Christian semary head fired for once helpg people overe unwanted gay attractn - LifeSe

* gay deprogramming *

In the view of many Christians, the teenage years are simultaneoly the most dangero and the most promisg. At the very moment when teens are tryg to tablish a sense of inty and belongg, they are bet by temptatn on all sis—om the prsure of their peers to the nihilism and materialism of popular culture. Add the specter of homosexualy to the mix, and you’ve got a suatn ripe for worry, sermonizg, and exploatn. In Recg Young Love, Mark D. Jordan explor more than a half century of Amerin church bate about homosexualy to show that even as the ma lson—homosexualy is bad, teens are vulnerable—has remaed nstant, the arguments and assumptns have changed remarkably. At the time of the first Ksey Report, 1948, homosexualy was simultaneoly nmned and ltle discsed—a teen stgglg wh same-sex sire would have found ltle specific guidance. Sixty years later, church rhetoric has unrgone a radil shift, as silence has given way to equent, public, tailed discsn of homosexualy and s perceived dangers. Along the way, church have quietly adopted much of the language and ias of morn sexology, psychiatry, and social reformers—ployg , for example, to buttrs the crentials of anti-gay “programmg” centers and tradnal genr rol. Jordan tells this story through a wi variety of sourc, cludg oral histori, terviews, memoirs, and even pulp novels; the rult is a fascatg wdow onto the never-endg battle for the teenage soul. * gay deprogramming *