Gay activist, author, and Truth Wins
Out President Wayne Besen is calling Focus on the Family's appeal to
pray for “rain of biblical proportions” during Barack Obama's
August 28th appearance at Invesco Field as effective as
their attempts to have people “pray away the gay.”
Besen, who serves as president of Truth
Wins Out – a gay group dedicated to debunking the ex-gay movement – is denouncing a video from the Christian based group Focus on the
Family. In the video, followers are urged to pray for “rain of
biblical proportions” during Barack Obama's acceptance speech as
the Democratic nominee for president.
“I'm still pro life, and I'm still in
favor of marriage as being between one man and one woman,” Stuart
Shepard, the director of digital media for Focus on the Family
Action, the political arm of Focus on the Family, says in the video.
“And I would like the next president who will select justices for
the next Supreme Court to agree. ...If God decides that rain of
biblical proportions would be a good and proper meteorological
condition for that evening we'll see it and we'll say that it is
good.”
Besen likened the call for rain to the
group's attempts to have people “pray away the gay,” calling both
ineffective.
“This, of course, would be about as
effective as their attempts to have people 'pray away the gay' at
their 'ex-gay' Love Won Out freak shows,” wrote Besen at the
group's website.
Focus on the Family has since removed
the video from its website after complains from several members.
Creator Stuart Shepard said the video was suppose to be “mildly
humorous.”
“If people look it seriously, we
regret it,” Focus on the Family Action vice president Tom Minnery
told the Colorado Springs Gazette.
“Who is Focus on the Family kidding?”
Wayne Besen said. “They are a nasty group that portrays God as a
right wing bully who is molded in James Dobson's dictatorial image.
The only joke here, was that Focus on the Family is covering up their
true colors by portraying their ugliness as a parody.”
On the net: Truth Wins Out is at www.truthwinsout.org