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(Colorado Springs, Colorado) A day after
announcing he would be one of the people overseeing "counseling" for
the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of
gay sex and drug use, Focus on the Family leader James Dobson is bailing out.
In a statement Dobson said he too busy.
''Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help — but the reality
is I don't have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility,'' Dobson
said in a statement released late Tuesday night.
On Monday Dobson said he would beinvolved in
the counseling. (story)
The counseling, officially called
"restoration" is "a code word" for what the so-called ex-gay
movement regards as sexual reassignment according to groups that track the
movement.
FOF runs the Love Won Out "ex-gay"
ministry, holding conferences across the country
The American Psychological Association issued a
stinging rebuke of the so-called ex-gay movement in August disputing its claims
that homosexuality is a choice that can be cured.
"For over three decades the consensus of the
mental health community has been that homosexuality is not an illness and
therefore not in need of a cure," the statement said. "There is simply
no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be
changed."
Haggard was fired from ministry of the 14,000
member church he built in Colorado Springs on Friday after the allegations about
his trysts with a Denver male prostitute became public. On Sunday a letter
that was read to the congregation of the New Life Church in which Haggard
acknowledged publicly his "sexual immorality". (story)
"There's a part of my life that is so
repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult
life," the letter said.
Haggard was also forced to resign as president of
the National Association of Evangelicals, a position which had given him
unbridled access to the White House.
Meanwhile, a camp featured in the documentary "Jesus Camp," which
includes scenes with Haggard preaching, is shutting down. The camp's director, Pentecostal pastor Becky
Fischer who acted as a drill instructor to campers blamed negative public
reaction to the film and said that the camp would likely be closed for several
years.
Haggard, however, has received support from an
organization that advocates for LGBT Christians.
"Rev. Haggard is just one more tragic example of how lives are destroyed by
the lies about gay and lesbian people perpetuated by the [National Association
of Evangelicals], the religious
right, and both the Protestant and Roman Catholic Church," said Soulforce Executive Director Jeff Lutes,
urging compassion for the disgraced pastor.
"Taught by the church
to hate himself, the only option from his point of view was to lead a
psychologically and spiritually damaging double life marked by denial and
self-destructive behavior," Lutes said in a statement.
"Rev. Haggard is a victim of religion-based bigotry
that regularly demeans and demoralizes gay and lesbian people and refuses to
acknowledge that we are part of the American fabric, and that many of us form
loving families and practice a deep faith in God."
©365Gay.com 2006
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