“Exodus International opposes this legislation as we believe that the Christian Church must be a safe, compassionate place for those who are confused and conflicted by their sexuality. Such legislation would inhibit church and ministry leader’s ability to assist hurting individuals struggling with this issue.”

http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2009/11/audio-throckmorton-ssempa-debate-anti-homoexuality-bill/

Thanks to Exodus for giving the statement to Warren. Now, it seems it would be a very simple task to isssue it as a press release, as Exodus has done on other matters.
http://www.exodusinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=21&Itemid=173 Why NOT do it?

Never miss a good chance to shut up. — Will Rogers 1879 — 1935

I already know how to speak up. Lord, help me with this one.

I would again like to remind people that leaders of the March ex-gay conference in Uganda equated the nation’s homosexuals — practicing or not — with child molesters, and that the sponsors of the legislation continue to do so.

Hearing Martin Ssempa yesterday on British Christian radio with Warren is a blatant reminder that he is the lead pony in Uganda’s race to condemn all gays and equate them with child molesters.

Try as I may to find common ground and pray as I may, I remain painfully aware that there are deep spiritual and ideological divides between gays and ex-gays that can only be ameliorated by the grace, mercy and peace of God Almighty. Help us, Lord.

Gay Christians, SSA Christians and ex-gay Christians — could be the bridge.

I frimly believe that Christians are largely responsible for the attitudes many gays have about them. Do gays unfairly heap blame on Christians? Yes. Do Christians too often do the reverse? Yes. As Debbie said,

It’s both, guys.

You said:

Please remember that one distinction of homosexuality is that it does not fully appreciate the otherness of heterosexuality; there is comfort and safety and no challenge in the sameness.

That, I think, is just plain ridiculous. Comfort, safety and no challenge in sameness? Have you ever lived for years with a gay lover? I can assure you, just as with straight marriages, there is much challenge for any two people to make it work — whether they are gay or straight.

However, this, I think, is true:

Many gays have fought long and hard battles to achieve a measure of self-love and acceptance and they don’t take well to anyone who believes they are blemished–whether that be physically, emotionally or spiritually.

Tell a person often enough that they are defective in some way and they begin to believe it. And if they believe it, they tenf to act like it.

The diagnosis of homosexuality as a “disorder” is a contributing factor to the pathology of those homosexuals who do become mentally ill…. Nothing is more likely to make you sick than being constantly told that you are sick. ~Ronald Gold

For the record, I’ve pretty much had one major concern re the Ugandan situation. I believe that efforts to reach across into another culture demand communication that is as precise and clear as possible. I believe that the mixing of voices…the gays, the ex-gays, the Christians, the non, those of other faiths…also demands enhanced and more precise communication. I further believe that much of the rhetoric I’ve been hearing has been manipulative to some degree. Michael Bussee has delivered so many shame-based messages that I’ve lost count. (“if they don’t respond, then surely they are callous, unfeeling and/or anti-gay”…”I don’t know why they are slow to respond, it must be….”) And your statement that I quoted was also manipulative. That’s all I was getting at. It wasn’t completely true. Numbers-wise, it’s not nit-picking at all. “Persons who are HIV positive who put others at risk” is a far, far smaller number than “persons who are HIV positive”. Persons who knowingly put others at risk are a quite distinct category from persons who are simply HIV positive. I would think that you would know that and that you’d see that the distinction was significant to the overall truth of your piece.

What other explanation do you have for why so many gays have such deep-felt animosity towards us?

Several possibilities:
1) Some have a strong and deep-felt animosity towards ‘breeders’…it seems they dislike most anyone who isn’t a part of the club.
2) Perhaps it’s a dislike of things and people that they can’t understand…a fear of the unknown that they can’t admit, so it’s easier to redirect the fear into animosity.
3) Christians, even those who aren’t being oppressive towards gays, aspire to holiness and righteousness while the goal of many gays is to ‘push the envelope’ on all things moral…so they perceive Christians as their opposites and their enemies, hence the animosity.
4) Please remember that one distinction of homosexuality is that it does not fully appreciate the otherness of heterosexuality; there is comfort and safety and no challenge in the sameness. (Some think that’s a learned part of ‘the condition’.) So, Christians are even more ‘other minded’ than even the everyday breeders (those that aren’t identified as Christians) and that fuels the feelings of animosity.
5) Gay activists have been laying all offenses against gays on the Christians for years. Even when there is no direct connection, the assumption is pushed that the perpetrators must have learned their bigotry from their early church upbringing. So even when the thugs are hard-partying, drug and alcohol abusing people who haven’t stepped inside a church for years, the blame is still placed on the Christians. Those gays who aren’t critical thinkers swallow that crap whole and see the Christians as their oppressors rather than the thugs who actually perpetrated the violence or bullying.

6) We use the word ‘sin’ and we believe that people are fallen, broken and in need of a savior/redeemer. Many gays have fought long and hard battles to achieve a measure of self-love and acceptance and they don’t take well to anyone who believes they are blemished–whether that be physically, emotionally or spiritually.

I think you both are nitpicking: The fact that the legislation does not explicitly call for execution of celibate homosexuals, or of celibate HIV-positive individuals, is a moot point. I find it disturbing that you might feel that celibate vs. practicing homosexuals should be treated differently — or that you think they might actually be treated differently by a mob-slash-jury that has been brainwashed by a nation of despotic politicians and corrupt pastors who have trained their followers to treat any homosexual — practicing or otherwise — as they would a child molester.

No one can know what happens in private; anyone suspected of being gay — even if they are intersexed or a drag queen — will be assumed by the mob to be guilty of the behavior, and then punished accordingly.

I am dismayed at what I perceive to be your ignorance of the intentional conflation of gay orientation, gay behavior, and transgender biology and identity, all of which routinely occur in the rhetoric of the U.S. Christian Right as well as the rhetoric of the Uganda bill’s supporters.