Sunday 9 May 2010

My Final Word on George Alan Rekers

Hopefully final. I gave him the benefit of the doubt in a previous post. No longer.

Here's what I wrote in the Catholic Answers Forum:

Anyone wanting to quote George Rekers as a reliable source now? Given his 10-day European jaunt with a rentboy who gave him daily erotic massages?

Matthew 23:27 (Douay Rheims)
27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness.

Holly - the main witness for the state of Florida in the recent court case to prevent Gays from adopting children was this False Witness.

He was paid $120,000 of taxpayers money to make stuff up. Which he did. (He also earlier tried to get $200,000 from the state of Arkansas for the same thing, but had to settle for $60,000 as his performance was insufficiently credible)
In January 2005, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy White ... called Rekers' testimony "extremely suspect." He also accused Rekers of testifying solely for promoting his "own personal agenda."
...
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Cindy Lederman ... said "Dr. Rekers’ testimony was far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence. Dr. Rekers’ beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with the science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court can not consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy."

Lederman may have been put off by the fact that Rekers said based on "research," a case could be made for banning Native Americans from adopting children.

Some 4 years ago, he himself adopted a 16 year old boy, the same age as his "travelling companion".

These are the kind of people you have to use as "reliable sources". Hypocrites. Liars for Hire. Because no-one else will tell you what you want to hear, what you want to be true.

And here's the family he was employed to destroy.
The children arrived…on the evening of December 11, 2004. John, the elder sibling, arrived with his four-month old brother wearing a dirty adult sized t-shirt and sneakers four sizes too small that seemed more like flip-flops than shoes. Both children were suffering from scalp ringworm. Although John was clearly suffering from a severe case of ringworm, the medication brought from John’s home to treat his scalp was unopened and expired. James, too, suffered from an untreated ear infection, as evidenced by the one-month old, nearly unused, medication. John did not speak and had no affect. He had one concern: changing, feeding, and caring for his baby brother. It was clear from the children’s first evening at the Petitioner-Roe home that the baby’s main caretaker was John, his four year old brother…

For the first few months, John seemed depressed and presented a void, unresponsive demeanor and appearance. Upon arriving at the Petitioner home, John did not speak a word for about one week. After two weeks, he began to mumble imperceptible utterances. After about one month, John finally began speaking. Petitioner quickly learned that John had never seen a book, could not distinguish letters from numbers, could not identify colors and could not count. He could not hold a pencil. He had never been in an early childhood program or day care. Nevertheless, John’s potential for educational development was apparent. Although he had not had any formal education, John could sing and pick up lyrics very quickly. Early on, Petitioner and Roe noticed that John hoarded food by requesting additional servings at the start of dinnertime and later hiding the extra food in his room. John eventually grew out of this behavior, due in part to a tactic employed by Petitioner and Roe of showing John, in advance of mealtime, the more than sufficient amount of food on the stove prepared and available for the family.

James was a very happy baby and was content with anyone, even strangers. After approximately two months, James began to exhibit signs of attachment to his primary caregivers, Petitioner and Roe. John, however, took about two years to fully bond. At one time, John shunned hugs from Petitioner and Roe. However, in his own time, John developed bonding and today, initiates goodbye hugs each morning before going to school.
And here’s what their world turned into — the world Rekers wanted to kick them out of:
On weekdays, the household wakes up at about 6:30 a.m. Petitioner usually prepares breakfast, permitting each child to assist with an assigned kitchen duty. Each morning, the family eats together without distraction from the television. As each child finishes his breakfast, he puts his dish in the sink and proceeds to the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair. Petitioner and Roe purchased a Ford minivan, which Petitioner jokes was not his dream car, however, to accommodate the family size, is the most feasible. Tom Roe, Jr. is dropped off at school first. Afterwards, Petitioner takes John and James to school, walking them into their classrooms and usually speaking to their respective teachers. In the afternoon, after Petitioner picks the boys up from school, they generally go to the park for tennis lessons. At the conclusion of their lessons, the family heads home for dinner. At mealtime, the family blesses the food together and takes turns sharing the highlights of their day. Phones are not answered and the television is off during dinner. After the children are excused from the table, the older children load the dishwasher.

