Anyone who travels the country holding conferences to “dispel the myths of the gay lifestyle” and declare himself a former homosexual is bound to draw controversy.
But when John Paulk takes his “Love Won Out” message of transformation to the Washington, D.C., area in two weeks, the venue will confront his message in an agonizingly personal way.
“We’re going into the lion’s den of gay activism,” Paulk told WorldNetDaily, noting that the nation’s capital is the headquarters for many of the leading rights groups.
Moreover for Paulk, that “lion’s den” was the scene of a highly publicized failure that not only threatened his ministry but badly damaged the credibility of his message – that it’s possible to be an ex-homosexual.
Paulk’s story of transformation by the power of God has been told through his book “Not Afraid to Change” and countless major media appearances, including a Newsweek cover story.
His conversion, he says, took place in 1987, but two years ago he was caught on camera at a “gay” bar in Washington by a staff member of the Human Rights Campaign, a leading homosexual rights group.
Paulk initially tried to cover up his actions but later confessed and was disciplined by Focus on the Family, where he serves as “homosexuality and gender specialist.” Paulk also lost his position as chairman of the board for Exodus International, the leading Christian homosexual recovery organization.
To publicize its one-day conference, Nov. 2 at Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Va., Focus on the Family has taken Paulk’s failure head on with a full-page ad this week in the Washington Blade, the area’s weekly newspaper for homosexuals.
The ad shows empty bar stools with the headline: “John Paulk’s back in town. But don’t save him a seat.”
“I made a very foolish decision,” Paulk said in a WND interview. “I walked into a gay bar. I sat down and ordered a beer. It was a very poor choice; I never should have been there. I am a human being and was responding very poorly to severe stress in my life.”
Homosexual activist groups responded to news of Paulk’s bar visit with glee, he recalled, chiding “Ha, even the ex-gay poster child has come back.”
In the course of a lifetime, people make poor choices, Paulk said, “but look at the evidence of my life.”
If he truly had reverted, he argued, he would have left his wife of 10 years and his two sons and gone back into the homosexual community.
“Instead I remained at Focus on the Family,” Paulk said. “They kept me on staff; they recognized that I made a poor choice. Don’t you think activist groups would pay a fortune to see me leave Focus on the Family and pursue homosexuality?”
What the science says
Wayne Besen, the Human Rights Campaign staffer who snapped photos of Paulk at the bar, still insists, however, that Paulk is a “fraud.”
“His last trip to Washington, D.C., I think, was more indicative of how much he’s changed,” Besen told WorldNetDaily.
“I think he has destroyed any shred of credibility he ever had,” said Besen, who plans to “monitor” the conference in his role as deputy communications director for the activist group. “All the science is against what he’s saying. All he ever had was his testimony, and he no longer has that.”
Testimonies of changed lives are a central part of the Nov. 2 event. A full-page ad for the conference in today’s Washington Post features speaker Amy Tracy, who worked for 10 years as national press secretary for NOW, the National Organization of Women. Tracy, now a staff writer for Focus on the Family, testifies that she has been freed from lesbianism and become an evangelical Christian.
But along with the personal stories, conference presenters will argue that scientific evidence supports their contention that homosexuals can change.
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, executive director of the National Association for Research and Treatment of Homosexuality, or NARTH, is a featured speaker.
NARTH says it represents several hundred licensed psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors in the United States who are “professionally committed to assisting individuals who are transitioning out of homosexuality.”
Homosexual activists like the Human Rights Campaign’s Besen reject NARTH’s conclusions, pointing to assessments by the American Psychiatric Association that such reparative therapy is potentially damaging because homosexuality is an inherent trait that cannot be changed.
Protesters have shown up at 16 of the previous 19 “Love Won Out” conferences around the nation, according to Paulk, who has invited lawmakers, public health officials, mental health counselors, pastors, concerned citizens and homosexual activists, who are admitted for free.
