Ex-Gay Watch

Ex-Gay Watch reported on Matthew C. Manning’s troubling criminal record in June, 2009.  Manning claims to have been “delivered from homosexuality in 1989 and miraculously healed from HIV/AIDS in 1994.”  He has claimed that this enabled him to help people wishing to be “delivered from homosexuality.”  Readers unfamiliar with Manning are invited to read our previous post for background.

What’s happened since last June

The day after last year’s post, Manning filed to expunge the conviction from 2005 per California penal code 1203.4.  It appears to have been granted on August 10, 2009.  This is something we contemplated in the original article — California law provides for this in some cases if the defendant follows all court imposed conditions. These are listed in our post from that time.  A reading of the statute indicates that the expungement has limits, especially if one is found guilty of another crime in the future.

It also seems he either tried to, or did sell his house in Santa Rosa.  We don’t currently have the records to know under what circumstances this was done.  His new ministry address is a UPS private mail box in San Francisco.

All references we could find indicate that his house was his main ministry location.  Aside from a period during which a local church allowed him to use a room at off hours for meetings, his home is the only thing we could find.  Copies of the ministry 990s bear this out with no payments to any property or office outside the home.  There are expenses claimed for a “ministry house” which we assume to be a reference to his home (or former home) in Santa Rosa.

There is also no mention of a board of directors, in spite of the fact that posts appear on Manning’s blog claiming to be from them, discussing Manning’s activities, claiming to give their blessings to this or that move, etc.  These posts follow Manning’s grammar and writing style closely.  It is our considered opinion that Manning is the sole “director” of Light House World Evangelism, Inc.  He is listed as president on the 990s, with his wife as secretary.

Today

Late last week a post appeared on the LHWE blog titled “Final Online Words, From the President Of LightHouse World Evangelism, Inc.”  In it, Manning claims to have had a revelation from God during the Winter Olympics, one that would have him close his ministry.

During the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, the torch was extinguished, and the flame was symbolically given to the next host country.  At the very moment the flame was extinguished in Canada, God said to me, “The “Flame” the “Anointing” the “Presence and Power of My Holy Spirit,” will no longer reside over LightHouse World Evangelism, Inc., rather it is being transferred to a new ministry that I am calling you and your family to.”

There is no indication in the post as to what this new ministry might be.  Contrary to Manning’s claims in earlier posts, the 990s don’t indicate a growing, thriving ministry.  Most years, up to the last record currently available, show an irregular pattern of total intake ranging from $25K to $39K but with no clear trend.  After expenses, this figure is reduced to anywhere from approx $5K to $12K for the last three years on record.  And the expenses are rather mundane for the most part, with very little to indicate much ministry activity in the traditional sense.

Referencing our earlier post for the first time, Manning protests:

What has been so amazing and somewhat comical, is that these organizations wanted to make such a big deal of one arrest that occurred 12 years ago and was dismissed.  A second arrest that occurred 10 years ago where I was found not guilty within 20 minutes of deliberation by a Jury who listened to all the facts and carefully made their decision.  And finally, the posting of trial transcripts and arrest documents of the most recent case that occurred 5 years ago.

What we find most striking here is that Manning seems to imply that it is nothing out of the ordinary about a minister being arrested three times over 12 years, all with the same type of charges each incrementally more serious than the previous.  If the reader hasn’t already done so, please review the details of these charges in our original post.

In their reporting on this case, they did not come first to us for any statements, but rather assumed their “sources” were right, and made it sound like I actually was found guilty of doing some horrible act.

The statement that we did not come to Manning  before posting is simply false.  An email was sent to his ministry contact address in the very early stages of our investigation.  Then another email was sent and voice mail left a couple of days before posting.  In that email some specifics were given and again, we asked to speak with him about the details of the story.  One last email was sent after the story was posted.  Manning has never replied to a contact from XGW, nor has anyone else from LHWE.  However his application to have his record expunged barely a day after our post seems to indicate that he probably did get our messages.

Our sources were carefully and painstakingly checked, and ultimately everything in our original post was sourced through official public and court documents (which we provided along with the post).  We checked newspaper archives, contacted San Quentin State Prison,  the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (to understand how an HIV/AIDS service member would have been dealt with pre-DADT), performed Lexus/Nexus searches, State and Federal case searches, located and contacted the victim in the 2005 incident, and we spoke to various people who have at one time or another had contact with Manning.  The information in our previous post was extremely well sourced and triple-checked.  Manning’s accusations here are a non-starter.

The fact is, all of you, partners, were provided a court document by me and our organization, that showed that the previous ruling regarding this arrest was set aside, a plea of not guilty was entered by me, and the case was then dismissed and expunged from my official record.

First we suggest readers take Manning’s comments to “ministry partners” with a grain of salt.  So much of his blog posts consist of grandiose posturing that we have to consider that he may be playing a bit of a game to appear more involved, more responsible or more successful than he really is.

