"God caused Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay pride parade the week before and was filled with sexual sin ... All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." Pastor John Hagee
Reading a statement like that made by Charles McVety's business partner, John Hagee, would certainly not adhere you to his God. If he is that vengeful, maybe we don't need to eradicate homosexuals, as the Religious Rights suggests, but simply get rid of their God. He sounds down right nasty.
Fortunately, most Christians follow a loving God who would never destroy an entire city, killing more than 1800 people, and uprooting thousands more, just to exact revenge for a gay pride parade. They believe that God made gays too.
However, this isn't really about the Christian Extremists, and their twisted version of the faith. Others have been warning about the dangers associated with this growing group of radical fundamentalists, many of whom have close ties to many members of our current government, but I decided to also expose the rampant hypocrisy that is also often associated with the Religious Right.
An excellent example of this are two 'ministries', actually linked financially, Desert Stream, part of the Exodus group, in the United States, and Living Waters ministry under the umbrella of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Both of these groups claim to be able to "cure" homosexuality, but the two videos (the one above and below) show how they really operate.
Desert Stream
This organization was established by an ex-gay (?) minister, Adam Comisky, who offered "healing" to those who were "sexually broken".
On March 8, Comiskey wrote a blog post entitled “Falling Mercies” where he says DSM had been, “cast out of our home church”, Vineyard Anaheim, as a result of “a darker strain of sin in our own ranks.” He goes onto reveal that this sin was, “a longstanding staff person from Desert Stream had sexually abused at least one teenager who had sought help from us.”
Comiskey alleges that he was a victim of seven-figure blackmail from the relative of one of the abused boys. This led to, “a scourging of our entire ministry through police interrogations, the naked bulb of insurance agents and their lawyers, and Vineyard elders who for good reason wanted to know what was really going on in Desert Stream Ministries.”
As a result of the investigation, Comiskey says DSM was “torn in two” and that “we the righteous became the scum of the earth–not only the defender of victims, but the predators.” (1)
This was not the first time this group was charged with sexual misconduct, and many people refer to them as a cult. In 1998, The Los Angeles Times reported that one family had sued Desert Stream, alleging that a minister had sexually abused a teenager while the youth was undergoing 'therapy' to turn him heterosexual.
It would appear that this ex-gay minister is using his hideaway as a dating service and yet Exodus is still standing behind him. The cult has not closed up shop but just moved to another state.
Now lets go to Canada.
Living Waters Ministry
According the the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, who have quite an array of groups all promising to "fix broken sexuality"
Living Waters is Canada’s most widely used Christian program for those who battle with sexual and relational problems. The intensive 30-week course originated in California in 1980, when Andy and Annette Comiskey started a Bible-based support group for people struggling with same-sex attractions ..
Canadian national directors Toni and Mardi Dolfo-Smith have overseen Living Waters programs from their headquarters in Vancouver for the past six years. The program is currently used in 22 cities across Canada and 20 countries around the globe. “We’ve seen Christians from all walks of life benefit from this interdenominational program,” says Toni.
“Jesus is committed to healing people so that individuals are free to love again. When we’re confused or broken in our sexual and relational identities, it limits our capacity to love others according to the will of Christ,” adds Mardi.
“People who join our program are willing to face their present state while delving into a painful past,” states Toni. “In an age when pornography is okay, same-sex relationships are accepted and abuse is rampant, it is God’s grace that heals and restores our sexuality. Living Waters aims to minister that healing.”
But while Jesus may be committed to healing people, Living Waters has a different goal. MONEY!
Ottawa, Ontario, June 8, 2009... The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has revoked the charitable registration of Living Waters Ministry Trust, a London-area charity. This revocation was effective June 6, 2009.
On April 24, 2009, the CRA issued a notice of intention to revoke the charitable registration of Living Waters Ministry Trust, in accordance with subsection 168(1) of the Income Tax Act. The letter stated, in part, that:
Our audit has concluded that from August 11, 2004 to December 31, 2006, Living Waters Ministry Trust issued in excess of $41.6 million in receipts for cash received through a tax shelter arrangement. The Charity, in turn, directed $40.7 million of the cash to another registered charity also participating in this arrangement. Our audit revealed that the vast majority of the cash sent to the other participating charity was subsequently paid to the promoters of the tax shelter arrangement. Of the remainder, the Charity itself paid $443,000 in fundraising fees to the tax shelter promoters and retained $416,000 for use in their own activities.
It is our position that the Charity has operated for the non-charitable purpose of promoting a tax shelter arrangement and for the private benefit of the tax shelter promoters
So Living Waters Ministry is simply a tax shelter that has taken in million of tax free dollars. And their parent company, Desert Stream, has preyed on and exploited minors for their own sexual gratification.
And yet both of these groups appear to still be operating. In Canada they are part of what is now called 'Jason Ministries', billed as 'International Christian ex-gay ministries' and their contacts in Canada are none other than Toni & Mardi Dolfo-Smith.
And they are part of an international group that all claim to be friends of Desert Stream. Other friends of this organization that has been referred to as a cult and charged with sexual misconduct, include Focus on the Family.
The Canadian founder of Focus on Family, who received seed money from their American counterpart, is Darrel Reid, who is now Stephen Harper's deputy chief of staff, and many members of Harper's caucus, including Rob Anders, Maurice Vellacott and Brad Trost, also belong.
Reid once compared those who support gay rights to Nazis, and Anders, Vellacott and Trost are vocal homophobics.
Sources:
1. Desert Scream: Exodus Leader’s Shocking Admissions of Ministry’s Sexual Abuse, By Wayne Besen, TWO, March 13, 2010
2. Healing For Sexual Brokenness, By Simon Presland, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, May/June issue 2001
3. The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the charitable status of Living Waters Ministry Trust, Government of Canada
No comments:
Post a Comment