Posted on 7/13/2005, 6:20:50 PM by phoenix_004
The mother of a 29-year-old lesbian who committed suicide nearly a decade ago told a gathering of gays and their friends and family members yesterday that her daughter died because of the "untruths taught by the church."
A few of the 75 of so people gathered at Newport Presbyterian Church in Bellevue wiped away tears as Mary Lou Wallner talked about Anna's death in 1997, about the guilt she felt and how the circumstances have changed her life.
Wallner, who lives just outside Little Rock, Ark., explained she was raised in a conservative Christian home, and that was how she had raised her daughter. When Anna came out as a lesbian in 1988, Wallner was not prepared to accept it.
"I committed a hate crime," she said, recalling a comment she once made. "I didn't love my daughter unconditionally."
Wallner and her husband, Bob, Anna's stepfather, were featured speakers at yesterday's Love Welcomes All conference sponsored by Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). It was held in response to a conference last month that promoted the idea that homosexuality is preventable and treatable.
That June 25 event, sponsored by James Dobson's evangelical Christian organization, Focus on the Family, drew about 1,200 people.
Yesterday's daylong conference included a panel discussion that explored science and research about homosexuality and gave attendees a chance to chat with presenters.
Patrick Chapman, an anthropology instructor at South Puget Sound Community College, challenged published reports about homosexuals' ability to change, saying that "over 99 percent of those who attempt reparative therapy to change their sexual orientation have failed."
"There's scientific evidence that homosexuality is inborn and immutable — with a few exceptions explained by psychosocial theories," he said.
Kirsten McArdle, of Redmond, whose previously married sister came out to the family recently, said she attended the conference to better understand the difficult issues confronting her family.
"My parents are pretty open-minded, but I want to help them better understand this," she said.
"My dad characterized it as a phase, that she was rebelling. I believe it's part of who she is."
McArdle said although she had a lot of gay and lesbian friends before her sister came out, "I had a hard time understanding how someone who had been with men could then suddenly find out she's gay."
During her gripping half-hour presentation, Wallner told the group about the painful telephone call from her ex-husband the night their daughter died and her long and painful path to spiritual acceptance.
With her husband, she created an organization called To Educate About the Consequences of Homophobia (TEACH), to allow her to spread the story about her daughter.
The Bible, she warned the group, "must be taken as a whole, with considerations for the cultural realities of the day.
"Homosexuality is not a choice. Who would choose to adopt a gay lifestyle?"
That's like saying because someone hung themselves over tax evasion the IRS is to blame, IMO.
I just sent my husband an email. I believe this false preacher spoke at an Urbana meeting he attended shortly before we started dating. He never said the guy was way off. That was about 19 years ago, now. I wonder when he went of the beam? Or was he ever ON the beam? And if he wasn't WHY was he speaking to a conservative Christian HS/College meeting?
Maybe it was after he married his activist wife.
How dare he state this fact.
Don't you know that different layers of moral liberals have worked long and hard to convince you that the Word of God (the Bible) had no influence and was not quoted as the major source for law in this country.
This fact of the biblical foundation of our law must be CENSORED even more, for it is a "hateful" fact, says the liberal.
The Bible, she warned the group, "must be taken as a whole, with considerations for the cultural realities of the day.
"Homosexuality is not a choice. Who would choose to adopt a gay lifestyle?"
2 false statements in a row.
If the Bible is taken as a whole...You do not "Edit" it for the Cultural Realities of Any Day. ( God says "I change not" )
and Most Gays are "seduced into the Lifestyle" by Gay Molesters..It is a Choice..a choice to SIN.
What Gays want is to force the rest of us to call their Sin
"Normal"
Their own words prove them to be liars. When they claim that it is "Natural" to be Gay, and you say that You can't immagine having attractions to the same sex, the next words out of their mouths is "Try it , you might Like it"
If it was true that you are born Gay then it would be immpossable for someone not born Gay to like it, yet thats what they Suggest. Just like in Gommorah..They prey on others, and Perish for their Unrepentant ways.
Her Daughter committed Suicide because She could not Take
the Guilt of Her Sin anymore.
Only the Blood of Jesus can wash it away, and Wash My own away as well.
In I Corinthians 13 Jesus said, among other things, "Love is patient...and kind. Love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs...It always protects, always hopes, always perseveres."
I displayed none of that.
You are wrong..You told her that you loved Her even after you told her she was living wrong..thats the ultimate Love!
If she was 2 years old and was walking up to a rattlesnake, would you just Love her and say nothing? bullcrap! You would scream "STOP" you are doing wrong!!!!!!! thats LOVE
You practiced LOVE, you just cant seem to fix the Blame where it belongs..On Her. she turned away from God. and we each have that SIN to account for by OURSELVES.