That said, his reference here is to the expungement of his record that we mentioned earlier.  However, he implies that this was something we should have found in our records search, when in fact it did not happen until after we posted the information.  It would have been impossible for us to get those records had they already been expunged — that’s the point.  Statements like this hardly indicate a man who has submitted himself to any accountability as he claims.

Reflections and future reporting

While we have observed Manning’s blog over the past nine months or so, he seemed often to be speaking directly to someone, not a general group.  There never was any discussion there, just one long monologue with bouts of cryptic, personal rhetoric. This writer has come to believe that the intended recipient of those oddly personal, emotionally charged posts might well be a mother who appeared on the web with her own blog around the time of our first post. We encourage you to read her heart wrenching story, one which could very well be the other shoe dropping in all of this.

In the end there is no way to know for sure if all this might simply be part of a change of identity.  Our post from last year was picked up by a lot of media and anyone should easily be able to find the facts concerning Manning with a basic Google search.  His full name is Matthew Courtney Manning, so might we see a Courtney Manning in the future?

There is always the possibility that, with a couple of degrees from The Kings College, a church somewhere may hire Manning — time will tell.  We only suggest, and strongly so, that if anyone has dealings with this man, make certain you know ahead of time exactly who you are dealing with.

Supporting Documents

Tax Year 2006

Tax Year 2007

Tax Year 2008

It seems that Exodus VP Randy Thomas is no fan of the recent resolution brought to a vote at Disney by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX).

The language PFOX uses is confusing. It appears they are doing a “find and replace” word processing function on their organizational messaging.  They are copying gay activist talking points and replacing every instance of “gay” with “ex-gay.”

Confounding rational minds everywhere, PFOX increasingly refers to ex-gay as a separate and unique sexual orientation.  If that seems like loopy logic, there appears to be a method to their madness as XGW contributor Dave Rattigan recently illustrated.

While Thomas seems to get the absurdity of PFOX’s argument, we would have preferred his message didn’t also include a backhanded jab to gays and lesbians.

We don’t move beyond gay ideology and identity to become an ex-gay member of an ex-gay community in need of the government (in America … as of right now) or a private corporation (like Disney) to protect us as such.  We are Christians … nothing more or less. Please don’t fight for special rights based on yet another false victim class.

We are Christians, not terminally unique “ex-gays.”  Let’s work toward the edification of the Body of Christ, not public or private policy to make us feel affirmed as yet another GLBTQExYZ protected class.

We would like to remind Thomas that we work for equality, not to become a “false victim class” or to obtain “special rights.”  And people of faith have been a “protected class” for decades.  These are all catch-phrases from anti-gay campaign rhetoric.  It’s good to know that he can see the folly in what PFOX proposes, but perhaps he could have found a way to say so without insulting many of the people he claims to care so much about.

PFOX was an Exodus member until last year.  The circumstances of that separation are not clear.

PFOX’s attempt to make the Walt Disney Company include ex-gays in its anti-discrimination policy is not about sexual orientation – it is about ideology.

If it were about sexual orientation, PFOX would have to concede that ex-gays are already protected. Are ex-gays same-sex attracted? Then they are homosexual, and are therefore protected. Have they overcome same-sex attractions to become opposite-sex attracted? Then they are heterosexual, and are therefore protected. Do they now have heterosexual relationships? Marriages? Then they have the same rights as every other person in a heterosexual relationship or marriage. Do they have no sexual relationships at all? Then they have the same rights as every other celibate person.

What unique attraction or relationship is the ex-gay trying to protect by insisting he be included in a sexual orientation policy?

The fiercely anti-gay PFOX complains thus:

Disney’s exclusion of ex-gays from its sexual orientation policy and programs reinforces the second-class status of ex-gays, and contributes to the negative perceptions and discrimination against former homosexuals.  Disney’s exclusion also disregards diversity and the basic human right to dignity and self-determination.  Adding ex-gays to Disney’s sexual orientation policy and programs, which already include gays and bisexuals, will increase diversity, assure equality in the workplace, and be inexpensive for the Company to implement.

PFOX claims that ex-gays are victims of intolerance, discrimination, unfair treatment and hostility. It even claims to have “documented numerous incidents of intolerance against the ex-gay community.” But it is blind at best, disingenuous at worst to say that hostility or intolerance towards ex-gays is due to their sexual orientation. It is about ideology. In the public square, the ex-gay message is rarely heard without accompanying slander of gays and their relationships. If indeed this is a sexual orientation, it is a tragedy – not to mention an anomaly – that it is an orientation defined overwhelmingly by hatred of and opposition to another sexual orientation.

As a gay man, I am oriented primarily towards other men. My sexuality has nothing to do with opposing other people’s sexuality. I do not need to destroy heterosexuality to be able to love someone of my own gender. I do not need to slander straight people in order to affirm my own orientation.

Yet this novel ex-gay “orientation” proposed by PFOX rarely exists without setting itself explicitly in opposition to the lives, loves and relationship of gay men and women.

