The first step for Christian conservatives to win the war against the gay movement is to rebrand the terms, said a few panelists at this weekend’s The Awakening conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
“‘Gay’ is a left-wing socio-political construct designed to create grounds for fundamental rights [based on] whimsical capricious desires,” said Ryan Sorba, chairman of the Young Conservatives of California. “Gay identity does not exist.”
Sorba proposed alternatives to the word “gay,” which received approval by a unanimous show of hands by the 40-some audience members:
“Same-sex attraction”
“Same-sex intercourse”
“Sodomy”
“Unnatural vice”
Later in the discussion, it was suggested that gays should also be referred to as “anti-Christian.”
The one self-described ex-gay on the panel, Greg Quinlan — who founded the Pro Family Network in 1996 and is now the president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) but spent his gay years lobbying for the LGBT-rights group Human Rights Campaign – explained that his foray into homosexuality was caused by abuse from his father and looking at Playboy magazine as a young boy.
“Feelings change, and they don’t define you,” Quinlan said, noting that through counseling he was able to re-orient his sexual attraction, which led to a heterosexual marriage (he’s now divorced).
“If you had all the facts, you wouldn’t choose to be gay,” Quinlan, 52, said. “When you live a lie, you tell a lie. Truth is not a philosophy. Truth is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ. Tell the truth in love, but it isn’t love until you tell the truth.”
One glossy insert stuck out from the orientation packet handed to hundreds of Ohio State University...
