For those of you who may not know, the Rev. George Rekers, a prominent anti-gay activist and co-founder with James Dobson of the Family Research Council, author of the books:
"Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity" and
"Growing Up Straight: What Families should Know about Homosexuality", a vocal advocate and practitioner of "Reparative Therapy" and, until the 11th of this month, an advisor to NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) was recently photographed with a young male prostitute he contacted through "www.rentboy.com" whom Rekers hired and took on a trip to London and Madrid to "carry his luggage": (
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05...with-rent-boy/ )
Part of me is taking some
Schadenfreude in watching the demise of George Rekers - a fact I'm not very proud of - but anther part of me wants to meet him in what must be a very dark time for him and say gently to him:
"The truth will set you free George."
The first casualty of war is truth, and this is true also in the culture wars which polarize our societies today. And when people start to deny the truth, they close their hearts and are capable of anything.
Will George Rekers ever admit the truth to himself? I don't know, I doubt it. But I don't want him to die because of it. If George Rekers kills himself over this, I wouldn't rejoice. I don't want anyone else to die because of George Rekers' decades of homophobia- not even George Rekers himself.
Can I forgive the damage that George Rekers has done? The suicides, the children ripped from their parents, the families destroyed....? I don't know, I doubt it. I certainly can't forgive the fact that some of Rekers' followers would rather see kids kill themselves than be gay. But I think I can forgive a pathetic old closeted man for being a pathetic old closeted man.
I realise that not everyone here is a Christian, but I am, and one of the basic teachings of the Founder of my Faith is: "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and spitefully use you". Only if I can love my worst enemy can I really claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. But it has to be a
genuine and
unconditional Love, not the phoney "love-the-sinner-but-hate-the-sin" rhetoric that George Rekers professes. If I don't do better at unconditional love than George Rekers, I'm no better than he is.
So for what its worth George Rekers, no matter what you decide to do, I just wanted to say: the truth will set you free
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel!" (Matthew 23:23-24)