So, if you haven't already heard, I've been blessed and honored with the opportunity to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming 2012 Gay Christian Network Conference. The conference will be in Orlando, Florida, and I understand that the super early bird registration deadline is this Sunday, where you pay only a $99 reg fee. It would be cool to meet some of you guys in person, so if you're at all inclined to spend January 5-8, 2012 in sunny, balmy, home-of-Disney-World Orlando, come on out and join us!
You'd think that this would be the perfect time for me to get busy writing and take advantage of some of the free advertising that GCN's conference publicity has given this blog. But it turns out I'll be doing no such thing. See, my five-year-old son just had major surgery on his feet, and while he recovers for the next five weeks in his casts and wheelchair, he needs me to do just about everything for him, including entertaining him by playing a lot of computer games. Hours and hours of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled 3. So instead of imagining that I'm in front of my computer right now coming up with some brilliant thing to say at the upcoming GCN Conference, picture me fetching medication and the urine bottle in between sessions of bombing zombies and exploding hypercubes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay. I just thought I'd disabuse you of any glamorous notions about my life, in case you were tempted to have any.
11 comments:
Congratulations!
You can never get enough Plants vs. Zombies.
Congrats!
Congratulations, Misty!!
Glad to hear you'll be there, Misty! Your voice is SUCH an important one, and I'm glad you have an outlet. I do hope you are given more opportunities to spread your message to more than just the gay Christians. The straight ones need you just as much (if not more) than we do :)
I see that GCN continues to lurch towards being an exclusively Side B ministry. Year after year the keynote speakers are chosen for their Side B views. Year after year their claim to represent all gay Christians becomes more and more tenuous.
Quite frankly your presence at this conference would be enough to prevent me from attending. I don't need to be patronised by smug straight Christians agonising over their "perfection" and my "brokenness". Keep your "compassion" (in other words, judgmental pity) to yourself and understand that most gay people find you and your homophobia offensive.
Steven
Whoa. That seemed pretty harsh, Steven.
What are you basing the following statements on:
1.) The idea that most of GCN's speakers lean towards Side B?
2.) Misty is smug?
3.) Misty espouses that she she is perfect and gays are broken?
4.) Misty is judgmental?
5.) Misty is homophobic?
I'm not being a smartass here. I genuinely want to know, because that seems to be far off from what I've observed with GCN or Misty's blog. What am I missing?
Actually, Steven, the two other keynote speakers, Jeremy Marks and Justin Lee, are Side A guys, so 2/3 of the conference speakers would be friendly to the affirming position. And I'm sure it would be no problem for people who felt so inclined to skip out on the one hour slot in which I am speaking and still enjoy everything else that the GCN Conference has to offer that weekend.
Jeremy Marks is married to a woman. He has zero credibility in Side A circles because of his rabidly anti-gay past. Has he changed? Maybe. But he still lives a Side B life so despite all his fancy words and apologies, he's a walking advertisement for mixed orientation marriages. How many gay men looking at him and his supposed devotion to his wife will be thinking "OK, I might be gay but at least I can have the appearance of straight normality. It works for this bleating Brit so why can't it work for me?"
It doesn't matter how much Marks SAYS he supports Side A. His life is a Side B life. He's therefore a Side B speaker. If he had an ounce of real repentance and humility in him, he'd realise his credibility was non-existent and withdraw from a leadership position.
So at least two thirds of the speakers at the GCN conference will be Side B. Or maybe 100% if you can figure out where Justin Lee really stands. He SAYS he's Side A. But his actions say otherwise. He's indefatigable in his defence of Side B and allows a small minority of Side B people to dominate proceedings on GCN. I've put this to the test myself by intentionally making inflammatory statements against Side B on GCN. My goal was to provoke a similar response from them and see how each side was treated. I was flagged and eventually banned. No action was taken against the other side despite open dishonesty on their part. In other words, Side B may use lies and smear tactics to promote their message on GCN and if Side A doesn't just sit there and take it, they'll be banned. Does this speak of real support for Side A on the part of Justin Lee or is his public position just a front designed to lure Side A in and convert as many of them to Side B as he can by stealth? The man is single and celibate as far as I know. Where's the proof of his Side A beliefs? Words are cheap, especially when actions point to their essential hollowness.
No, it's clear to me that GCN exists for pretty much the sole purpose of converting as many gay Christians as possible to Side B. They lure us in by pretending to support Side A and give Side B free rein to proselytise whilst gagging any attempt from Side A to contradict or oppose such blatant manipulation.
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I'm not alone in this opinion. The very fact that there are no credible Side A speakers at the conferences speaks for itself. You'd think they'd throw one in every now and again just to keep up appearances, but apparently nobody with any credibility will touch them with a barge pole. They can see what should be plain to everyone: a gay organisation that provides a platform for Side B is essentially an anti-gay organisation and GCN is one of the worst because of the underhand and manipulative tactics it uses in order to promote Side B whilst pretending to support Side A.
So I'm not surprised to see you as a keynote speaker, Ms Irons. It fits the pattern of pretence and manipulation I saw during my time on GCN. First Tony Campolo, then Philip Yancey, then Wendy Gritter and now you and Jeremy Marks. And who knows, as I see Justin Lee is now intervening on Andrew Marin's blog site, perhaps in 2013 we'll see an "I'm Sorry" campaign at the GCN conference with lots of hugs and tears and whispers of "oh by the way, you do know that homo sex is a sin, don't you?" in the ears of a vulnerable Side A audience. Soften 'em up with emotion so they'll open up and let you pour your poison deep inside, eh?
I didn't really believe in a personalised Satan until I saw these kinds of tactics in use. Now I realise that he'll do anything and use anyone to work his vicious purposes. I guess LGBT people are an easy target for him, the more so when the betrayal comes from your own kind, from those you trust. It's one thing to listen to you, Ms Irons, and your self-satisfied talk of how perfectly your timepiece keeps time while ours are broken and off kilter and just not working right. You can perhaps be forgiven for such smugness considering the stupefying effect of the hormones that pump around your system, which probably do convince you that breeding another generation makes you Superwoman. But hearing the same story from people like Justin Lee and Jeremy Marks, only this time subliminally, suggestively, sub-consciously, dressed up in hollow affirmations of Side A whilst subtly promoting Side B and keeping it at the forefront of every discussion, now that's unforgivable. And it needs to be exposed.
Steven
Misty, Wow! I didn't expect such a heated discussion. I just wanted to commend you for your public views on this issue. As a "Side A" straight ally, I disagree with your "Side B" position but am thrilled you are speaking sense to the conservative Christian community to support gay marriage as a civil liberty. I wrote about you in my blog and have my own regular musings on this subject.
Congrats on your invitation to speak and cheers!
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