How George Alan Rekers and his rent boy got busted by New Times
Miami New Times
By Brandon K. Thorp and Penn Bullock
May 13 2010The young man sitting on a baggage cart at a Miami International Airport arrivals terminal seems worried. Lifting luggage is part of his job description, but his travel companion — a minister — and the bags are still at customs, randomly selected for a special security procedure. The two guys standing nearby make the young man even more uneasy. One of them holds a hot-pink digital camera, and both are trying hard not to look his way. They keep stealing glances, which the young man tries to ignore. He has no idea the two guys have spent the past week studying screen captures of his emails — including the itinerary of his trip with the minister — sent by a friend he once entrusted with his passwords. In fact, the young man doesn’t really know the man with whom he has spent the past two weeks.
Eventually, the minister makes it out of customs with his baggage cart. The 61-year-old with combed-over hair and a bushy mustache joins his young travel companion. As they wait for an elevator, there is a click and a flash, and the guys with the pink camera disappear. In less than a week, that picture will circulate the globe, and George Alan Rekers and his travel companion, Jo-vanni Roman, will become household names. Had it been anybody else returning from a two-week European vacation with a gay male escort, the affair probably would have stayed in the family.
But Rekers — who is divorced with six grown children, one of them adopted — is a leading activist in the nation’s anti-gay movement and a cofounder with James Dobson, America’s best-known homophobe, of the Family Research Council. The Baptist minister and prolific author is also a board member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which champions a clinical "gay cure"…
Rekers will send New Times a questionnaire that a board-member friend from NARTH has helped him compose. In it, Rekers provides vague answers allegedly from Roman acknowledging all the luggage-carrying and Jesus-talking Rekers did on their trip. He will also threaten to retain a "defamation attorney," calling the New Times coverage "slanderous."Within a week, his name will disappear from the websites that once boasted it proudly. The Family Research Council will claim to barely remember him and all but declare his guilt. "While we are extremely disappointed when any Christian leader engages in activities they ‘preach’ against, it’s not surprising."
NARTH will issue no confident denials of the story, only assurances that it takes the Rekers allegations "very seriously." When New Times sends Rekers a series of interview questions via email, he says he’s been asked by the University of South Carolina — the institution with which he associates himself at the end of every correspondence — to forward all questions to its spokeswoman. "I am not a spokesperson for Dr. Rekers, but work at the University of South Carolina," the spokeswoman tells New Times. "Dr. Rekers retired from here nearly five years ago."
Psychologist Resigns from NARTH after Gay Prostitute’s Claims
Christianity Today
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
5/12/2010… In a follow-up e-mail to Christianity Today, Rekers said that his wife will be retiring soon and will accompany him on trips when their sons are unavailable. "I confessed to the Lord and to my family that I was unwise and wrong to hire this travel assistant after knowing him only one month before the trip and not knowing whether he was more than a person raised in a Christian home," Rekers said. "I also confessed to the Lord and to my family the sin of thereby putting myself into a vulnerable situation where I tragically became subject to false allegations."
Rekers said that he regrets "unanticipated harm" for his "unwise decision," and briefly mentioned part of the trip. "One thing for which I am grateful is that my travel assistant openly shared his spiritual doubts with me during the trip and he did let me share the gospel of Jesus Christ with him with many Scriptures in three extended conversations."
Rekers said he is being advised by a team of three Christian counselors. "And I have committed myself to ongoing meetings with an experienced pastor and counselor from my church, so I can more fully understand my weaknesses and prevent this kind of unwise decision-making in the future."
George Rekers has a 22 page Curriculum Vitae. One of those that lists everything he’s ever done, but even though it’s padded, it’s quite impressive. He’s been a very busy guy. Here are his degrees and other training experiences:
| ORDINATION: | ||
| • | Minister of the Gospel, Southern Baptist Convention | 1994 |
| EDUCATION: | ||
| • | Southern Wesleyan University M.B.A. Executive Management | 2004 |
| • | University of South Africa Th.D. Practical Theology | 1997 |
| • | Columbia International University M.Div. Cross-Cultural Ministry/Missions | 1993 |
| • | University of California, Ph.D. Psychology | 1972 |
| • | Los Angeles C.Phil. Psychology | 1972 |
| • | M.A. Psychology | 1971 |
| • | Westmont College B.A. Psychology | 1969 |
| POSTDOCTORAL CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY INTERNSHIP: | ||
| • | Harvard University placements at Tufts /New England Medical Center Hospital Child Guidance Clinic, and Boston Veterans Administration Hospital | 1973-1974 |
| PREVIOUS UNIVERSITY POSITIONS: | ||
| • | Harvard University Research Fellow and Visiting Scholar Department of Psychology Center for the Behavioral Science | 1972-1973 |
| • | University of California at Assistant Research Psychologist; and Los Angeles Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology | 1974-1977 |
| • | University of Florida Chief Psychologist, Division of Child andCollege of Medicine and Adolescent Psychiatry, and College of Health Related Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Professions Clinical Psychology, and Pediatrics | 1977-1980 |
| • | Kansas State University Department Head and Professor (tenured) Dept. of Family and Child Development | 1980-1985 |
No, we’re not likely to get any insight into the inner workings of George Reker’s mind from his ” ongoing meetings with an experienced pastor and counselor from my church, so I can more fully understand my weaknesses and prevent this kind of unwise decision-making in the future.”
If we deconstruct that sentence, he’s acknowledging two things: “my weakness” and “unwise decision-making.”
“my weakness” = giving in to his desires; his solution = strengthening defenses against desires
“unwise decision-making” = disregard for danger of getting caught;
He says nothing about reparative therapy that supposedly helps people get over their homosexual desires. This, despite his having been a board member of NARTH, which is dedicated to that kind of treatment. So this seems a ringing vote of no-confidence in what he has been promoting.
He has no interest in changing, or maybe it’s no belief that he can. His goal is to shore up his defenses, keep from acting on his desires, or — at least — use better judgment in the future and not get caught..
Who is the big loser here?
The “scientific” status of the anti-gay movement. In addition to exposing a board member of the leading, supposedly scientific NARTH as a hypocrit and a fraud, it has publicized the bogus science these people try to foist off on court trials that deny rights to gay people. In Rekers case, most notoriously his testimony in Arkansas and Florida against gay adoptions. Even the judges in those cases said his testimony, for which the tax payers paid over $100,000, was unreliable and should have no bearing on the decision.
Now we that this is widely known, it will be harder for other cases to use such fraudulent “expert witnesses” in courts of law.
You make an interesting point about “my weakness.” I expect if you asked him what he means by “my weakness,” you’d get one of his medieval sentences about inadequately vetting his luggage carriers – another sin of thereby. But it’s likely that the deeper meaning of “my weakness” is what you say – homoerotic sexual impulses.
It’s interesting for a Ph.D. psychologist to formulate life as a battle with the “enemy within,” requiring strength to fight back. It’s his version of the biblical Adam and Eve saga. To add to the paradoxes of George Rekers: theology requires him to live in conflict; while practicing psychology which is about conflict resolution. No wonder he’s confused…
The thing that elevates George Rekers from mere hypocrite to evil is his forceful actions to prevent gay couples from adopting. He took $120,000 from the State of Florida to provide his “expert” testimony that gay couples could not provide a loving home for adopted children.
Perhaps Dr. Rekers expertise in gay adoption is more based on his personal experience than previously realized. Dr. Rekers adopted a 16 year old boy four years ago, which would make his son the same age now as the rentboy who accompanied him on his vacation. I hope the circumstances of Dr. Reker’s adopted son are examined closely.