Pray the Gay Away Marries Gay

It's happened again. Man who used to tell people to 'pray away the gay' admits his 'true feelings' and weds his male partner

quote:

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The former leader of a Christian ministry that promised to cure people "trapped in homosexuality" has revealed that he has married his gay partner.

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John Smid led the controversial Love in Action organisation in the US until 2008, when he left after admitting that he had denied his own sexuality for years.

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Smid and his partner Larry McQueen live in Texas but were forced to travel to Oklahoma to get married as their state maintains the same-sex marriage ban that Smid once supported.

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"I believe that due to my former notoriety, my marriage will definitely have its impact," he said, according to Pink News.

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"We think our relationship reveals something very normal, not strange or deceptive gay stereotypes."

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In 1994, Smid admits telling a young man that it would be better for him to commit suicide, rather than act on his homosexual feelings.

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He has since apologised for his role in the organisation and admits making serious "mistakes, shortcoming and failures" throughout his leadership.

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"I am very sorry for the ways [we] further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life," he said.

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He now runs a Christian fellowship group called Grace Rivers for "those who call themselves gay and want to seek a relationship with God in a place where they're free to do that."

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Who's next?Enjoy

Ffs

Im guessing the fanatics "know" that he either dint pray hard enough, or Satan himself sent a homosexual legion of daemons to fully corrupt him. Edited by frako, : No reason given.

While it's a shame they could not get married in their own state it is a great sign of change for the better and human rights.Gradually the Christian Cult of Ignorance bigots are getting left behind as other Christian fight the Good Fight.

If he was somebody I cared about, somebody in my family for instance, I'd feel terrible that he gave up on eternal life, and would pray that he'd recognize the wrongness of his choice.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I can understand that people feel as you do and I'm not going to give you any grief about it. But hopefully you wouldn't let such feelings interfere with loving a family member. In my own family, several of my young nieces are gay. In one case, the girls father is a fairly strict fundamentalist who pretty much shuns her and insists that the rest of the family do so as well. He has pretty much no hope of having any influence on his daughter.That said, there is no question in my mind that Jon Smid created tremendous hurt to some troubled people in his 'pray away' efforts. Thankfully he appreciates his error and does not do that stuff anymore.

He has also done the Christian thing by acknowledging his failure, repenting his actions, trying to make amends and attempting to not repeat such acts.

See? You'll be feeling terrible in Heaven while the rest of us are having a big gay party in Hell.

You might be surprised to hear that I could wish it would work out that way. I no longer have any wish to party it up in Hell as I might have in the past, I have a real yearning to be in the company of God, but since you all would probably enjoy it and I'd rather not see anybody suffer, except maybe the really really bad guys, it would be nice if that's what God decreed for unbelievers. Unfortunately I know that's not the way it's going to turn out.

A religious science fiction story, Only Begotten Daughter, offered an interesting view on who went to Hell. Basically, the choice was ours. So since every religion condemned all other religions to Hell, everybody went there. Well, except for four people, including Jessica's father, but not Jesus -- Jessica meets Jesus there, ministering to the others, and he is absolutely appalled when she tells him about Christianity.How could that be pertinent? Well, we have created our own theologies and, even if the mustard seed (not the smallest of all seeds, BTW) of a theology is actual Revelation, all the massive rest is the Word of Man. That means that we have created our own visions of Hell and have populated it with those whom we have chosen, all according to the Word of Man.But come to think of it, what does your theology say? Are you saved or not? How can you know? Doesn't Calvinism teach that the saved and the damned have already been denoted? That there is nothing you can do to become saved and nothing you can do to become unsaved? There is a Unitarian Universalist (UU) anecdote about a Baptist Sunday School student doing her assignment to learn about other religions (yes, such an assignment does sound very far-fetched for Baptists). She was shocked to learn that UUs don't believe in Hell. "Then why be good?", she asked. "Because it is the better way." Which is True, even though it be lost on you.For that matter, I recently heard of a Calvinism-based religious movement in England around the 1600's (History Channel-type show). Since nothing they would do could save or unsave them, added to the fact that their ultimate fate was already decided and was out of their hands, they lived lives of unbridled hedonism. Of course, their actions were condemned by everybody else, but they were following Calvinism's logic.And I will end with a UU joke, for the sake of the others if not for you. A new arrival to Hell was being shown around. Each group of the damned were being subjected to punishments that they all had agreed upon, mainly through their lifestyles. Then they came upon the UU chamber. All the damned UUs were standing around talking and drinking coffee. The orientation demon explained to the new-comer, "Those damned Unitarians can't agree on anything!"

Me too.
Mostly because Hell doesn't exist, though.

Indeed it would - but He isn't nice.

The idea of being in the company of God and lots of like minded folk might be fine for a weekend, but more than a couple days or so would be absolute hell.If there is an afterlife (and I do believe there will be) I certainly hope it will be filled with disagreement and challenges. None of this sitting at the feet of the throne crap but rather an biannual round table with Jesus and Satan and Muhammad and the Buddha and Ganesha and Confucius and Mencius and Coyote and Isis and Baal and a few others presenting problems and possible resolutions.On off years maybe God can sit to be judged by a panel of humans or try to defend or refute the stories alleged to be about Her.The key is that unless there are differences, discourse, disagreement, and new, increasingly difficult challenges Heaven would get old in a hurry. Unless I was constantly exposed to folk who thought and believed differently than I and presented with challenges that are beyond my capability to resolve eternal life simply would be something to avoid.I realize this runs counter to what we see today, particularly when looking at many chapters of Club Christian, where people tend to group around those who think like they do and avoid exposure to conflicting belief systems and worldviews.

It is even sadder to see someone deny themselves a fulfilling life in the name of a made up afterlife.

If christians are right, then the majority of souls in heaven will be from 1 month old fetuses that were naturally aborted and Jehova Witnesses. Not exactly the mix I would be looking for. Speaking of mixes, what if I forget how to make an Old Fashioned and have to ask for help . . .