Televangelist Pat Robertson has denied
that he's anti-gay.
Following a 700 Club story on
the demise of “ex-gay” ministry Exodus International, Robertson
insisted that “we're not anti-gay” and chided Exodus President
Alan Chambers for shuttering the group.
(Related: FRC's
Peter Sprigg: “Ex-gay” leader Alan Chambers shouldn't apologize.)
“I am very pleased that we have many,
many, many homosexuals watching this program and many of them are
looking for love and acceptance and help,” Robertson
said. “And I'm glad to report that we have thousands of these
people who are saying, 'Yes, we want to follow Jesus. We're not
happy with the lifestyle we're in and we want to have a better way.'
I think it's wonderful that that's happening.”
“And I just think, you know, we're
not anti-gay or anything.”
People are gay, Robertson said,
“because they have forsaken God.”
“There are a lot of people into this
homosexual thing because they've been abused by a parent, abused by a
coach, abused by a sibling, abused by a friend. They're little boys
and little girls and they don't know any better and then they somehow
think, 'Well, I must be gay.' They aren't, they are heterosexuals
and they just need to come out of that.”
“I don't understand what [Chambers]
is saying, 'We'll now let the church do what we were doing.' The
church ain't going to do it. It hasn't been doing it. So, I'm sure
some other organization will rise up to help people who want out.”
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Brian Tashman at RightWingWatch.org,
a project of People for the American Way, responded: “After all,
how could blaming gays for 9/11, warning that gay rights will destroy
America, using anti-gay slurs, linking homosexuality to pedophilia
and disease and saying that Facebook should create a 'vomit' button
specifically for pictures of gay couples possibly make someone seem
anti-gay?”
(Related: Pat
Robertson wants a Facebook “vomit” button for gay couples.)