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03/19/2008
Spring Break-the-gays'-Spirits
Every year, student's from Lincoln, Illinois' Lincoln Christian College are given a list of mission trips towards which they can choose to dedicate a week of their time. This year, those choices include things like traveling to New Orleans to help Katrina survivors, improving the living conditions in low-income New England communities, and serving the needs of Lincoln's local elderly. So you know, typical missionary work.
Oh, and there's also another option in which students who want to make a more atypical pilgrimage tcan ravel to Huntington, CT, where they will learn about homosexuality from professional "ex-gay" Stephen Bennett. We shit you not:
#12 Huntington, CT Schwartz, Barr $600 Mar 15-22
This trip was designed specifically for those who have a passionate desire to see the homosexual community come to Christ. Our group will work with a homosexual ministry in Connecticut. After several days of intensive training over specific evangelism techniques, we will participate in a mixture of things, including one-on-one evangelism to homosexuals in New York City and Province Town (one of the most densely populated gay communities in America) and nightly Bible studies and worship services. Every evening we will blog about our experience from that day and participate in an online prayer system that allows family and friends from back home to join us live. Students interested in this trip need to be willing to lead a Bible study or worship service at least once during the week. Most importantly, everyone participating in this trip must have a heart for the homosexual ministry. This will be an intense week, but we passionately believe that no student going on this trip will ever be the same again. Before making any decision, please pray about taking part in this amazing opportunity!
Please note: This is a student-led trip. This student has been approved by a faculty panel to lead this trip, and has authority to act as a faculty member would on this trip, including disciplinary measures up to and including sending a student home without refund. Please only apply for this trip if you are willing to submit to the authority of this leader.
Yes, that's right -- we gay Nor'easterners are the sort of social problem towards which middle American college students need to dedicate a week of their study. Screw the poor. Forget the homeless. It's Tom & John, the lawyer and screenwriter who share a West Village townhouse, a P-Town beach shack, and lifetime of happiness who really need the prayers. And not only do they need to be prayed for -- they need those prayers to be crafted by the baseless, shunned-by-every-credible-group, unscientific "ex-gay" movement. ::sigh::
So whatdya say, fellow missionary projects gays: Wanna meet the kids who are currently on this trip of a hetero-only lifetime? Yea? Well fortunately for us all, Stephen Bennett has posted a web video in which each are given a chance to introduce themselves:
(*Note: This video was originally posted to Stephen's blog. For some reason he has now removed it)
They seem like nice kids, so maybe they'll come around to viewing us as part of normalcy rather than part of society's problem. We'll hold out hope. After all, this writer once spent an entire Spring Break in a shared house with three PMSing young women and two guys who had both dated two of them (the same two). And If I can learn from my wrong-headed collegiate diversions, anyone can!
The Students from LCC Are HERE!! Let SBM's College Students' "Missions Week" Begin! [Stephen Bennett]
VIDEO SOURCE: Lincoln Christian College Students Speak [Stephen Bennett]
Trip Options [Lincoln College]
**UPDATE, 3/21: Video: They came, they saw, they took the wrong side in the 'culture war' [G-A-Y]
Your thoughts
Wow, went on to the video site. They seem so sweet. I wish they could see both viewpoints. It makes me sad. I agree that it's kind of wierd that they see this as a bigger problem than homelessness and hunger. Have any of them ever spent time with a gay christian? I never will understand how people think they have a corner on the truth thing.
Posted by: Piper | Mar 19, 2008 1:39:05 PM
Yeah, brainwashing can make nice people do some pretty not-nice-things. Christian groups like these really irritate me.
Posted by: Jax | Mar 19, 2008 2:14:58 PM
Why do you keep on acting surprised about this stuff?!?!
Posted by: | Mar 19, 2008 2:29:37 PM
Who said anything about being surprised, Anonymous? We are simply highlighting, document, and responding to all of this nonsense to help connect the dots for the public. It's all common to us, but a HUGE portion of society has no clue what the "ex-gay" movement is all about or what they are saying about us. If some of them did, they would be more sympathetic.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Mar 19, 2008 2:36:14 PM
Why would anyone waste a perfectly good trip to Province Town to "evangelize" the residents? I've only visited there once but found people very warm and friendly - I'd love to go back. I'm pretty sure they don't need to be evangelized either.
db
Posted by: dave b | Mar 19, 2008 2:37:37 PM
The Jesusistanis see sin everywhere except in the thieving, murdering, hatemongering "leadership" they all love so much.
I'd like to send all of them off to "minister" to the heathens of Karbala.
Posted by: JollyRoger | Mar 19, 2008 3:26:31 PM
It's cliche I know, but I do have to wonder how many of these kids are closeted themselves and seeking to do this as penance for their 'sin'.
Posted by: John | Mar 19, 2008 4:23:26 PM
"we shit you not" = I find this surprising, and you will too
Posted by: | Mar 19, 2008 8:27:59 PM
Anonymous (same IP as 2:29 PM): First off all, please use a handle. It makes it easier to respond to you.
Secondly -- In this case, "we shit you not" means "we aren't joking, no matter how much we wish we were." Since I wrote it, I think my testimony has more veractiy than your suppositions.
If you really think that after 3.5 years of covering this stuff daily, something like this "surprises" us, then you haven't been paying attention. But as stated earlier -- we will continue to highlight and document ALL of these instances, because they have gone largely unnoticed for far too long. And pulling back the mask is the way we will win.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Mar 19, 2008 8:40:42 PM
Well meaning kids just wanting to correct people whom God created, but are the homosexuals the only ones needing to be converted or helped? More than likely some of these dear kids are in the closet and afraid of their own sexuality. This group should come to an MCC congregation and see real ministry to the GLBT community. Metropolitan Community Churches are in every state and around the world to carry the Gospel of Christ to gays, lesbians everywhere to let them know that God's Love is for them too.
Ex-gays? there are none, by the way!
Posted by: Bobel | Mar 21, 2008 2:45:55 PM
I hear ya', Bobel. I and my spouse of 16 years are proud and loyal members of the MCC church in West Hollywood.
Ex-gays?!?!?
Am I the only sane human being who is sick of propaganda like this? I am so completely disgusted and altogether puzzled by those who believe I should somehow feel obligated to change who I am. Attraction is what it is. It's no more of a light-switch for me, a gay man, than it is for anybody who happens to be straight. As much as the fundies would love to prove otherise, you can’t simply change who you are attracted to any more than you can hop in a time machine and change the past.
Perhaps if I, along with several of my gay friends, opened an "Ex-Straight" ministry, these kids and vast members of the brainwashed right would finally begin to see their bogus concept of change for the embarrassingly asinine waste of time it has always been.
Rather than blindly follow the lead of some obviously misinformed collegiate doctrine, these kids should really just take a moment to step outside the box and think for themselves.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 23, 2008 6:00:30 PM
Am I the only one who finds this sort of shit funny? I mean... the kids are clearly deluded... yeah, it's sad, but whatever... Let them embrace their "PASSIONATE DESIRE to see the homosexual community COME..."
Posted by: Alphabet_Citizen | Mar 25, 2008 11:18:50 AM
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