After dinner, the children spend one hour doing their homework. Although James does not have homework, he spends time at the table pretending to do homework. John requires more supervision and one-on-one interaction to complete his homework. If a child finishes his homework early, the remaining time is spent reading. After homework is completed, the children are allowed to watch television. At bedtime, the boys retreat to their separate beds. By morning, however, James seems to always find his way into John’s bed.

The family attends a non-denominational Christian church and have as pets, a dog, rabbit and kitten. John and James refer to Petitioner and Roe as “papi” and “daddy” respectively. John and James have lived in the same neighborhood, attended the same school, day care and aftercare since their arrival in the Petitioner-Roe home. As a result, each child has created friendships from school and in the neighborhood. John and James are closely bonded to Tom Roe, Jr., and their extended family. The boys consider Petitioner and Roe’s parents, brothers and sisters their grandparents, uncles and aunts. The extended family sends the boys gifts for their birthdays and the holidays. Roe’s mother, who lives in Tampa, visits the family regularly.
No Good Christian Heterosexual couple volunteered to take these two damaged youngsters in.

None have done so since.

If separated from their parents, they will be sent to separate state institutions.

Dr Rekers testified under oath that even if they'd have been with their new parents for ten years, it would still be in the children's best interests to split them up and institutionalise them.

The man is a monster. He's also the senior guiding light of NARTH's "Scientific" advisory committee, and also the American College of Pediatrics (ACP), a religious activist group where non-pediatricians, even non-medical personnel, are encouraged to join. They have no affiliation with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the actual medical body that represents pediatricians. Last month, the ACP launched a campaign called "Facts About Youth," and began contacting educators to spread the "facts" about homosexuality. The AAP has declared the ACP literature to be scientifically baseless.

Rikers is also the co-founder of the Family Research Council, prior to its merger with Focus on the Family. He was in charge of UCLA's "Feminine Boy" project, where he lied about the good results he'd had from psychologically and physically torturing gay and trans kids to "straighten them out". He concealed the many suicides and suicide attempts that resulted.

Many members of this forum have quoted NARTH, or FotF, or the FRC, or the ACP in good faith, not knowing any better. Warnings by others of the mendacity and "Junk Science" manufactured by this man and Paul Cameron have been dismissed as typical Leftist propaganda, utterly baseless. "He said, she said".

Hopefully this will open your eyes. I'm not holding my breath.

By all means believe that the Almighty meant X to happen, or Y, or Z. But don't lie to try to justify with bogus "science" your religious beliefs. And don't quote those who do, when you know they do.

I suppose I better quote some eyewitnesses to Dr Rekers activities at UCLA:
Parents who brought their children to Rekers had to agree to participate in the "curing" of them. "Kraig," a four-year-old who participated in the UCLA Feminine Boy Project, was also monitored in the clinic's play-observation room. Only this time, it was his mother who wore the bug-in-the-ear, listening for her behavioral cues from the folks behind the wall. While playing, "Kraig would have seen her suddenly jerk upright, and look away from him toward the one-way window," Burke reports (based on transcripts of his case):

His mother was being prompted, through the earphones, by the doctor. She was told to completely ignore him, because he was engaged in feminine play. Kraig would have no understanding of what was happening to his mother. On one such occasion, his distress was such that he began to scream, but his mother just looked away. His anxiety increased, and he did whatever he could to get her to respond to him, but she just looked away. She must have seemed like a stranger to have changed her behavior toward him so suddenly and for no apparent reason . . . He was described as being in a panic, alternating between sobs and "aggressing at her," but again, when his distraught mother finally looked at him and began to respond, she stopped mid-sentence and abruptly turned away, as if he were not there. Kraig became so hysterical, and his mother so uncomfortable, that one of the clinicians had to enter and take Kraig, screaming, from the room.

