Arrest Brings Group Back in the Spotlight
By Peter Franceschina
Sun-Sentinel [Florida]
March 12, 2006
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/
sfl-plove12mar12,0,7323092.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
The former Summit Christian School teacher arrested last weekend after admitting having sex with a teen boy was enrolled in a controversial "ex-gay" ministry whose adherents believe people can change their sexual preference through the power of Christ.
Love in Action International in Memphis, Tenn., is the oldest and best known of the ministries that try to counsel people away from homosexuality through spirituality. With a mission at the heart of one of the nation's culture wars, it has been praised by Christian conservatives and criticized by gay-rights advocates since its 1973 inception in California.
The ministry drew scrutiny last summer when a 16-year-old boy complained on his Web site about his parents forcing him into the center. Now, Love in Action is back in the spotlight after the March 3 arrest of former Summit Christian School teacher Chad Stoffel of Palm Springs.
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| Chad Joseph Stoffel |
The "ex-gay" movement is led by Exodus International in Orlando and its some 120 North American affiliates. The ministries promote a hotly disputed concept: that people aren't born homosexual, they're made that way, often by poor parenting or sexual abuse. Since being gay is not innate, proponents say, people can change and have healthy heterosexual relationships.
They are opposed by major health associations and gay-rights advocates, who say so-called "reparative" or "conversion" therapies cause conflict and despair in individuals.
Wade Richards, who became what he called a "poster boy" for the movement after he spent a year and half at Love in Action in the late '90s, finally reconciled himself to the fact that he is gay. He said the program taught him to communicate better with his parents, for which he is grateful, but he thinks it did him more harm than good because he was wracked with guilt and shame.
"It's kind of like an abusive relationship. You have this loving God. It's all based on love, but `if you don't do what I say, you're going to hell,'" he said.
Last summer, a 16-year-old Tennessee boy, Zach, told his conservative parents he was gay, according to his Web postings. They told him he would be going to Love in Action. Zach's posts about the situation to his Web log garnered national media attention and sparked gay-rights protests outside Love in Action.
"It's like boot camp," Zach wrote in his blog. "If I do come out straight, I'll be so mentally unstable and depressed it won't matter."
Stoffel, 29, a popular teacher and coach at Summit Christian School for more than five years, resigned in December, according to school officials.
It's not clear when Stoffel went to Love in Action, but on Feb. 1 a counselor there called a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detective and told him Stoffel had confessed to molesting "numerous" boys in South Florida, according to Stoffel's arrest report. Stoffel also had reported himself to Florida's child-abuse hotline.
Stoffel is charged with four counts of sexual activity with a minor and four counts of battery on a child relating to a 16-year-old student from Wellington Christian School.
Sheriff's detectives are investigating Stoffel's admission that he had sex with one of his students, starting when the boy was 14, the arrest report says.
Gerard Wellman, the business administrator and a spokesman for Love in Action, said he couldn't confirm Stoffel was at the facility. He said the ministry reports illegal activity when it becomes known.
"We are bound by Tennessee state law to notify the appropriate authorities, and we abide by that policy without question," he said.
Wellman, like some other employees, is a graduate of the ministry's programs. "We don't think the words `homosexual' or `heterosexual' describe a person, they describe a behavior," he said. "What we strive to do is align their behavior with their beliefs by strengthening their faith in Christ."
He said it doesn't matter whether homosexuality is genetic or learned.
"We are responsible for what we do. We have no control over our temptations and urges. That is something we cannot control, but they can control what they do with that behavior," he said.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness, and the American Psychological Association says on its Web site, "The reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable."
Earlier this month, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute issued a lengthy report called Youth in the Crosshairs, critical of the ministries for targeting parents and youth.
Exodus International President Alan Chambers issued a statement saying, "Our organization hears from thousands of teens and young adults each year who are desperate for information and resources beyond the one-sided `born-gay' message that saturates our culture... We are deeply concerned about these young men and women because so many of us, as former homosexuals, wish we had been aware of the emotional and physical devastation often found in gay life."
The debate arrives in Fort Lauderdale on May 6. Coral Ridge Ministries, led by the Rev. D. James Kennedy, is hosting Focus on the Family's touring "Love Won Out" conference, billed as "A dynamic one-day conference addressing, understanding and preventing homosexuality." Speakers include leaders from Focus on the Family and Exodus International. Gay-rights advocates are holding a counter-rally, "Love Welcomes All," at First Congregational Church of Fort Lauderdale. One speaker will be Wayne Besen, author of Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.
Besen is among those who say the programs set people up for failure down the road.
"What should be the most beautiful thing in your life, sexual attraction and love, is turned into one of the most horrible, hated things," he said. "This is something that tears your heart apart and creates tragedies, everything from addictions to suicide."
Peterson Toscano, who puts on a one-man play about his experience in the ministries called Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House, also went through Love in Action. "Not knowing how psychology works, they are creating a great lot of turmoil for people," he said.
Peter Franceschina can be reached at pfranceschina@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5503.
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