Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Americans for Truth, American Family Association team up to sell fraudulent video (Another one for my book)

I almost missed this one.

Americans for Truth (our friend Peter LaBarbera's group) is helping the American Family Association pull a big fraud.

On the Americans for Truth web page is a solicitation for the video "It's Not Gay." According to the group, the video:

" . . . presents a story that few have heard, allowing former homosexuals the opportunity to tell their own story in their own words. Along with medical and mental health experts, these individuals express a clear warning that the sanitized version of homosexuality being presented to students is not the whole truth."

Those who click on the video link is directed to the American Family Association site where they can order the video.

Besides the usual bit of misrepresentation (i.e. the claim that those in the video have been "freed from homosexuality") is something a bit more sinister and blatant.

Notice how the cover of the video on both links seem to be blurred.

I can't help wondering if this is intentional. Why you ask? Because of the person it features.

This link from Ex-Gay Watch plainly shows who this person is: Michael Johnston.

For a while, Johnston was one of the anti-gay industry's "golden boys." He traveled across the country telling his story of how he was "delivered" from homosexuality after testing HIV positive. He was even the leader of his own ministry, Kerusso Ministries. In addition, he helped to start "National Coming Out of Homosexuality" Day in order to counter "National Coming Out" Day.

However, Johnston's star crashed in 2003 when it was discovered that while he was doing all of these things, he was also engaging in unprotected sex with men.

So why in 2007 is the American Family Association and Americans for Truth trying to sell a video featuring him making his claim that he was "delivered" from homosexuality when it was obvious that he wasn't.

And it's obvious that LaBarbera knows what his group is doing. He is quoted in the above link about Johnston's transgressions.

This is not the first time this subject has come up. Last year, Wayne Besen of www.truthwinsout.org asked the same question about "It's Not Gay."

What AFA and Americans for Truth are doing is like selling a hammer with a broken handle. One can always take back the hammer.

But who will seek recompensement for the lives of the lgbts who are going to be attacked by churches and others who will probably buy this tape and believe its claims?

The fact that the American Family Association and Americans for Truth are encouraging people to buy this tape speaks to both groups' lack of integrity. God does not like ugly, even when it's done in his name.