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04/07/2009
Perhaps they should Focus on their own house for a while
Here's one story you certainly won't see on Focus on the Family's CitizenLink news site:
A man who narrates Christian CDs has been arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to arrange sex with a teenage girl.
Juan Alberto Ovalle, 42, thought he was corresponding with a girl under the age of 15, but instead it was undercover officers with the Jefferson County district attorney's office, according to court documents.
Ovalle works for a Spanish-speaking arm of the Colorado Springs Christian group Focus on the Family and narrates Biblical text for CDs, according to Internet websites that sell the products.
Man arrested in Jeffco on suspicion of internet luring [Denver Post]
Now, as we said, you surely won't be seeing this discussed on the websites of Focus on the Family or any of their allies. But can you even imagine if this was a queer Human Rights Campaign staffer? The entire "pro-family" movement would unfairly use it against the entire LGBT community, positing it as evidence of our community's immorality. We can see the potential headlines right now, both the more mainstream form:
"Arrest shows gays' need to be healed through Jesus"
...and the more extreme:
"One gay arrested -- Millions more to go"
But ya know what? We're not going to play that game. We realize that this one matter does not speak to the hearts of everyone employed at FOF, and we know that the hypocrisy of this one man's life doesn't mean that every "pro-family" community staffer has a secret life. So we're not gonna try to make an example of out Mr. Ovalle.
What we are going to do is ask Focus on the Family's brass to look inside themselves and consider all of the harms that their misplaced priorities have brought this collective world of ours. Perhaps instead of ruining gay people's marriages, they could have been counseling someone within their very own walls who clearly could have used some direction. And instead of "protecting children" in the abstract, they could have spent more time looking at he who was actually wishing to violate an underage person.
Let this be a teachable moment, FOF. But that first requires you all to admit that you DON'T have all the answers, you DON'T have an innate strangehold on morality, and you DO need to open your eyes, ears, and minds to accommodate the realities of this spinning orb.
*Focus on the lurid affidavit:
Ovalle Affidavit
Your thoughts
I think this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg! Religion has a special appeal to those who can be considered to be "the worst of the worst" because religion offers absolution without consequences and without requiring any evidence of reformation. In some cases, a guilty conscience suffers from remorse for a reason, and (let's face it) if there were no remorse, there would be no religion.
And religion is little more than a blanket amnesty for the commission of atrocities based on some supposed "conversion" episode resulting from imaginary face-time with a fictitious, almighty deity. While that might ease that sense of guilt, it does nothing to address the underlying pathology.
Ah, I'm just jerking your chain! This kind of story is just waaaaaaaay to sweet to ignore. Allowing it to creep back under the rock from whence it came would be such a waste of good fodder. ;)
Posted by: Dick Mills | Apr 7, 2009 10:39:41 AM
Now you KNOW if that man were with HRC, we would be hearing about it months from now.
Posted by: a. mcewen | Apr 7, 2009 12:14:12 PM
Box Turtle Bulletin have a whole section on evil heterosexuals.
TRiG.
Posted by: Timothy (TRiG) | Apr 7, 2009 4:26:21 PM
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