I have been doing a bit of research into anti-gay Christian groups, and I think their position has been misrepresented somewhat. Even Paul Cameron states on his webpage that he does not hate gays at all and that we should be compassionate towards them. Most of them condemn Fred Phelps and his outrageous entourage.
I feel that these folks get a bit of a bad rap for how they deal with homosexuals. The truth is that as long as you are willing to become an “ex-gay” (certainly possibly for lesbians but not possible for gay males) they are very kind to you.
For instance, a number of gays have apparently moved to Jerry Falwell’s town and enrolled at Liberty University. They go to church where Falwell and his associates preach. For some time now, they have been standing up and yelling things in church whenever Falwell or the other ministers talked about homosexuality. Falwell and the others got so upset about this that they hardly discuss homosexuality in sermons anymore. However, they still let these folks go to services and a number of them have apparently gotten religion while they are there.
The new line among fundamentalists is that that many men are feminine to effeminate and many women are masculine to dykey, but that does not necessarily make them gay. This is absolutely correct. There are very straight-acting gay guys, and I personally have observed countless men who were anywhere from “not macho” to feminine to effeminate. Observable behaviors such as the way someone walks, talks or moves really have little to do with sexual orientation. It is very kind of them to welcome feminine men and masculine women into their churches as straight society is not so kind to these folks.
Another new line is that even “ex-gays” may struggle with same-sex attractions for a long time, possibly for the rest of their lives. This is certainly true for the men, for whom ex-gay cannot be anything but a misnomer. They are very kind to people who are said to be struggling with same sex attractions. They don’t condemn them for having these feelings. Good show!
And in general they do not condemn these folks for anything they did while they were living homosexual lives.
And although a male homosexual can never be fixed or cured, ex-gay therapy can train someone to repress their homosexual desires. Desires can always be suppressed or sublimated.
Sublimation is nothing new. Hell, Winston Churchill could have been Charles Manson.