It is obvious that PFOX’s bid for protection is about the ex-gay ideology, not an orientation. With so little substance, this campaign is little more than a transparent ploy for publicity for a dying and increasingly desperate ex-gay movement.

-Actor Sean Hayes comes the rest of the way out of the closet.

-Fred Karger writes an open letter to Maggie Gallagher.

-California State Senator Roy Ashburn admits to being gay.

-The city of Kissimmee, FL extends partner benefits to LGBT city employees.

-Servicemembers United scrutinizes Elaine Donnelly’s list of 1,100 officers who allegedly oppose repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-A Saudi Arabian man is severely punished for appearing in an amateur gay video.

-Rev. Mary Glasspool moves one step closer to becoming the Episcopal Church’s second openly gay bishop.

-The Oklahoma state senate votes to exempt the state from federal hate crimes laws.

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks out against the most recent wave of anti-gay activity in Africa.

-The US State Department highlights Uganda in its annual human rights report.

If only grown-ups could learn from this child’s easy-going acceptance of others:

Click here to view the embedded video.

-John Shore ponders what Jesus might do if invited to a gay wedding.

-The mayor of Turin, Italy performs a wedding ceremony for a lesbian couple.

-Andrews Air Force Base disinvites Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council from a speaking engagement.

-Catholic Charities ends spousal benefits for its employees in Washington DC so that it won’t have to offer them to same-sex couples.

-The LGBT Center at UC Davis resolves to leave recent anti-gay graffiti in place as a reminder that intolerance still exists.

-Washington, DC begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

-Free Republic provides Paul Cameron with a platform to disseminate his latest “research.”

-The UK’s House of Lords votes to lift a ban that prevented churches from performing wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

-Yet another anti-gay politician is outed in a scandal.

-Same-sex couples can now marry in Mexico City.

-A gay prostitution scandal unfolds in the Vatican.

-Slovenia becomes the latest country to consider legalizing same-sex marriage.

-Senator John Kerry calls for an end to the ban on blood donations from gay men.

The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has officially responded to Ex-Gay Watch on the matter of Arthur Abba Goldberg, the former NARTH Executive Secretary.

Goldberg, who is co-founder and co-director of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH), was revealed last month to have been jailed and fined in 1989 for his part in a multimillion-dollar business fraud.

Goldberg responded to the reports by shifting the blame, and was duly followed by NARTH President Julie Harren-Hamilton, who attacked the gay media and bloggers for exposing Goldberg’s criminal past.

Last week, XGW reported that Goldberg was no longer listed as Executive Secretary of NARTH. Now NARTH Vice-President of Operations David C Pruden has spoken on the record about the situation.

In a statement made to XGW, Pruden revealed that NARTH knew nothing of Arthur Abba Goldberg’s conviction for felony prior to last month’s investigative report. He also confirmed that Goldberg had resigned from the board of NARTH. The full statement reads:

In the past two weeks incidents that took place more than twenty years ago in the career and life of Arthur Goldberg first came to our attention. He has never taken the members of the NARTH Board into his confidence concerning these events and this information came as a complete shock to NARTH members and to our organization.

After years of dedicated service to NARTH Mr. Goldberg has announced his resignation from his NARTH Board position. With his resignation this now becomes a personal matter and all future questions or concerns should be directed to Mr. Goldberg. He has assured us that he plans to make a public statement on his own web site and since none of the issues concerning his past were in any way associated with NARTH, and in fact preceeded the founding of NARTH,  we would feel it inappropriate to make further comments. We wish for Arthur and his family the very best at this difficult time.

This confirms what seemed evident all along: Arthur Abba Goldberg deliberately concealed his criminal past.

Despite the statement that this is now a “personal matter” for Arthur Goldberg, however, NARTH still has some questions of its own to answer. The overwhelming question is how Goldberg was able to such an entrusted position at NARTH without disclosing his conviction for fraud. Does NARTH not have safeguards in place? Does NARTH not require such disclosures? As a professional organization, does it not independently confirm these things before appointing someone to such a position?

Even if no such disclosure is required (which would be remarkable), how is it that Goldberg’s criminal history went undetected, when even before last month’s exposé a simple Google search for “Arthur Abba Goldberg” would have immediately turned up dozens of official documents and newspaper reports from the time of his conviction? Pruden earlier told us that it was common knowledge at NARTH that Goldberg’s middle name was Abba – yet no one seems to have made the connection.

Goldberg may still have a lot to explain – but NARTH must also explain what appears to be astonishing negligence.

John Smid was the director of Exodus member ministry Love in Action (LIA), a residential ex-gay program in Memphis, Tennessee, for 22 years.  This included the Refuge youth program which gained notoriety in 2005 when a teen, Zach Stark, created what became a plea for help on his MySpace page.

This event and the protests that followed were a significant turning point in the effort to shine a light on the actions of such ministries.  But we should not forget that most of those who would later recognize harm from their time at LIA had already been through the program by the time the events of 2005 unfolded.