“I think it’s a fraud and incredibly harmful and disingenuous,” Besen said of the conference. “Focus on the Family has embraced many leaders who have failed and aren’t honest and up front with the public about this when they throw these circuses.”
Besen maintains that “every respected medical and mental health organization says this kind of stuff doesn’t work.”
NARTH contends, however, that APA’s oft-cited 1973 decision to drop homosexuality from its diagnostic manual was not based on scientific evidence.
Famed homosexual researcher Simon LeVay, NARTH points out, has admitted: “Gay activism was clearly the force that propelled the APA to declassify homosexuality.”
LeVay’s brain research often is used to support the argument that homosexuality is inherent. But LeVay himself critiqued his own work, pointing out that it has been widely misinterpreted.
“It’s important to stress what I didn’t find,” LeVay said, according to a NARTH paper. “I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t show that gay men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain.”
Nicolosi led a protest at the APA’s 2000 convention in Chicago after the APA cancelled a debate that was to explore the ethics and effectiveness of “reorientation therapy.”
At that convention, Dr. Robert Spitzer, considered the “architect” of the 1973 APA diagnostic manual, announced in a panel discussion that his subsequent research had changed his views.
“I’m convinced from people I have interviewed … many of them … have made substantial changes toward becoming heterosexual,” Spitzer said. “I came to this study skeptical. I now claim that these changes can be sustained.”
NARTH asks why homosexual activists, who call for tolerance, don’t show tolerance toward people who say they have left, or want to leave, homosexuality.
“It’s their side that needs to show tolerance,” Besen retorted. “They’re given the right to do what they want, however, they want to take our rights away. These groups, including John Paulk’s, they try to lobby to pass legislation to take away my rights. And that’s what our big disagreement is – not what they’re doing, but that this is not really about changing people but about changing the laws that protect gay and lesbian Americans from discrimination.”
Paulk maintains that his motivation is to help people as he himself was helped.
“We’re not conveying a hostile message,” he said. “Ours is one of love and compassion: ‘We understand how you feel, but we want to offer a solution.'”
While many events in the Washington, D.C., area have been canceled due to the sniper scare, plans continue for the Nov. 2 conference, he said.
“We are not going to cancel, because there are many hurting families that attend who are so desperate for answers,” he said. “So, come what may, we’ll be there.”
Former protesters
At a Pasadena, Calif., “Love Won Out” event, Paulk said, two men told organizers that they came to a conference last year to protest. This year they are coming as changed people, as former homosexuals. They responded, Paulk believes, to a message presented in a unique and fresh way.
Often, he said, the message people hear is “homosexuality is wrong; God is against it; that’s the end of the story.”
“We balance truth and love and are not ashamed about what the Bible says, but we want to provide people with knowledge, education and answers,” Paulk said.
While it’s not possible to determine how many have successfully left homosexuality, he notes that more than 1,000 attend Exodus International’s annual conference. Many of those people have been free from homosexuality for 15 to 25 years, he said.
Exodus, an umbrella organization for over 100 local groups, has had more than 300,000 contacts since 1976 from people seeking help, according to Paulk.
Exodus and its local chapters, however, have been hit by notable failures, with some of its own leaders reverting to their old lifestyle.
Paulk insists those failures are minimal.
“Of the thousands of people that come out, a handful will go back,” he said. “If you look at stats for drug and alcohol rehabilitation, they give you a very small percentage that actually remain sober. We wouldn’t say a movement is a failure because not everybody is rehabilitated.”
While Paulk is convinced that change is possible, he believes it cannot be done without help. Unfortunately, he says, the stigma attached to homosexuality often makes help hard to get.
“Homosexuality is a difficult condition to walk away from,” he said. “It takes a long time. We are virtually unsupported by the church, by society, by the gay community. If you struggle with chemical dependency or alcohol addiction, there is so much support, people rallying around. When you come out from homosexuality, you are left virtually alone.”
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