Kraig's treatment continued in this vein. He was also put on the "token system" at home. Inappropriate, feminine behaviors earned him a red token, masculine ones, a blue token. Each red token earned him a spanking from his father. After more than two years of treatment, Kraig's behavior had turned around. He was now described by his mother as a "rough neck," and he no longer cared if his hair was neat or his clothes matched. But when he was eighteen, after years of being held up (under a pseudonym) by Rekers as "the poster boy for behavioral treatment of boyhood effeminacy," Kraig attempted suicide, because he thought that he might be gay.

Matthew 23:23-24 (Douay Rheims)
23 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone.
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel.

I don't hate the man. I confess I have difficulty being suitably charitable to him, and forgiveness is out of the question at the moment, he's shown no signs of repentance or restitution, preferring to try one contradictory story after another to "clear his name".

I'm sorry, but he doesn't matter to me. He should, he's a human being, but I have great .difficulty caring a fig what happens to him at the moment. I should, and I'll try to.

But I hate his sins. I hate the sadism and cruelty. The bearing of false witness.

And I'm not too keen on the situation where people would rather see kids kill themselves than be gay. They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

Sources: Please read them, I've only skimmed the surface.
http://www.sbpress.com/2010/03/feminine-boy-project/
http://wakingupnow.com/blog/the-evil-of-george-rekers
http://www.brainchildmag.com/essays/fall2001_wilkinson.htm
http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2009/01/something-worth-knowing-about-narth.html
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/os-mike-thomas-gay-adoption-050910-20100506,0,123960,full.column

UPDATE - This piece:
The Christian World View of the Family
Edited by Dr. George Rekers, Ph.D., Chairman; Jerry Regier, M.A.B.S., Co-Chairman; With contributions by members of the Family Committee of The Coalition on Revival; Dr. Jay Grimstead, General Editor; E. Calvin Beisner, M.A., Assistant to the General Editor
9. We affirm that a man's authority as head of his wife is delegated to him by God; that this means that his legitimate authority over his wife is limited by what God's Word allows him; and that all authority is established by God and no one and no social institution has the right to exert any authority contrary to God's laws or the bounds God has set for the man's office in the family (Romans 13:1; Ephesians 5:22-23)....
....
42. We affirm that sexual abuse and parents' willfully depriving their children of shelter, clothing, food, sleep, or essential medical care, thus endangering their lives and physical health, should be treated as unlawful assault or attempted murder and the offenders punished accordingly by civil government and disciplined by the Church. We deny that the state has a right to impose unrealistic standards on families; that the so-called offenses of "emotional neglect," "emotional abuse," "educational neglect," etc., which form the bulk of substantiated reports of "child abuse and neglect," are in fact crimes against children; that the state has any right to administer criminal penalties or usurp custody in neglect cases except when a child's life or physical health is obviously endangered; and that the state should ever administer criminal penalties or usurp custody in cases where the only accusation concerns mental health, since the state should not mandate what particular beliefs and attitudes are healthy or acceptable. We further deny that involuntary circumstances should ever be treated as a crime, and that even sinful families are helped more by the threat of removing their children rather than by prayer, godly instruction, and loving assistance.
...
45. We affirm that Biblical spanking may cause temporary and superficial bruises or welts that do not constitute child abuse, but that proven brutality to a child resulting in permanent disfigurement or serious injury should be punished by law (Exodus 21:23,24; Proverbs 13:24; 22:15; 23:13,14).....
Temporary disfigurement is A-OK though. Just don't break bones. Major ones, anyway.

Dr Rekers told his travelling companion that he was a child psychologist. And indeed, he's "treated" many children. Entirely in accordance with Biblical principles, I'm sure.

One thing though. Dr Rekers is not gay. No, really. His masseur/luggage carrier stated as follows:
Rekers allegedly named his favorite maneuver the "long stroke" -- a complicated caress "across his penis, thigh... and his anus over the butt cheeks," as the escort puts it. "Rekers liked to be rubbed down there," he says.
Ah, but such a massage by a young, strong, hard-bodied escort from rentboy.com does not make you gay. Even if he's in the nude.