In 2007, three former Exodus leaders offered a public apology to those “who believed our message that there is something inherently wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.”  Today we find that Smid is offering his own apology.

Some people have spoken out about being wounded through their experience with Love In Action. ” I want to say I am very sorry for the things that have wounded you or hurt you by my hands of leadership at Love In Action or anything I have done personally that has harmed you. Please forgive me.

Concerning Exodus International he writes:

I believe I could have done a better job of letting people know that Jesus loves them purely because He does, unconditionally. I am sorry for not being a better vessel of the Love of Christ to those who deeply need to know of His love. I realize I was often more concerned with telling people how to live than I was with imparting God’s grace so that they would want to live!

Concerning the Refuge program responsible for the ordeal over Zach:

I really wanted to help the young men in our program but in some cases the design of our program caused more harm for some of these kids that it did good. I am very sorry for the ways that Refuge further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life.

And Smid asks those who were hurt by or through him to contact him.

If you have been wounded by me or harmed through the hands of my leadership; please come to me and allow an opportunity for me to personally apologize with the hope that we can both be released from the bondage of unforgiveness.

These are just snippets and the entire thing should be read in order to properly evaluate a response, should you have one.  There is also a section addressed directly to Ex-Gay Watch readers.  Obviously, those who have been hurt through LIA will be most interested in what Smid has to say, but there can be no doubt that it is important.

Readers will have to determine for themselves what this means exactly.  Smid is involved in a new ministry, one he says will have no part of the old “change is possible” mission.  While his goals seem similar at this point to those of Andrew Marin, the latter does not have the baggage of the former.  But making such a public apology would seem an important start.

One more piece of the puzzle is illustrated by the short video below from Smid’s website.  It was produced by Morgan Fox, organizer of the Zach Stark protests.  Fox also appears in the clip, apparently at a place of reconciliation with Smid.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you think?

Warren Throckmorton gets to the heart of Sodom and Gomorrah in his latest blog post:

The real sodomite is the arrogant person, the overfed and apathetic person who ignores the poor and others in need. The sexual sins of Sodom are second rate compared to the sins of pride and greed. Ban Sodomy, anyone?

Sodomy, viewed from God’s perspective, is practically the American way. I guess we have been exporting sodomy to Uganda.

You might think Throckmorton is getting liberal. In fact, he is merely being consistent with Scripture (Ezekiel 16:49-50):

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.

Throckmorton suggests conservative Christians should direct their (considerable) anger towards greed, selfishness and indifference, instead of the gays:

The sins of Sodom mark the American church in ways that are very uncomfortable to confront. Defined biblically, I hope we can unite against sodomy. Defined biblically, we have all been sodomites, have we not?

We agree.

Arthur Abba Goldberg is no longer listed as a NARTH officer on the organization’s website.

There is no indication whether Goldberg resigned or was forced to leave. Either seems likely after last month’s revelation that the champion of reparative therapy and co-director of Jewish ex-gay ministry JONAH was a convicted felon. In 1989, Arthur Abba Goldberg was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment and fined $100,000 for his part in a mail fraud scam.

He appears to have deliberately concealed his identity since becoming a leader in the ex-gay movement, and when his past finally caught up with him, he tried to blame everyone but himself for his predicament.

NARTH President Julie Harren-Hamilton (who confusingly appears as both Julie Harren and Julie Hamilton on the NARTH website) gave a weak defense of NARTH and its officers following February’s reports, but without naming Goldberg.

Update: 03/03/10: NARTH’s Vice-President of Operations, David Pruden, has confirmed that Arthur Abba Goldberg is no longer a board member of NARTH.

(Pure Passion, February 22, 2010)

Jayson Graves is a board member of Exodus International who co-hosts a TV show called “Pure Passion.” A show that highlights those who’ve overcome “sexual bondage.”

Unless you’re a “practicing” gay, of course, then you get AIDS and die. Not because of a virus, mind you, but because of your “sinful behavior.” At least according to this Christian program.

Jayson Graves (intro): Welcome to Pure Passion. My name is Jayson Graves and I’m your host for today’s program.

Did you know that the US Center for Disease Control has a fact sheet they’ve issued, which says that in 2006, 54% of HIV infections among males age 13-29, were caused by homosexual contact. As well, that demographic is the only one that is seeing an increased rate of HIV infection in this country. Sadly, there were over 56,000 people in the US who were newly infected with HIV that same year, most of them being homosexual men.

The CDC fact sheet went on to say that 77% of HIV positive homosexual men, between the ages of 15 and 29, do not know they’ve been infected.

Another study shows that HIV positive, practicing homosexual men, are 9000% more likely to develop anal cancer.

Even in Canada, the HIV / AIDS rates have risen sharply, 51% of infections are now found among homosexual men.

On today’s program, we’re going to talk with a man who has AIDS. These are always sobering stories, but it’s important that we become informed on the subject.

So let’s hear Dan’s testimony, and let it be a witness not only to the consequences of sinful behavior, but, also to the power and love of God, to cleanse us, and forgive us, from all unrighteousness.

