From Peggy Fletcher Stack of the SL Tribune…..
The most interesting part to me…. “One thing Evergreen does not allow, however, is open dialogue on the topic.”
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Article Last Updated: 09/14/2006 06:05:52 PM MDT
Hundreds of Mormon leaders, psychologists and individuals interested in homosexuality are meeting starting Friday in Salt Lake City for the 16th annual Evergreen International Conference.
Speakers will address topics such as addiction to pornography, building faith for healing, fitting into an LDS congregation, helping a child with same-sex attraction, developing healthy emotional boundaries, encouraging radical self-acceptance and dealing with same-sex attraction in a marriage.
“Homosexual feelings affect thousands of Latter-day Saints,” said David Pruden, Evergreen’s executive director. “The [LDS] Church is committed to assisting those who wish to live gospel standards, and Evergreen International is here to offer resources and information.” Evergreen, which bills itself as “the leading organization for Latter-day Saints dealing with unwanted homosexuality,” has no official affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but many LDS bishops and stake presidents are among the attendees each year. Also, its board of trustees usually includes one or more emeritus general authorities of the church and at least one such authority has spoken at the annual conference every year for the past decade.
This year, Elder Rex Pinegar, an emeritus member of the First Quorum of Seventy, will address the conference Saturday at 8 a.m. at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City. In recent weeks, the church’s position on same-sex attraction has been in the news with the online publication of a wide-ranging interview with LDS Apostle Dallin Oaks and Elder Lance Wickman about homosexuality. In the interview, the two say the church does not endorse any specific therapy to overcome homosexuality nor any particular support groups, which would clearly include Evergreen.
That’s OK with Pruden. “We’ve never endorsed any kind of therapy,” he said. “Evergreen has never employed therapists. We provide names of therapists who will work with [clients] in ways that are consistent with [LDS] church standards. Dealing with same-sex feelings is very different from person to person; how they manage that process can be real different, too.” Another keynote speaker at the two-day conference is Alan Chambers, a leading Evangelical authors who lived as a gay teen and young adult before he “overcame unwanted homosexuality.” Chambers is president of Exodus International, a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization promoting the message of freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ. Since 1976, Exodus has grown to include more than 120 local ministries in the U.S. and Canada, according to its official Web site.
The conference also will feature testimonials by Mormon homosexuals “who have been successful in living the doctrines and standards of the [LDS] church while confronting difficult same-sex feelings in their own personal lives,” Pruden said.
Fred and Marilyn Matis, an LDS couple whose son, Stuart, struggled to balance his homosexual attractions with Mormon teachings and eventually took his own life. The Matises, along with Ty Mansfield, a celibate gay Mormon, wrote about their experiences in an LDS published volume, In Quiet Desperation.
One thing Evergreen does not allow, however, is open dialogue on the topic.
“Using this conference to promote alternative philosophical or political views, or for seeking inappropriate relationships will not be tolerated,” the conference publicity states.
The LDS Church entered the political fray earlier this year by suggesting support for the Constitutional Marriage Amendment that would limit marriage to one man and one woman. And many psychologists reject the premise that sexual orientation can be changed through therapy.
Pruden said discussions of these issues are outside Evergreen’s mission.
“We don’t want to turn the sessions into debates,” he said. “This isn’t an open forum for people with alternative viewpoints on homosexuality. There are plenty of forums for that. We try to avoid political topics completely.” pstack@sltrib.com
John, just so you know, it’s not clear where your editorializing ends and the article begins. I was halfway through before I realized that it wasn’t your words that I was reading.
Sorry about that. I just made it more clear.
Thanks!!!
In reading this my head and my heart are retreating to the offical announcement of the LDS suppourt of the marriage amendment earlier this year. One of the excellent writers on Feminst Mormon Housewives said that it made her heart hurt. We don’t suppourt any particular therapy but here you go Evergreen, have a Seventy. To me we have fallen back into the same ‘we don’t suppourt’ mantra that we gave to the John Birch Society. If you’ll remember, Apostle Ezra Taft Benson spoke consistently to the John Birch Society throughout the 60’s and 70’s until he was sent to head the European Mission. I wonder if we will ever wake up and realize that we keep walking both sides of the fence. We are scrupulously correct in our public faces, complying with every legal requirement as advised by legions of lawyers and then merrily underming that vaulted idealism at every opportunity. I wonder somtimes if we’re so caught up in political ambitions that we’ve forgotten how to be truthful and to be civil…I know I’m guilty of both. I just want to grab some of these church leaders and right wing commentators, shake them and make them spend a month in my cousins shoes. Heck…I’d settle for introducing them to him… and have him tell them about his experiances with an Evergreen approved therapist.
I find it interesting that Evergreen, an organization who by its own admission “has never employed therapists” or desired in its mission to be anything but a setting for dialogue, refuses to become “an open forum for people with alternative viewpoints on homosexuality”. It seems that “dialogue” at Evergreen isn’t really dialogue at all.
