organization run by Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk for Jewish men and women struggling with homosexuality. Their sons came out to them while students at New York University, and Arthur and Elaine felt they had to develop an ex-gay ministry specifically for Jewish people. Both Elaine and Arthur attended the 2000 annual Exodus conference at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego but avoided the charismatic style praise and worship sessions because of their discomfort with the Christian singing and praying. Exodus attendees paid JONAH a tribute at the closing conference ceremonies when an ex-gay man who was not Jewish but told me he identified with Jews appeared on the stage with a shofar. The evangelical praise and worship band switched gears from soft Christian rock and plunged into a lively rendition of “Hava Nagila.”

      JONAH states that its purpose is to aid Jews of all backgrounds, ranging from Orthodox to Reform to unaffiliated. “For Jews who are unhappy with a homosexual identity or whose goal is to attain heterosexual marriage and start a family, JONAH provides support, counseling, referrals, and up-to-date information on the causes and treatment of the problem.”³⁵ Arthur Goldberg is a Reform Jew, but he sends Orthodox Jews who call his hotline to Orthodox psychiatrists. His goal is to find a synagogue to sponsor the organization and increase JONAH's network of psychological counseling. While JONAH members do not believe that being gay and Jewish is acceptable, they also “reject conversion therapies that frighten or shame the patient.”³⁶ Unlike Exodus's leaders, Goldberg is not interested in developing residential programs. The organization's counseling programs emphasize “self-acceptance and achievement of positive goals, involvement in the community, and Jewish religious identity. Our message is a life-affirming one that embraces traditional Torah views as a way of combating isolation and assimilation.”³⁷

      Increasingly the issue of sexuality and Judaism is becoming more widely debated. In 2002 the movie Trembling before God received wide distribution and publicity throughout the United States. It sensitively portrayed Orthodox Jewish men and women coping with their homosexuality in the face of a religious tradition that condemns it. JONAH was not mentioned in the film. In anger and disappointment, Arthur wrote a letter to the Jerusalem Post that the film perpetuated a “biased and faulty assumption that same-sex attraction and behavior is irreversible.”³⁸ As a young man in the 1960s, Arthur traveled to the American South as part of the civil rights movement, and he employs the language of civil rights to argue that people should have the right to change their sexuality. Even though his ministry work is fueled largely out of personal pain with his son's homosexuality, he claims that he wants to “provide an option for those who want to change in this politically correct environment.” JONAH's affiliation with Exodus has created some problems for the group, including accusations from other Jewish people that it is part of the Christian Right. For now, it remains affiliated with NARTH and Exodus until it can form alliances with Jewish groups and psychiatrists.

      The ex-gay movement is not only growing in various religious denominations, but Exodus has been expanding outside the United States since the late 1980s. Exodus International is now part of a global alliance that includes Exodus Asia-Pacific and Australia, Exodus Europe/Africa/ Middle East, Exodus Brazil, and Exodus Latinoamérica. Many of the international organizations consist of psychiatrists and therapists who use reparative therapy. Before Alan Chambers became Exodus president in 2001, Pat Allan Lawrence directed Exodus International out of Toronto, Canada, and she still coordinates ex-gay programs in the developing world. The international regions mentioned above are part of an Exodus network but function autonomously. Brazil was recently designated its own region because of its extensive network of ex-gay therapists who are not necessarily affiliated with Exodus. In 2001 Frank attended the international conference in Quito, Ecuador, and Exodus materials have been translated into multiple languages for use around the globe.

      The ex-gay movement's ability to globalize its organization through the creation of locally run ministries depends upon the global marketing of the U.S.-specific discourses of family values and conversion to heterosexuality. Missionaries have long attempted to Christianize other parts of the globe, but the ex-gay movement is different in that it relies on the premise of sexual dysfunction to evangelize. Exodus representatives like Frank see themselves as sexual missionaries, emissaries fresh from experiences of living as gay men and women, ready to lead others out of what they call spiritual and sexual bondage. As a motivation to other ex-gays to open ministries abroad, Frank writes, “You are in the position of ministering life to a spiritually dead people. Let me challenge you to let your light shine so it can be seen across the channel.”³⁹

      Although Frank and Anita spent four years establishing Bagong Pag-Asa, when they returned in 2001, they found that the residential portion of the ministry had ceased and that there was no real local leadership to run the organization. Exodus Asia-Pacific consists entirely of ex-gay organizations based in Australia, and Exodus has had less success planting ministries that last once the missionaries from North America have returned home. International ministries also flounder because Exodus assumes that men and women everywhere have the resources and ability to commit to leaving their homes and families for up to one year to attend a residential program. The belief that healing from homosexuality emerges from a relationship with Jesus Christ, a commitment to godly relationships with other men, an identification as ex-gay, and a recognition of familial dysfunction presumes that family structure СКАЧАТЬ