Even on the Exodus website: “In brief, AIDS is better seen as a reaping of consequences than as God’s wrath on a specific group.”

Exodus then leaves it up to the reader to decide whether or not AIDS is God’s punishment.
–
Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin crunched some numbers and estimates that there is a “5.9% incidence of gay people (men and women) who are living with HIV/AIDS”
–
Instead of expressing any desire to help find a cure for the disease, as Christians, Exodus exploits the 6% of us who are suffering and dying, to suggest to their audience that gay people are warehouses of infectious disease.

-The Alliance Defense Fund goes even further off the deep end.

-Sen. Joseph Lieberman becomes chief sponsor of the effort to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-A West Virginia couple is denied an apartment on the basis of their sexual orientation.

-The Minnesota House holds hearings on a trio of marriage equality bills.

-Bruce Carroll of GOProud argues that the recent CPAC conference was a watershed event for modern conservatism.

-College wrestling star Hudson Taylor speaks out for LGBT rights.

-The West Virginia House shoots down a Republican effort to force a vote on a same-sex marriage ban.

-Media Matters debunks the myths surrounding Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler rules that the state will begin recognizing out-of-state same-sex marriages.

-The National Organization for Marriage latches onto another anti-gay beauty pageant contestant.

-Hockey legend Brian Burke becomes a gay rights activist to honor the memory of his son, Brendan.

-The California legislature to review an outdated law that mandated research into a ‘cure’ for homosexuality.

-Religious right leaders expand their anti-gay crusade to Mexico City.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An interesting report featured last night on ABC Australia’s Hungry Beast.  The ex-gay featured could be a spokesperson for Exodus International, he is that spot on.   It’s also interesting that one of the gay men describes having been introduced to gay clubs through an affair with this team leader in an ex-gay program.  This tracks with a statement by Peterson Toscano (if anyone remembers that, please post in the comments).

Hat Tip: Anthony-Venn Brown

Ex-lesbian Lisa Miller has been on the run from the law with her daughter Isabella since her refusal to show up in court on January 1st, where she was to relinquish custody to her former partner, Janet Jenkins. Their whereabouts are still unknown, and organizations who once led the cheers for her illegal actions went silent. Still, despite her actions, Miller was not immediately found to be in contempt of court. That changed today.

A Vermont judge has ordered the arrest of a woman who has refused to turn over her 7-year-old daughter to her former lesbian partner.

Family Court Judge William Cohen found Lisa Miller of Forest, Va., in contempt of court during a hearing Tuesday and issued the arrest warrant.

Miller was ordered to surrender custody of her daughter on Jan. 1 but failed to do so and has since disappeared. Their daughter is now considered a missing person.

Jenkins has asked the public to please help her find her missing daughter.

Anyone with information regarding Isabella’s and Lisa’s whereabouts should call the Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 or the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office at 540-586-4800.

NARTH President Julie Hamilton has responded to this week’s report that NARTH Executive Secretary and JONAH co-founder and co-director Arthur Abba Goldberg is a convicted felon.

On the NARTH website, Hamilton makes a number of assumptions and seems blind to the actual issues raised. She says that activists, “unable to silence NARTH’s message, resort to attacking NARTH’s members.”

I can only speak for Ex-Gay Watch, but when the story broke, it never occurred to me that Goldberg’s exposure was ipso facto a way to discredit NARTH as a whole. It discredited Goldberg, certainly, and by extension JONAH. It is primarily NARTH’s own response that will reflect on the organization – though admittedly, the omens in Hamilton’s article are not good.

Goldberg exposé part of coordinated strategy against NARTH?

Hamilton ties in the Goldberg story with a protest staged against NARTH in Florida last November:

[A] journalism student leading the November protest shouted into a megaphone that they had been unsuccessful in stopping the work of NARTH through counter conventions, so they would instead begin to target the individual members of NARTH. Following these threats, there have indeed been attempts to discredit both NARTH members as well as non-members who do similar work.

Again, I speak only for XGW in saying that we know nothing of the group shown in the video, or the identity of the media student speaking through the megaphone. TWO organized speaking and protesting events at the same conference, but XGW is not aware of a connection to the group in the video.

NARTH members being targeted?

Hamilton continues:

In one recent report from England, a journalist posed as a client seeking help for unwanted homosexual attractions. He set up two unsuspecting therapists, claiming to want help from them, secretly recorded their conversations, and then contacted their professional organizations to seek action against them. That same journalist is reportedly assisting others to disrupt and discredit an event in Ireland this week.

She is referring to Patrick Strudwick’s report in The Independent earlier this month. During his investigation, Strudwick encountered prominent reparative therapist and NARTH representative (as well as disciple of Richard Cohen) Paul Miller, who encouraged sexual arousal as part of therapy sessions, and made inappropriate self-disclosures about his own sexual habits and homosexual attractions. The NARTH President’s response is to blame Strudwick for his tactics, while saying nothing of the behavior of its own members.

