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03/13/2012
'Protecting marriage' always comes down to 'changing' gays: @MNForMarriage Edition
As you may or may not know, Courage is a Catholic organization that aims to "help persons with same-sex attractions develop a life of interior chastity in union with Christ." It is essentially an "ex-gay" organization, but with more of a push for celibacy that "change." Courage says it like this:
Q. Does Courage force it's (sic) members to try to change their orientation?
A. Courage members are under no obligation to try to develop heterosexual attractions, because there is no guarantee that a person will always succeed in such an endeavor. Courage's aim is to help persons with same-sex attractions develop a life of interior chastity in union with Christ. If any of our members wish to go to professionals to explore the possibility of heterosexual development, we will stand by them, by helping them to keep the deepening of their Catholic faith and obedience to Christ as their first priority. Courage itself does not provide professional therapy. Some of our members have found varying levels of heterosexual development to be a by-product of living a chaste life for a period of time; however, the goal and focus of Courage remains a life of interior chastity, humility, and holiness, which can be achieved by all, with God's grace.
Q. Is Courage an Ex-Gay Ministry?
A. Courage does not consider itself an Ex-Gay ministry for the following reason: Many Courage members have never labelled themselves "gay" prior to coming to Courage. This does not mean that they were unaware of their experience of same-sex attractions - it simply means that they had never chosen to label themselves "gay" in the first place, either because of a dislike of the reductionist nature of the term "gay", or because they kept their struggle with homosexuality private. Courage prefers to think of itself as a "Pro-Chastity" ministry.
MORE: Courage FAQ
The goal is for no one to be LGBT. To Courage's credit, the organization doesn't really even hide this fact.
So I find it very interesting to see the Minnesota Catholic Conference, one of the named coalition partners in the current Minnesota For Marriage push for an anti-gay-marriage amendment, promoting this very same Courage group on its official YouTube channel, complete with chosen tags that link Courage back to the marriage amendment effort:
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[SOURCE: MNCathConf]
Is this what the heavily Catholic Minnesota For Marriage campaign really wants for us gay folk? They'd of course never say as much, especially in their ads. But I mean, come on: Do they even have to say it? I mean, doesn't this basically say it all?