These Two Kids Should Be Dating, Instead They're in a Horrifying 'Pray Away the Gay' Video: WATCH
This morning I came across a new web video from 'White Throne Films' which stars Bobby Blakey, "a High School Pastor with a passion to help young people follow Christ with a love for God and his word" and two kids who reveal they thought they were gay but then found God, and apparently Blakey.
Watch their video, AFTER THE JUMP...
Blakey's now using them to spread his damaging message that kids can "pray away the gay".
Asserts Blakey: "If you don't accept homosexuality, you're not in with what's happening today....In high school classrooms homosexuality is being aggressively promoted."
He adds that he's one of those gay-loving Christians: "Fringe groups of Christianity are making us look bad by just bashing these people [homsexuals], going after them in a way that is not with gentleness and respect...Why can't we love the homosexual, and tell them the truth about their sin?"
Then we meet Blakey's underlings, two high school kids who furtively study their Bible together in a neighborhood underpass:
Says Tyler (top photo, right): "I can be made new. I can be washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord. It wasn't a choice for me anymore. I knew that this was what I had to do. I couldn't keep living in my homosexual lifestyle. I had to turn my life around and repent of that sin and be made a new creation."
Tyler found another gay kid at school (top photo, left) and convinced him that praying away the gay was a good idea too.
Says Tyler's recruit: "My conversation with Tyler was very life-changing for me. The next day I went to school after I was saved I noticed all the sinful things that people were doing that I used to do."
Watch their video, AFTER THE JUMP...
The video was shot and produced by self-described "slave of Christ" Luke Melrose who doesn't look much older than the kids in the video.
Blakey's preaching and doing a LIVE event this weekend at the Compass Bible Church website. According to his Twitter he's stoked to be preaching there this weekend.
Tune in. I'm sure it will be fascinating.
In a few years time both of these kids will be in therapy and Blakey in jail for coercion of kids into having sex with him.
Posted by: sylvatica | Oct 21, 2011 10:35:26 AM
To Fenrox:
A sin is an action, a thought, an omission. A sin is not a person. Someone who has committed a sin is not less deserving of love. It is easy to love a sinner. It is easy because you feel that there is a good heart behind that action.
I don't see the association between deeming someone as a sinner and not loving that person.
By the way, gays as Christmas here too...and catholic...
Posted by: ElCid | Oct 21, 2011 10:40:51 AM
I feel sorry for these kids too, though at least this is a better alternative to suicide. I hope it gets better for them.
Posted by: Neil | Oct 21, 2011 10:51:27 AM
"My Friends Tyler and Patrick...." why did he just sound SO creepy saying that - this guy makes me nervous.
P.S. when those two were walking together at the end the were pressing on like a package of Lee's.
Posted by: C.J. | Oct 21, 2011 11:06:26 AM
Sad that this nothing new. But the fact is, THESE are the people who have a causal (NOT casual) link to the suicides of gay kids like this. It's a dangerous formula: if you fill someone's brain with the notion that being gay is evil and will lead to eternal death and then brainwash them into thinking they can change… when they realize they can't change who they are they're left in the most dire situation. Frankly, I think someone, some courageous county prosecutor or district should be making a legal argument that these people are CULPABLE in the suicides of some of these kids. Even in a civil case where the standard is an easier "preponderance of the evidence" (a 51% standard). "Being told you're going to hell if you're gay...then realizing it's not going away no matter how hard you pray? What did you THINK was going to happen, Pastor? Your witness."
Under a legal standard, for example if you are reckless and start firing a gun in the air and a bullet happens to strike someone, you're culpable. How is that much different? Under a reasonable person standard, pumping someone's head full of this poison and lies, it is entirely foreseeable that you're essentially handing them a loaded gun. Put these assholes in front of a civil jury. Eliminate every evangelical christian on the panel for cause. Start shutting down their sham snake oil "churches"
All of this is shielded by religion. It would be an interesting experiment to change the words "gay" or "homosexual" to "black" in any of these pieces. How acceptable would that be? Well that's how everyone …gay AND straight… needs to start treating these people. We need to start demanding that. It's no longer acceptable to even tolerate media giving these criminals equal time.
Posted by: jim morrison | Oct 21, 2011 11:09:59 AM
"And in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
(but a strange fear gripped me and I
just couldn't ask)"
Posted by: tranquilo | Oct 21, 2011 11:13:52 AM
This mess is premised on the assumption that homosexuality (and its acting-out) is sinful. Wrong! Homosexuality doesn't meet Jesus' definition of ALL sin (Matthew 22:36-40) as lack of love. So what is unloving about a homosexual relationship? Who is unloved, hurt and ready to file suit? All other sins (adultery, divorce, theft, lying) have victims.
Posted by: Fred Conwell | Oct 21, 2011 11:25:58 AM
So horribly scripted. I'm pretty sure if you asked the blonde one to explain his experience it probably would've come out as Into The Woods.
Posted by: Mark | Oct 21, 2011 11:35:52 AM
well between the 3 of them - I can predict some HANDS ON HEALING going on.....
Posted by: Gay American | Oct 21, 2011 11:42:43 AM
JIM MORRISON: Excellent points, well-stated. And they are what studies show as the dangers and harm that can be the results of reparative therapy - feeling rejected and a failure; more conflicted and less well-adjusted. Talk about sin!