Hamilton then turns to the Goldberg story:

In another report, activist groups investigated the background of a NARTH board member in order to publicize his past wrongdoing in an attempt to discredit the organization.

XGW repeats: The report discredits Arthur Abba Goldberg in the first instance, not NARTH. It is this weak, defensive and myopic response that reflects badly on NARTH itself.

“It doesn’t discredit the science”: NARTH misses the point

NARTH does not rise or fall based on the actions of individuals. NARTH is a scientific organization upholding the research behind the issue of homosexuality and defending the rights of clients to seek therapy for unwanted homosexual attractions. NARTH is not responsible for the actions of its members, nor do the actions of NARTH members change the scientific data. The research stands regardless of the attacks launched by activists who are avoiding the data by focusing on individuals. Emotionally based campaigns and character assassinations do not change the research, nor do they diminish the right of clients to pursue their personal goals. NARTH will continue its mission as a scientific organization despite the propaganda, and the research will continue to speak for itself.

Who said this was about the scientific research? XGW and others have worked tirelessly to present plenty of evidence against the supposedly scientific claims of NARTH and reparative therapy over the years. This is about the trustworthiness and character of an important leader in the ex-gay movement. It is about the integrity of a man whom struggling gays and lesbians have trusted with deepest aspects of their lives and sexuality. Call it a “character assassination,” a “personal attack,” or what you will, but does NARTH really believe that character, integrity and trustworthiness is not vital to leaders who set themselves up as moral, religious and scientific authorities?

It should be noted that Hamilton cleverly hedges her bets.  In the first paragraph, she dismisses the claims against Goldberg, implicitly defending him. In the second she ensures that NARTH’s back is covered if it all blows up for Goldberg: Nothing to do with us. We’re not responsible for him, and we don’t stand or fall on the behavior of a handful of our members.

Well, no one to my knowledge claimed NARTH stood or fell on Goldberg alone. This response does say a lot about the organization.

She ends (not in the web version, but in a separate email version) by giving some PR ideas to NARTH members. She tells them:

Try using case studies, success stories, testimonials or examples of how others used your product or service successfully. Solicit material from clients and vendors, or ask your readers to write. It’s a win-win! You get relevant content, and they get exposure.

Insert a “read on” link at the bottom of your article to drive traffic to your website. Links are tracked, allowing you to see which articles create the most interest for your readers.

This slick advice for damage-limitation is a rather cynical addition to the published version of the article.

So, what would the proper response be from NARTH? There are questions to be answered:

• Prior to this week, was NARTH aware of Arthur Abba Goldberg’s status as a convicted felon and a disbarred attorney?
• If so, what bearing did Goldberg’s conviction for fraud and disbarment (on grounds of character) have on his position as Executive Secretary of NARTH?
• If not, does NARTH’s policy not require such disclosures from its senior officers?
• If Goldberg did not disclose his criminal past, what action is it taking now, in light of the reports?
• Since Patrick Strudwick’s investigative report involving a NARTH representative in the UK was also mentioned, is NARTH taking any action to address the allegations made? Does it believe Paul Miller’s alleged behavior is ethical?

Instead of blaming the LGBT community, as Goldberg has tried to do, the appropriate response is for NARTH to ask some serious questions of Arthur Abba Goldberg – and itself.

Campaigners in Northern Ireland today are protesting a visit from American ex-gay leader Reverend Mario Bergner.

The protest is led by journalist Patrick Strudwick, who earlier this month wrote an exposé of the “bizarre world of gay-straight conversion” for The Independent (London). He followed it up with a strong article in The Guardian (London) calling for an all-out “war” on reparative therapy, and announcing the formation of the Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce (SCOTT).

Of this weekend’s campaign, Strudwick told The Independent:

Love needs no cure. We want to remind the young people in the conference in the midst of so-called treatment that they are healthy, normal, valuable people; they are perfect how they are; they don’t need to try to change something unchangeable and they can be happy being who they really are.

Anglican priest Bergner, of Redeemed Lives, is speaking as part of a conference organized by CORE Issues at Ballynahinch Baptist Church, near Belfast. His most controversial claim is that as a gay man he was healed of the “symptoms” of AIDS through an encounter with Jesus Christ in a hospital room.

-Former vice president Dick Cheney joins the call for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

-Anti-gay mobs march in Kenya; police continue to hunt down gay activists in Malawi.

-Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell strips LGBT state employees of anti-discrimination protection.

-Southern African Anglican bishops denounce Uganda’s proposed anti-gay law.

-The city of Charleston, SC to host its first gay pride event.

-The New Hampshire House kills an attempt to repeal the state’s marriage equality law.

-The Archdiocese of Washington DC terminates its foster-care program in reaction to the city’s new marriage equality law.

-Grinnell College in Iowa installs an openly gay president.

-Another religious right activist endorses the death penalty for homosexuals.

-A federal appeals court orders the state of Louisiana to list the names of both members of a gay couple on an adopted child’s birth certificate.