While the organization is explicit in its mission, I would question a conference that is promoting seminars on “radical self acceptance” while at the same time failing to consider all the possibilities that can occur on a journey of the self, especially one as important and life-defining as sexuality.
By promoting only the rubber stamped Evergreen approved brand of self acceptance and defined “emotional boundaries”, the organization is setting itself up as a catalyst to the confusion, pain, and even tragedy that can come from feelings of “failing God”, “failing peer groups”, and “faiing oneself” that can occur when a person realizes that he or she can’t change. What starts out as a desire to “overcome themselves” can turn into a lifelong self loathing and destroy any shred of relationship with God.
I also feel more than a twinge of regret and dissapointment to see General Authorities of the LDS church speaking at this event. Call me crazy, but when it comes to this one, I really think that the leaders of our church would do a lot better using their wisdom and time endorsing Christ’s own “bottom line”…”love one another as I have loved you.” It’s a message that all of us can appreciate, no matter what.
This sounds like a sham organization that doesn’t respect all LDS homosexuals and rejects those who have accepted what they are and will no longer beat themselves up over it. The lack of candor and no dialogue parts are straight out of correlation. How many more confused kids and young adults have to take their lives for this crowd to wake up and smell the diet coke on this one? Sad.
“The LDS Church entered the political fray earlier this year by suggesting support…”
Nice to hear it was a suggestion. A few years ago we were handed a stack of petitions in a few joint Priesthood/RS meetings and told to get get signatures for our state’s DOMA (defense of marriage) amendment. They didn’t ask for volunteers. They told us to take a packet and pass it on. I passed that stack right on. The church talks out of both sides of its mouth on political matters, claiming no endorsements, reading letters over the pulpit saying as such and then uses church meeting block time to do this sort of crap.
If you don’t allow open dialog, you need to present a substitute, such as “Prophetic Leadership”.
If the prophet would just speak for God, we can avoid this useless dialog and intend do the Right Thing.
substitute “instead” with “intend” above.
Hi John,
Interesting discussion here, and I have to admit to just scanning it. At first I was interested, until I saw that one of the keynotes is from Exodus International. I’m sorry, but thats when I stopped reading, simply because I know too much about Exodus and the damage they can do to people. There’s a lot of writing out there about ex-ex-gay folks. Finally Free: How Love and Acceptance Saved Us from Ex-Gay Ministries by the Human Rights campaign is one of my most favourites. Another good one is Mission Imppossible: Why Reparative Therapies and Ex-Gay Ministries Fail, also by the HRC. I’m sorry I’m not commenting on the mormon side of things, I’m not one, just a fan of the church. But, this is one place where I will always differ from the leading mainstream Christian perspective. I think its just time for people to stop judging and start loving people for all the colours we come in. How lucky are we as a human race to get to surround ourselves with such diversity? How lucky are we to be able to know such wonderful people and get to learn from them at the same time? Seriously.
My boyfriend met his first boyfriend at Evergreen. I never did Everygreen myself, but I understand that for a lot who do, that’s what it eventually becomes–a safe place to meet other gay people (often for the first time).
And that seems to be the only thing good about it.
I, for one, am sick and tired of Evergreen and the LDS Church referring to homosexuals in terms as “The same sex attracted” or “those with homosexual problems”. In their world there is no such thing as a “homosexual” – only straight people who behave that way. This is not Orwell’s 1984 and such a fundamental falacy should be cause for anyone with half a brain to question anything they hear from such groups. If they can’t even diagnos the behavior correctly why would anyone trust them with a prescription? I certainly wouldn’t. When are we going to learn that the greatest crime against nature is the refusal to accept the variety of God’s creations?
well said johnboy.
do you think there is any benefit to families of homosexuals at affirmation or evergreen. i seem to recall a moving presentation by emily pearson, but i believe that was at affirmation.
i do think that ms watson (nelson) gave her horrific rant of b.s. at an evergreen conference. the fact that she was not chased out of the building in fear for her well-being is perhaps a meaningful indication of what evergreen is all about.
here is her presentation that served as the basis for nelsons last conference talk.
https://ce.byu.edu/cw/fuf/archives/2001/WatsonWendy.pdf
and here is her other rant from evergreen
https://evergreeninternational.org/Holy_Ghost.htm
[you gotta love the elitism in this. god saved her from marrying a homosexual but god was too busy to protect the other “victim”]
for the record, based on these presentations by watson, i have absolutely no respect for her as an educator. she is a disgrace to byu. (is that too strong for mormonstories?)
That is one kooky rant from evergreen. People publish this stuff?
geez what a load of malarky!
The Church, seems to me, is trying to understand the issues but people have grudges against it that they refuse to let go of.Bad therapist? go to another one, bad bishop seek the Stake President. Rather then try to change the Church to fit your idea why don’t we fit ourselves to follow the Saviour? I am not going to be saved by speaking for or against homosexuality but by following and speaking for the Saviour. My 2 cents.
Anyone read the new pamphlet from the Church, titled God Loves All His Children? See here.