Posted by: TJ | Oct 21, 2011 11:44:05 AM
@Fred Cromwell
Amen!
Posted by: Rin | Oct 21, 2011 11:44:51 AM
RIN: Always interesting to read your perspectives.
Posted by: TJ | Oct 21, 2011 11:46:03 AM
Tried to rate the video but the option was disabled. Put a comment under it saying that if they were enabled, the number of dislikes would be high.
Wouldn't you know it that I would get a message saying "Comment Approval Pending."
Typical Christian haters. Always trying to change people instead of leaving us alone. I swear, I'm this much closer to becoming anti-theist on their asses.
Posted by: Sam | Oct 21, 2011 11:55:52 AM
Okay, this made me cry. Those poor boys. This is heartbreaking. I know that Jesus would not want them to hate themselves like this.
Posted by: Katie | Oct 21, 2011 12:05:20 PM
Someone should try to get in contact with those boys and tell them what they got themselves into before it's too late.
Posted by: Ezam | Oct 21, 2011 12:10:11 PM
Watching the video, the part that really annoyed me had to be when Bobby talks about being washed clean and made new . Boom. No more problem! Get saved, and see the sin in everyone else, sin you no longer need worry about! So easy! He is so earnest and "gentle," how can you not believe?
Except, it isn't easy. I remember taking that particular cure around the age of 18. For awhile, it seemed to take. But my nature kept leaking out into my consciousness. Praying only helped just so much, and it was always temporary.
Watching Tyler was also disturbing. Watch how he distances himself and blames others, yet can't maintain a steady gaze. The shame and sense of failure he will surely feel when he falls from grace ( likely with his protege) will be great, and so unnecessary.
Posted by: TJ | Oct 21, 2011 12:12:27 PM
Has anyone really stopped and said to these people that gay people really don't give a shite if they believe being gay is a sin????? I mean do I really care that they believe their god says that it's a sin in the bible.... I really don't believe in that god anyway.
Posted by: jeremy | Oct 21, 2011 12:15:34 PM
I couldn't stop laughing long enough to be upset. I mean, c'mon - the overly-pretentious, bombastic narration; the two most super-gay twinkified kids in America ... you'd have a hard time convincing me this isn't a parody.
Posted by: Zlick | Oct 21, 2011 12:22:04 PM
Why isn't there an Exodus International wing to cure bacon lovers of their lust for bacon?
Posted by: sarah | Oct 21, 2011 12:23:33 PM
>"if sin is hurting someone else or yourself"
BS. A sin is a violation of divine law. Nothing else. There are tons of sins in the Bible that harm absolutely no one. Many are arbitrary. Many are thought crimes.
Once you come to the conclusion that there are no gods, the whole concept of sin becomes absurd and meaningless anyways.
It's really nothing but a way to control people. And declaring completely natural and uncontrollable feelings a sin is a perfect way to make sure people come back for the "cure". Knowing that they will sin again and you thus have full control over their minds
Posted by: Steve | Oct 21, 2011 12:23:59 PM
Wait...the blond kid is a chick, right?
Posted by: Walt | Oct 21, 2011 12:28:36 PM
Self hating queers are our absolute worst enemy followed closely by closeted political queers.
Posted by: Polyboy | Oct 21, 2011 12:28:43 PM
@ElCid
Being gay is not an action. All the "hate the sin, love the sinner" nonsense operates from the premise that being gay is a choice and behavior. Instead of an intrinsic part of people's being that you can't just ignore or shut off. It's certainly not possible to love someone, while telling them that a significant part of them is wrong or evil.
"Christian love" is a very twisted concept, not just when it comes to gay people. It's the same sick idea that makes people believe in a loving god that would torture people for eternity
It's sad to see how you have been brainwashed and manipulated by religious charlatans
Posted by: Steve | Oct 21, 2011 12:31:05 PM
There are no gods, of course, so all of this is particularly horrible and pointless. If con men didn't prey on people they've first made ignorant and fearful, tragedies like this wouldn't exist and these boys would just be enjoying their lives instead of hating themselves.
The only good news is that it will be a couple of years -- at most -- before they both wake up out of this trance, begin the process of recovery and hopefully not spend the rest of their lives regretting throwing away some of the best years of their lives.
Posted by: ohplease | Oct 21, 2011 12:32:37 PM
Say what you will...but I think that people should read The Spirit Molecule and talk to people who've had experiences in a Universal consciousness before the dismiss the idea altogether.
Don't allow religions to kill what can be a uniquely divine cosmic experience that brings you closer to other people.
After tripping several times on Shrooms (I don't want to hear its my imagination unless you've done it too) I believe we are all one...that there are no boundaries or limitations to humanity...that when we do wrong it is to experience and learn more...that there is no evil in the end only goodness.
I don't care about sin anymore. I believe it is experimenting in the experiment failing...not some hellish determination. I don't care about earthly hate. I don't fear death. I don't care about gender. I don't care about any of that. I know that there is GOOD and JOY and that someday we will all experience it because we are all one.
I believe in love and that in the final and big universal picture we are all one being that exists on love creativity joy and laughter.
Posted by: Rin | Oct 21, 2011 12:42:43 PM