1 Boring Old Man

In the past 24 hours FRC has received calls regarding Dr. George Rekers and his connection with the Family Research Council. After reviewing the historical records we did verify that Dr. Rekers was a member of the original Family Research Council board prior to its merger with Focus on the Family in 1987.

Reports have been circulating regarding Dr. Rekers relationship with a male prostitute. FRC has had no contact with Dr. Rekers or knowledge of his activities in over a decade so FRC can provide no further insight into these allegations.

While we are extremely disappointed when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they "preach" against, it is not surprising. The Scriptures clearly teach the fallen nature of all people. We each have a choice to act upon that nature or accept the forgiveness offered by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and do our best to ensure our actions, both public and private match our professed positions.

I suppose that this is consistent with their party line, but it just sounds odd. They are equating homosexuality with the "fallen nature of all people," implying it’s something we each have and should fight against. They go on to say that "[w]e each have a choice to act upon that nature or" do something else – which is to "accept the forgiveness offered by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and do our best to ensure our actions, both public and private, match our professed positions."

I’m having trouble finding a way to say what seems so odd about this phraseology. Homosexuality is equated with sin – and it’s in all of us? We can then either give in to it, or we can "do our best" to live up to our "professed positions" [that homosexuality is a sin?]. There’s a generalization in this that sounds like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden on the one hand, and all people are homosexual or at least have sinful homosexual impulses, on the other.

So, while they are "extremely disappointed when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they preach against, it is not surprising." Since everyone struggles with homosexual impulses, they aren’t surprised when some of them give in to those urges. I would presume that they mean that Christian leaders that preach against homosexuality struggle with homosexual urges of their own – so it’s not surprising that Pastor Ted, Doctor George, and others are repeatedly exposed as having homosexual trysts – slips.

I think a lot of the rest of us believe that too – that the very people that get into the anti-Gay [ex-Gay, Focus on the Family, Family Research Center, NARTH, etc.] business are constitutionally homosexual men who are struggling internally with their sexual urges and working to be heterosexual. I actually think that James Dobson is a gay man "by nature," for example. I suppose that would be fine with me [and most everyone else] if they didn’t demonize other homosexuals, didn’t campaign against gay marriage, didn’t block other gay people from adopting, didn’t become purveyors of hatred and negative labeling. And it may well be that these homosexual men who are working at living heterosexually are doing something that’s difficult and requires a lot of support, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to hurt other people in the process [I’m reminded of some priests who apparently choose a celibate life to run from sexual urges towards children, and then "give in"].