In my Monday story, I write about how Focus on the Family’s decision to sponsor a student-led anti-gay day has polarized conservatives.
Last Thursday Focus announced it was picking up sponsorship of the Day of Truth, but changing the name to Day of Dialogue. Read my story that ran in the Gazette Friday here.
Exodus International , a Christian right coalition, announced in October that the Day of Truth was wrong for the times given the rash of gay bullying in schools. “All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they’d like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not,” Exodus president Alan Chambers told CNN on Oct. 6.
BELOW ARE EDITED EXCERPTS OF MY INTERVIEWS WITH TWO SUPPORTERS AND A DETRACTOR OF THE DAY OF DIALOGUE.
Terry Hurlbut is chief editor of the Conservative Bible Project, an online site that receives 100,000 page views a day. He supports Focus’ Day of Dialogue.
“Just because some kids look for excuses to rag on other kids, that doesn’t change certain fundamental facts about what human beings were made to do,” Hurlbut said.
“It does (students) no favor to say God set up humanity for homosexuality,” he said.
“I believe high schoolers are thoroughly mixed up anyway, and also middle schoolers, when puberty is at its onset. Middle school children could go anywhere with their sexual attraction. They need guidance.”
Andy Aschlafly, founder and president of the Conservative Bible Project, also supports Focus.
“It’s important for high school students to hear the Christian side of this issue,” he said.
Ralph Blair heads Evangelicals Concerned, which helps evangelicals accept their same-sex attraction. He opposes Day of Dialogue.
Below he talks about Focus.
“They locked themselves into a position that is no longer tenable. They are pulling back, doing caveats, but still trying to please their core contributors. They are in a bind. Their interpretations of biblical text are more and more untenable.
“Sound to me there are die-hard board people, big donors to Focus, and people that run the operation have to pay attention to these people. It just doesn’t make sense if they are trying to reach out and extend their base … the whole hostility to gay people is going down the tubes.
“Your losing chances to evangelize these people.”
Conservatives weigh in on Focus’ sponsorship of anti-gay observance is a post from: The Pulpit