Where was the "Unconditional LOVE" of her Gay Friends?????
why didnt the perfect LOVE of Her Gay Friends save Her ????
wasnt it strong enough to ????????
Exactly! Gay Love is not "Love" it is Perverted Lust for an Unnatural Sex. and God Says It is SIN. It's tough to get around that one and so Gays try to Fight God and The Bible, By Changing God and The Bible.
The Problem is that they cant really convince themselves it is true.
So they commit Suicide. almost twice the rate of Straight Suicides.
Is that Natural???
I realized this after I posted and thought to myself, that is how mom's feel when they realize that they may not approve of the things their kids do, but this does not mean they don't love them unconditionally. Thanks for bringing that to the attention of this thread.
Homosexuality, is condemned in both the Old Testament God's Law) in (Gen 19:5-10, Liv 18:22-25; and New Testament (Rom 1:26-29 God's Grace). The homosexual activists and friends can try to twist the Word, but the word is truth and nothing they say can change God's word. Amen.
There are some religious sects, with their own versions of the bible, that believe, in their fanatisism, that they are the sole voice for God on this Earth. And that is very dangerious in of itself.
You're welcome.
I was in high school at the time and was pretty liberal, so even if it had been clear, it wouldn't have been noticed by my young head full of mush.
The essentialist argument that homosexuality is biologically determined, and is therefore not amenable to change, continues to find little support in science. Finding its way in to the Monitor on Psychology, the official magazine of the American Psychological Association, another study emphasizes the fluidity of homosexual attraction.
Dr. Ellen Scheter of the Fielding Graduate Institute presented her research at the recent meeting of the American Psychological Association. Her qualitative study included in-depth interviews with 11 women who had been self-identified as lesbian for more than 10 years. All of these women were in heterosexual relationships which had been ongoing for more than a year (Greer, 2004).
These findings provide support for the research of Dr. Lisa Diamond whose study was reported in the Monitor on Psychology in 2000. Dr. Diamond concluded that "sexual identity was far from fixed in women who aren't exclusively heterosexual" (Murray, 2000, p. 15; Diamond, 2000).
Dr. Kenneth Zucker, in his careful analysis of the innate/immutable argument of homosexuality, rostered a plethora of studies to support his conclusion that "sexual orientation is more fluid than fixed" (2003, pp. 399-400).
Friedman and Downey, the psychiatric researchers at Columbia University, offered a strongly worded conclusion opposing the essentialist argument: "At clinical conferences one often hears...that homosexual orientation is fixed and unmodifiable. Neither assertion is true...The assertion that homosexuality is genetic is so reductionistic that it must be dismissed out of hand as a general principle of psychology" (2002, p 39).
Yet the national organizations continue to offer the essentialist argument as a guide for law and public policy. No reputable scientist on either side of the political spectrum would disagree with the conclusion of Friedman and Downey. Even the gay-activist researchers themselves who studies have been used by the media to trumpet the message that homosexuality is biologically determined do not support the "born that way" myth.
Simon LeVay, the author of the hypothalamus study, noted, "It's important to stress what I didn't find. I did not prove that homosexuality was genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men were born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work" (Nimmons, 1994, p. 64).
There's more here>
Very telling. Even if we were to stipulate that homosexual feelings or urges were completely out of one's hands, behavior (i.e., a "gay lifestyle") is indisputably a choice. Pedophiles may not be able to choose their feelings, either, but that doesn't stop us from judging their deliberate actions.
Ugh--I hope most Presbyterians are not like this mom.
I think the fact that they deny ANYBODY would ever try it for any reason other than being hard, fast, and immutably homosexual is very revealing of their closed mindedness.
If they were reasonable people they would be saying something along the lines of "You know, perhaps there are some among us that are not truly 'inborn and immutabl(y)' homosexual. If they can recover a normal lifestyle and have families and children, that's great for them. For the large majority of us, this is impossible."
But no. Their doctrine is "No Homosexual Can Ever Recover. There Is No Psychological Or Spiritual Component To This Condition And Any Attempt To Effect Change In A Homosexual Person's Self Perception Must Be Strictly Forbidden!"
YEs, they are running into a brick wall aren't they. They can change the laws, but they can't make people like them or want their children around them.
You've hit the nail on the head.
In my case, I don't see any power of the government to regulate private behavior... I think the government has vastly over reached in this area.
But I have my feelings and even prejudices. I don't want my son to have a gay boyscout leader. I certainly don't want my son to be gay and there isn't any power on earth that is going to change my opinion on that.
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