In Howard vs Arkansas the judge stated:
In counterpoint to the quality of Dr Lamb's testimony was the testimony provided by Dr George Rekers. It was apparent from Dr Rekers testimony and attitude on the stand that he was there primarily to promote his own personal ideology. If the furtherance of such ideology meant providing the court with only partial information or selectively analyzing study results that was acceptable to Dr Rekers. Dr Rekers was unable to testify without referring to approximately seventy pages of notes. A large part of his testimony was not responsive to the questions being asked him but consisted of Dr Rekers simply reading his prepared notes on a topic he wished to promote. For the most part, whether on direct examination or cross examination, he was unable or unwilling to directly answer a question.... Dr Rekers willingness to prioritize his personal beliefs over his function as an expert provider of fact renders his testimony extremely suspect and of little, if any, assistance to the court in resolving the difficult issues presented by this case. Dr Rekers personal agenda caused him to have inconsistent testimony on several issues. One example being that after testifying at length about how transitions were stressful for foster children and should be avoided if possible, Dr Rekers then testified that it was hypothetically in the child's best interests to be removed from a successful fourteen-year foster relationship in a homosexual household for the sole purpose of placement in a heterosexual household. When informed of Dr Rekers statement on such point, Dr Lamb testified that such statement was an "extraordinary suggestion" that "flies in the face of all that we know about the importance of relationships between children and parent figures". Such portion of Dr Rekers testimony is also directly contrary to the legislative intent of the Arkansas General Assembly... which states that "The policy of the state of Arkansas is that children in the custody of the Department of Human Services should have stable placements."
In this case, it clearly states:
Homosexual, for the purposes of this rule, shall mean any person who voluntarily and knowingly engages in or submits to any sexual contact involving the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person of the same gender...
George Alan Rickers merely had his genitals and anal area manually fondled by a nude rentboy. There was no oral contact, so according to a law Dr Rekers must be intimately familiar with, he's not Gay at all. Just a fine upstanding (VERY upstanding according to his masseur) Christian Gentleman, who's very, very straight indeed. Yes siree. Completely straight.

Because if he wasn't, he'd be one of those awful Gays. And that is unthinkable to him.

6 comments:

JoanieH121506 said...

Hi Zoe,

Thank you for bringing this to the light of day. I too, from my Christian perspective, feel that I should be able to forgive this person for his atrocities, but having experienced so much of the things he advocated, I can only feel a sense of frustration and indignation over the things this person has mandated and inflicted into the lives of children.

As I read through this, I am reminded of the what Jesus said with regard to children in the book of Luke:

"1Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3So watch yourselves."

While many would argue that being left to homosexual parents would be inducing children to "sin" one can see that this man's agenda was not engendered by love, but a loveless agenda of "self-deemed" propriety, not based upon fact but, in fact, a form of authoritarian hubris with no basis in reality or sound scriptural doctrine. Like the actions of the Clarke Institute, with respect to the "healing" of transgendered youth, the practices employed are way too much like the practices of a dog trainer teaching a dog to perform tricks, using the harshest of "punishment and rewards" to gain the desired actions from a dog. In an animal, these types of things are deplorable. To inflict such on a child is totally unconscionable.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13:
"8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet,"[a] and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

The affect of this is that the old law has been superseded by the covenant of grace, mercy and love for one's neighbors. This is the fulfillment of the laws of God. Any who act, even with the highest of scriptural intent, will have their works deemed baseless if they were done without love.

Yes we should pray for people like this, but we must never forget to pray for those whose lives have been turned into a torment by people like George Rekers - simply for their desires to gain recognition and wealth by playing into the desires for self righteousness of those who use religion to their own ends.

I have had a lot of my life destroyed by similar falsehoods. I have had so many friends and acquaintances destroyed by similar, like-minded practices in the same ilk of what this man has advocated. Even so, we are not to judge, but we are to stand up and speak out against things that destroy others. This is especially true where we ourselves have the knowledge and experiences to know better.

