sws4420
11-05-2006, 10:38 AM
Close to 1,000 people are planning to attend a controversial conference this weekend in Atlanta. Organizers for the event are promising they can turn homosexuals straight.
“I spent thousands of hours on my knees, praying for the Lord to make me straight,” said Daniel Gonzales. “And he never did.”
Gonzales was so desperate not to be gay, he tried the kind of therapy taught at this weekend’s Love Won Out conference, held at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock.
The billboard on the Downtown Connector says that it is possible to become straight with God’s help. Will Blankenship of First Baptist says it worked for him.
“My compassion is for people,” he said. “And I simply want to say that God didn’t make us that way.”
Other clergy disagree.
At Outwrite Bookstore in Midtown, clergy members joined doctors, parents and gay activists to protest the theory that sexual orientation is something that can be changed -- a promise made by Christian group Focus on the Family.
“These groups offer promises they can’t deliver, and deliver disasters they didn’t promise,” said Wayne Besen of Truthwinsout.org. “The destroy families in the name of family values.”
Hattie Ellis’ 25-year-old son is gay. She has a message for the hundreds of parents who signed their children up for the church group’s conference.
“Don’t do it,” she said. “If you try to change your child, you will lose your child. You will break their spirit and you may never get them back.”
This weekend's conference is scheduled for Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, at 11905 Highway 92 in Woodstock.
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=87061
“I spent thousands of hours on my knees, praying for the Lord to make me straight,” said Daniel Gonzales. “And he never did.”
Gonzales was so desperate not to be gay, he tried the kind of therapy taught at this weekend’s Love Won Out conference, held at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock.
The billboard on the Downtown Connector says that it is possible to become straight with God’s help. Will Blankenship of First Baptist says it worked for him.
“My compassion is for people,” he said. “And I simply want to say that God didn’t make us that way.”
Other clergy disagree.
At Outwrite Bookstore in Midtown, clergy members joined doctors, parents and gay activists to protest the theory that sexual orientation is something that can be changed -- a promise made by Christian group Focus on the Family.
“These groups offer promises they can’t deliver, and deliver disasters they didn’t promise,” said Wayne Besen of Truthwinsout.org. “The destroy families in the name of family values.”
Hattie Ellis’ 25-year-old son is gay. She has a message for the hundreds of parents who signed their children up for the church group’s conference.
“Don’t do it,” she said. “If you try to change your child, you will lose your child. You will break their spirit and you may never get them back.”
This weekend's conference is scheduled for Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, at 11905 Highway 92 in Woodstock.
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=87061