(A3b1) converts to the culture of life

Some of the converts to the culture of life are Bernard Nathanson, Merle Terlesky, Denise Mountenay and Norma McCorvey. ******* As of this date, 07-07-17, this folder contains 2 item2. ******* item 1 DR. ROBERT SPITZER ******* item 2 AFGHANISTAN FREES 14 YEAR OLD BOY TRAINED AS SUICIDE BOMBER ********************************************************************************************************************* ******* item 1 DR. ROBERT SPITZER ******* "PFOX" View Contact Details ******* Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 ******* from Christianity Today, April 2005, Vol. 49, No. 4, Page 94 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/20.94.html ******* SPEAKING OUT Therapeutically Incorrect: Atheist psychiatrist argues that gays can change ******* Interview by Douglas Leblanc ******* Robert L. Spitzer argued in 1973 that homosexuality is not a clinical disorder�key to the American Psychiatric Association arriving at the same conclusion. Thirty years later, Spitzer caused another stir when he argued that some people who want to change their homosexual orientation may do so (Archives of Sexual Behavior, October 2003). ******* Spitzer is professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and chief of the New York State Psychiatric Institute's Biometrics Research Department. He describes himself as a Jewish atheist. Contributing editor Douglas LeBlanc interviewed Spitzer by phone. ******* What prompted you to do a study on reparative therapy for gays? ******* I was at an annual APA (American Psychiatric Association) meeting, where I spoke to some ex-gays who were picketing the meeting. They explained how they had changed. And that got me interested. Then I tried to organize a debate on the issue. When I was organizing the debate, it became clear that many of the people that I wanted to participate said there are really no good studies of this, it's all going to be just opinions. ******* Did anything surprise you as you did your interviews? ******* I guess it surprised me how convincing the accounts were. Joseph Nicolosi [of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality] agreed to refer, I think, 10 or 20 patients to me. But he insisted on getting a summary of the results before going further. He didn't want to be set up, I guess. But from the very first people that I talked to, I had the feeling they were talking about something real. ******* What stood out for you as something that made the patients convincing? ******* You talk to people and you get a sense of whether they're being candid or not. I had the sense that they were. Also, there was a consistency, the fact that the change was described as slow and not immediate. ******* Some of your critics say that only fundamentalists would even think about taking up reparative therapy. ******* The scene has changed drastically over the last 20 or 30 years. When I started clinical practice in 1961, it was very common to get a male patient who wanted to change. Today those people don't go to psychiatrists because the word is out that the mental health profession doesn't regard it as a problem. ******* How has the study affected your standing among your colleagues? ******* Many colleagues were outraged. I remember when it first appeared in the media, I got a letter from, I think, a dean of admissions at Columbia. He wrote me that it was just a disgrace that a Columbia professor should do such a thing. Within the gay community, there was initially tremendous anger and feeling that I had betrayed them. I think that has largely dissipated. But also, I'm at the point in my career that I don't worry about such things. ******* Have you considered conducting a follow-up study? ******* No. I feel a little battle fatigue. But also I'm not sure what the study would be. Some people have said, "Follow these people, interview them five years later, see how many of them have switched back," since it's well known that some ex-gays give it up. ******* But suppose you found that 5 percent or 10 percent did switch back. I mean, so what? You'd find the same thing if you followed people who had treatment for drug addiction. Some are going to relapse. ******* The study that ought to be done is a controlled study where people go into the therapy, and then you initially evaluate them, and then you evaluate them later and see how many actually changed. But that study is not going to be done, unfortunately. ******* Is that because of a lack of interest or funding? ******* The reasons are, number one, reparative therapists are not scientists�they don't do studies. The second reason is, if somebody proposed that the National Institute of Mental Health do such a study, I think almost certainly any gays in the study section would say this is a total waste of time: They would say "We already know it's hokum, so why do it?". ******* You've said very clearly that no one should be coerced into reparative therapy. ******* I think the politically correct term now is reorientation therapy. Reparative already implies something's broken�of course the reparative therapists believe this, but it kind of infuriates the gays to even call it reparative therapy. ******* Copyright � 2005 Christianity Today. Article is located at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/004/20.94.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To subscribe to this list of ex-gay news and views, send a blank email to: [email protected] **************************************************************************************************************** item 2 AFGHANISTAN FREES 14 YEAR OLD BOY TRAINED AS SUICIDE BOMBER Sun Jul 15, 2007 ******* By Rahim Faiez ******* KABUL (AP) - Calling child suicide bombers a "fearful and terrifying truth," President Hamid Karzai on Sunday freed a 14-year-old Pakistani boy arrested in eastern Afghanistan the night before he planned to kill a provincial governor. ******* Rafiqullah, who goes by one name, told The Associated Press in an interview over the weekend while attending a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan he and two other boys were separated from the rest of the students and trained to drive a car and made to watch videos of suicide bombers carrying out attacks. ******* The teenager said he walked across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border into the province of Khost, where a man named Abdul Aziz gave him a vest full of explosives. Rafiqullah said he told Aziz he was afraid of carrying out a suicide bombing, and Aziz pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him if he did not. ******* Rafiqullah's intended target was the provincial governor. ******* "Today we are faced with a fearful and terrifying truth, and that truth is the sending of a Muslim child to carry out a suicide attack," Karzai told reporters at the presidential palace. ******* "(His parents) sent him to study at a madrassa," he said. "The enemy of Islam deceived him and prepared him to carry out a suicide attack to kill himself and other people around him." ******* Afghanistan's intelligence service first showed off Rafiqullah to reporters last week at a news conference also attended by the boy's father, Matiullah. The two shed tears and hugged in front of journalists. ******* The father last week said he asked his son's teachers at the religious school he attends where his boy was, but could not get a clear answer. ******* "I didn't know my son was going to carry out a suicide attack in Afghanistan," Matiullah said. ******* Karzai, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder on Sunday, blamed those who tried to get him to carry out the attack: "He is not guilty ... I forgive him and I wish him the best of luck." *********************************************************************************************************

Links to other sites on the Web

(A3b1a) Norma McCorvey (of Roe versus Wade) web site
(A3b1c) Denise Mountenay's web site
(A3b1f) (A) home page

The following warning is a prophetic message given to me, Frank Wagner, in November of 1974. ******* LISTEN TO THE CRY OF THE ABORTED CHILDREN. THEIR CRY IS NO. THEIR CRY IS A CRY OF TERROR. HEED THEIR CRY. ******* This prophecy is now being fulfilled. ******* For details about the source, meaning and fulfillment of this prophetic message go to ******* http://ca.geocities.com/fwagner4/index.html ******* email me at *** [email protected] ***