By Ed Thomas
(AgapePress) – The executive director of an organization that offers support to members and to the families of members of the “ex-gay” community — former homosexuals and those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction — has a unique perspective on the Mark Foley scandal. While reproaches and recriminations abound in the media, she says someone needs to offer the disgraced former Congressman and others like him a message of hope and truth.Regina Griggs of the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, or PFOX, says it is not enough for the public discourse to ignore Foley’s homosexuality or to affirm its existence while condemning his immoral and possibly criminal actions — specifically his alleged sending of sexually suggestive e-mails to underage boys in the Congressional Page Program. But even getting to the bottom of a criminal investigation of the allegations against Foley, she suggests, would not adequately address his situation.
“So why are we not providing hope? Why are we not publishing the facts?” Griggs wants know. And why is no one really telling the clear though politically incorrect truth — about the link between his sexual initiation and his sexual orientation — to “people like Mr. Foley, who decided that he was gay based on something that took place during his teen years?” she asks.
This scandal is an opportunity to spotlight two truths, the PFOX official asserts. One, she says, is that homosexuality is often the result of molestation of children and youths; and the other is that many of those victims have still managed to come out of the homosexual lifestyle.
“My concern is that people who are buying into [the notion of] ‘born gay, cannot change’ do not realize that there is hope and there is healing available,” Griggs notes. It is important to give voice to these facts, she contends, because the message of recovery from homosexuality is being silenced by homosexual activists, who are instead directing youth that have been molested into a homosexual identity.
“If we want to stop this type of behavior, and if we don’t want to see it reproduced, then we have to begin to provide information for all men and women,” the ex-gay outreach spokeswoman says. The victims caught in this tragic cycle and other homosexuals “have to know there’s an answer,” she insists.
The teenage molestation incident that former Congressman Foley says introduced him to homosexuality is unfortunately a very common phenomenon, Griggs points out. And it is a graphic example of why treatment to keep sexual disorientation or gender mis-identity from occurring is so vital. “The truth is out there,” she says; “it’s time to make it known.”
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