While I do not wish anyone evil, at the same time, my heart goes out to those whose lives have been so negatively impacted by things that are based upon elitist hubris where love, compassion and and genuine caring were required. I believe that Rekers has received his compensation for his misdeeds in this life and has nothing more coming to him. I have heard so many of his ilk claim that "hard love" is the answer to situations that are religiously inconvenient. This, unfortunately, is all too often nothing more than an attempt to reinforce unrealistic and damaging agendas off onto the already damaged and hurting. The proof is in the pudding. Love accomplishes great things and miraculous healing. All authoritarian edict accomplishes is the protection of myths, superstition and dogmatic principles that are, at their heart, neither beneficial or in any way healing to those upon whom they are inflicted. These people do great harm in the name of propriety.

Anonymous said...

I don't think I'd ever read much on Rekers before this, much less equated him with Ken Zucker. So why does the bit from a 'UCLA eyewitness' trigger something in me that makes me recall, almost word for word, a similar article detailing a session with Zucker? It was the bit about "Only this time, it was his mother who wore the bug-in-the-ear, listening for her behavioral cues from the folks behind the wall. While playing, "Kraig would have seen her suddenly jerk upright, and look away from him toward the one-way window," that triggered the memory. I'm doing some poking around Lynn's site, cos that's the most likely place I would have found it. Just wondering, as I'm sure you'd like to have your sources correct.

Zoe Brain said...

Zucker's techniques are far less cruel.

But they still induce anxiety attacks in children seeing the colour pink.

See Mommy, Don't Take me there!.

Bradley has been in therapy now for eight months, and Carol says still, on the rare occasions when she cannot avoid having him exposed to girl toys, like when they visit family, it doesn't go well.

"It's really hard for him. He'll disappear and close a door, and we'll find him playing with dolls and Polly Pockets and ... the stuff that he's drawn to," she says.

In particular, there is one typically girl thing — now banned — that her son absolutely cannot resist.

"He really struggles with the color pink. He really struggles with the color pink. He can't even really look at pink," Carol says. "He's like an addict. He's like, 'Mommy, don't take me there! Close my eyes! Cover my eyes! I can't see that stuff; it's all pink!' "


I'm not feeling well-disposed to Dr Zucker after reading that again. Even though Milton Diamond pointed out to me that everyone in the area is experimenting in children, not just him, that we don't have the evidence to show that tolerating gender variance is any less harmful than this kind of treatment....

I'm still in tears. I want this to stop. Even if there's ambiguity, and we don't know what's right and what's wrong in the grey areas, for GOD'S SAKE STOP TORTURING KIDS!

Anonymous said...

The mystery of the little boy "Kraig" is finally solved, and it is heartbreaking. It just broke last night on Box Turtle Bulletin last night and will be on CNN's AC360 in a series starting tonight. 10:00 p.m. ET.

Zoe Brain said...

Oh hell.
He completed suicide in 2003.

My brother Kirk was completely destroyed as a child and never recovered from it, and honestly, our entire family was too. I know who we were as a family before this “therapy” started, and who we became during it and after, and I think it’s safe to say we became living shells of our former selves. I always knew that, I just didn’t understand why. In the end, Kirk still believed everything this therapy taught him, that he was flawed, that he needed to change everything about himself, and that he was undeserving of unconditional love. So he chose to put a stop to it not by changing the way he saw himself, but by giving up, giving in and taking his own life. I pray that by coming forward with his story, with our story, that people of all walks will see the consequences of reparative therapy. Even more importantly, it is my hope that those who twist religion to torture and destroy children and adults with this type of “therapy” will understand that before anything else, we are called to love one another.

It doesn't need any twisting. Some religious cults are like that from their foundation. Much of the Religious Right in the USA is like that, just as so many actual Christians are not.

Helene Tigh said...

My State of AZ "Transition Team " would not accept me as anything other than Gay White Male . I'm Gay Native American Female . Sadly , after every means of intervention failed ; I busted five of those men with a tire iron and moved to the res . I was exhonorated by everyone from the police , the judge , mental health , even a bishop - but not until I got homocidal about it