-The Alliance Defense Fund claims that repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would constitute an establishment of religion under the First Amendment.

Arthur Goldberg’s damage-control campaign has begun. His strategy is to portray himself as an innocent man who made a mistake, and is now the victim of a ruthless personal attack by the purveyors of the much-feared gay agenda.

Arthur A Goldberg, Executive Secretary of NARTH and a co-founder and co-director of Jewish ex-gay group JONAH, was exposed earlier this week as convicted felon Arthur Abba Goldberg, the Wall Street investor fined $100,000 and sentenced to 18 months in 1989 on three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States of America.

Goldberg has yet to respond publicly to the reports. He appears, however, to have written to his fellow board members at NARTH, in a letter obtained by Ex-Gay Watch.

Goldberg: Allegations exaggerated, false, malicious

Goldberg begins by describing the charges made against him by the Truth Wins Out/South Florida Gay News investigation as “exaggerated and in many parts false and malicious.” He then says he will explain what happened “so that all of you may have some idea of what was involved.”

This suggests that he had not disclosed his criminal past to NARTH. This is further supported by XGW’s conversation with David Pruden, NARTH’s Vice President of Operations. While freely identifying Goldberg as Arthur Abba Goldberg, Pruden denied knowing anything of the charges made in Monday’s article.

This is very concerning. Who neglects to disclose criminal convictions – especially a felony of this nature – to organizations for which they work, unless quite deliberately? Most companies, organizations and workplaces require their employees and officers to disclose such matters, not least because it could open an organization like NARTH to liabilities of its own. The protocol applies even more so when an organization is professional, pastoral, financial or charitable in nature. Yet the evidence so far suggests Goldberg said nothing.

In explaining what went on in the 1980s, Goldberg contradicts himself. After minimizing his fraudulent activity to the status of a mistake, rather than a moral failing, he says both that he accepted full responsibility for his actions, and that he fought for years against the charges before running out of resources:

During the 1980’s, my firm and many others attempted to “grandfather” several bond issues of our clients in order to beat the deadline of the 1986 federal tax law changes. These deal structures were challenged and ultimately 2 separate criminal legal actions were filed against me. After fighting for several years and running out of resources, I determined it was in the best interests of my family, myself, and my firm that I plead guilty to the minor counts of the indictment. In both actions, the guilty plea involved a finding that no intentional fraud took place. Rather the conduct for which I fully accepted punishment involved conduct that would be sufficient to constitute fraud under the relevant statutes – even though non-intentional. In fact, one of the pre-sentencing reports specifically found that no one involved in the transactions in question lost any money whatsoever on the transactions and that I did not receive personal enrichment from the transactions. Nevertheless, I accepted full responsibility for my negligent actions.

According to this account, he pleaded guilty as a concession because it was in his own best interests, as well as the best interest of his family and the company. Yet he claims he accepted full responsibility. Which is it, Arthur?

Goldberg wants to have it both ways. He holds his hands up to accept the blame, while suggesting it was only technically fraud, not morally. This is doublespeak. And it is contradicted by the reports we have from the time.

Goldberg versus the Judge

Judge Curtis, on sentencing Goldberg to 18 months imprisonment in the State of Illinois, said:

Arthur Abba Goldberg, you have openly conspired against the United States by knowingly and recklessly engaging indifferently in a series of dishonest acts of considerable magnitude.

Goldberg versus the Prosecuting Attorney

William K O’Connor, prosecuting attorney on behalf of the US in the California trial was blunt in his assessment of Goldberg’s crime. From this week’s report:

[O’Connor] described Goldberg as having engineered “a conspiratorial fraud of spectacular scope,” which purposefully duped “unsophisticated Pacific Islanders.” One witness against Goldberg said he treated the citizens of Guam as if “they were cannibals.”

O’Connor said that Goldberg’s deceitfulness crippled Guam’s economy, crushed investors, undermined public confidence in the bond industry, and cost the U.S. Treasury millions in lost taxes.

Goldberg versus the Supreme Court of New Jersey

Goldberg was a practicing lawyer in the State of New Jersey. A unanimous decision to disbar him as an attorney was made in 1995:

Goldberg’s criminal convictions clearly and convincingly demonstrated his participation in activities that reflected adversely on his honesty, trustworthiness, and fitness as a lawyer.

As recently as 2007, Goldberg was trading on his history of practicing law in New Jersey to bolster his credentials as an authority on gay issues.

Goldberg: They’re all wrong

Essentially, Goldberg asks his fellow NARTH board members to take his word over the word of the attorney who successfully prosecuted him for fraud, the judge who found him guilty, and the court that disbarred him from practicing law in New Jersey.

It’s the gays’ fault

Goldberg pays lip service to accepting responsibility for his felonies, but at the same time he does everything he can to convince NARTH that he only pleaded guilty as a last resort to protect himself and his family. In Goldberg’s account, he was technically guilty of breaking a few statutes, but it was a misjudgment, not a moral failure.

