{"id":14010,"date":"2007-12-22T10:30:41","date_gmt":"2007-12-22T15:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/14010.html"},"modified":"2007-12-22T10:30:41","modified_gmt":"2007-12-22T15:30:41","slug":"ex-gay-takes-exit-ramp-on-highway-to-heterosexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/ex-gay-takes-exit-ramp-on-highway-to-heterosexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ex-gay’ takes exit ramp on highway to heterosexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Morbo<\/a><\/p>\n

The Carpetbagger recently ran a short item<\/a> on a truly insane segment that aired on TV preacher Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” about Interstate 35, a highway that bisects the country, running from Texas to Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Most segments on the “700 Club” are insane, so this one had to be really nutty to stand out. And it was: Apparently, some rather imaginative Pentecostals have got it into their heads that I-35 is some kind of highway to hell and are convinced they can reclaim the nation for Jesus by praying at various sites along the road.<\/p>\n

During the piece, a minister named Joe Oden and his allies confronted men coming out of a gay bar in Dallas. One of them, a 19-year-old named James Stabile, claimed on camera that he was touched by the Holy Spirit and immediately stopped being gay.<\/p>\n

Well, it turns out Stabile is still gay. As the Dallas Voice, a gay newspaper, noted this week<\/a>, Stabile is bipolar and hadn’t been taking his medication when he gave that interview<\/a>. After the segment, people affiliated with Oden’s ministry shipped Stabile off to an “ex-gay” boot camp in Kentucky to complete his transition to heterosexuality. He was kicked out after a few months when it became obvious he had no desire to stop being gay.<\/p>\n

Voice columnist John Wright noted that Stabile’s parents accept their son’s sexuality. His father, Joseph Stabile, is a Methodist minister who does not believe being gay is a choice. Joseph Stabile told the Voice, “James did not fit into the program because their whole aim was to have him not be gay.”<\/p>\n

Stabile’s parents say their son does not want to talk about his experiences at the boot camp, which he referred to as “horrible.” He intends to see a therapist first.<\/p>\n

Joseph Stabile said he has contacted the “700 Club” and asked them to retract the information that was aired about his son. I can’t help but admire the man’s moxie, but I have a feeling it will be a cold day in you-know-where before we see that follow-up story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Morbo The Carpetbagger recently ran a short item on a truly insane segment that aired on TV preacher Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” about Interstate 35, a highway that bisects the country, running from Texas to Minnesota. Most segments on the “700 Club” are insane, so this one had to be really nutty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}