Saturday Musings

We were watching the Logo channel this morning - yes we do now have Logo available in Norfolk - and a story was on about Matthew James, a young gay college student who had been expelled from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, for being gay (based on Lee's own website, only 9% of the student body is non-caucasian). During his interview, he discussed how his room was secretly searched and materials taken by the administration, including a DVD of "Latter Days." One of the things that the administration of the college tried to force James to do was enroll in an Exodus ex-gay program.

James' own parents had previously placed him in an ex-gay counseling program. Anyone reading this Blog knows that in my view, Exodus is a fraud and should be shut down. It is clear from Matt James' statements that he tried - much as I did - to immerse himself in religion to make the gay go away (it was one of the reasons he went to Lee University). As any rational person knows, it just doesn't work. In fact, it is now my view, that parents who place their children in such programs are guilty of child abuse and, in a more perfect world, ought to be prosecuted for the psychological harm they do to their children.

Last fall, I posted about a great column that addressed the damage this type of child abuse does and the fact that it is one of the few forms of child abuse still openly condoned in many quarters. That post is here: http://michael-in-norfolk.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-came-across-this-column-on-blog.html. I recommend it to anyone who has not previously read it. Anger in me generated by that column, inspiration I received from reading Matt's coming out story over at Debriefing the Boys, and encouragement from my therapist resulted in me deciding to start this Blog.

After the Matt James story, After that, Rachel Madow did a follow up story on the numerous "Christian" colleges and universities that have policies similar to that of Lee University. What I found most maddening is that many of these institution receive federal funding even though they actively discriminate on the basis of religion, Matthew James being one example. In my opinion, such colleges and universities should be barred from receiving ANY tax derived funds. They can discriminate if they want in pursuing their sick version of Christianity, but no taxpayer should have to indirectly fund these institutions. In short, if they want to discriminate, they need to get their snouts out of the federal funding trough.