He does go to great lengths to pin responsibility on homosexuals, however. His proven past crimes, which so far we have every reason to believe have been deliberately kept out of the public eye, are not to blame for the spotlight on him now, according to Goldberg. To demonstrate this, he resurrects the familiar myth that his gay critics are simply following the gay agenda set out by Kirk and Madsen in 1989:

Of course, the strategy employed by those who wish to dig around for dirt in someone’s past, in this case for incidents that occurred in 1986, or about 25 years ago, is totally consistent with the Kirk and Madsen thesis which is set forth in “After the Ball.” Remember point 8 in their game plan–”make opponents look bad: portray them as evil and victimizing.” They stated in the book that those perceived as opponents of the gay movement were to be attacked and vilified. This was to be the final step in the media campaign Kirk and Madsen so carefully laid out to establish “gay rights.” So, if you are able to do a character assassination of the proponents, so goes the theory, then you can kill the message they represent. However, I would hope that rational people would not succumb to such demagoguery. I also believe that bitter personal attacks are often the last refuge of those who fear the truth and are not able to discuss the merits of an issue. In truth, I believe that our message is gaining traction and will eventually prevail.

Finally, having absolved himself of responsibility, Goldberg portrays himself as a martyr to the cause of anti-gay activism and reparative therapy:

[I] understand that there are individuals out there with myopic bigotry on the SSA issue and I need to be prepared to take my lumps for anything I have done in the past or the present, and indeed in the future. … I am humbled by the outpouring of support I have received from so many. It confirms my decision that I made the right choice in determining to work within this field of endeavor. Many thanks to you all for standing with me, for being there, and for maintaining the fight for accurate science, truth and justice.

Frankly, where the revelations should have propelled Goldberg towards self-examination and honesty, they have led to a blatantly manipulative effort to wash his hands of his crimes. He says he takes full responsibility, but in reality, this missive’s clear purpose is to convince his colleagues that he is the real victim, and that he is in fact bearing battle scars on behalf of a noble cause.

There is no conspiracy to destroy Goldberg. If he is destroyed by this, it will be of his own doing.

Ex-Gay Watch’s purpose is to get to the truth of the matter and ask, as the Supreme Court of New Jersey asked of his legal career in 1995, what Arthur Abba Goldberg’s criminal convictions – and the subsequent attempt to hide them from the public eye – say about his “honesty, trustworthiness and fitness” for moral and religious leadership and authority in the ex-gay movement.

____________________________

Image of Arthur Abba Goldberg in 1989 courtesy Truth Wins Out. The full headline next to the picture was “Wall Street bond whiz pleads guilty in $2B fraud.”

Andrew Sullivan reports on the Cato Institute’s forum addressing the question Is there a place for gay people in conservatism and conservative politics?, a debate that featured Sullivan alongside Catholic anti-marriage equality campaigner Maggie Gallagher and openly gay British Conservative MP Nick Herbert.

Gay Cato employee Jason Kuznicki was also in attendance (he can be seen on the video at about the 73-minute mark here). Kuznicki writes:

… I got to ask Maggie Gallagher the question I’ve always wanted to ask her: What do you think that am I supposed to do with my life?

Suppose I found myself in agreement with her. Suppose I concluded that same-sex marriage was corrosive to society. Do I leave my husband? Do I send my adopted daughter back to the state? Enter ex-gay therapy, which isn’t likely to work? Tell my whole family that I’m single now, and that Scott shouldn’t be welcome at family events? Live my whole life alone, and loveless? Hide? Where is the life I’m supposed to live?

I probably wasn’t so articulate at the Cato event, but I do recall Gallagher’s very simple answer: “I don’t know.”

She certainly doesn’t, and that’s the whole problem with gay conservatism — there’s hardly a life to be lived within it. There’s no breathing room. Until social conservatives offer us a better answer than “I don’t know,” until they offer us a way to be gay, and conservative, and respectable in their eyes, they’re not going to find many gay conservatives.

Upon first reading the recent story about Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) founder Arthur A. Goldberg, we contacted NARTH’s David Pruden (among others) for a statement for the record.

Goldberg is listed on NARTH’s website as an Executive Secretary and they have a long history with him.  In his response, Pruden confirmed that JONAH’s Arthur A. Goldberg was indeed Arthur Abba Goldberg.

I know nothing about the content of the article from Arthur or anyone else. I can say that everyone I know, knows his name is Arthur Abba Goldberg. I’ve seen it on documents, email communications, etc. for years. No secret there.

Pruden is referring to the article we sent him from the South Florida Gay News (SFGA).  As such a revelation, particularly on the record, amounts to something of a statement against interest, we give it substantial weight.

With the preponderance of evidence originally brought forth by Truth Wins Out (TWO) and SFGA, and the additional information discovered since, there is no room for any reasonable doubt here.

Further, Arthur Avrum Goldberg appears not to exist, except in a brief edit of Arthur Abba Goldberg’s Wikipedia page.