Peter Ould tells us the truth about Davis Mac-Iyalla

It is easy to gloat. But I find it all terribly sad that this person is enslaved to sexual sin and surrounded by those who won’t help him to free himself from those bonds.

I am not unhappy that the other side chooses such poor leaders - a narcissistic, egotistical (ex?) alcoholic; a power hungry woman who delivers absolutely wretched sermons and whose major talent is to shrink membership rolls, and now this predatory, self-centered lecher.

Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.

It certainly makes evident the disorderedness of the other side.

Brilliant.  It’s utterly devastating to the progressive cause.  This piece ought to receive wide circulation.

Integrity and its international equivalents Changing Attitude UK or Nigeria etc. are indeed faced with a dilemma.  They must either drop Davis Mac-Iyalla as a poster boy or suffer a massive loss of credibility.  Alas, for them, it’s a lose-lose situation.

Thank you, Peter, for calling our attention to this.

David Handy+

The libs won’t dump this guy until he’s no longer needed.  Like VGR, they’ll use him, then lose him.

I hope Integrity/ Changing Attitude now issue an apology to Peter Akinola and the Church of Nigeria. What is astonishing is that they apparently knew how unreliable he was at the time of the US tour, and then allowed Colin Coward to use more accusations from Davis Mac-Iyalla to further undermine the Church of Nigeria and Akinola all in an attempt to discredit him merely because he was the leader of the opposition. Nice.

Heavenly Father,
Our eyes are so blind.  Our hearts are so small.  Our faith is so little.  We bring to you in prayer Davis, Josh, Susan, Changing Attitudes, and Integrity.  In simple trust we commit them into your hands.  We thank you that you love them more than we do and understand their every need.  Do for them, O Lord, what we cannot do, and what you see is most for their good; for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Thank you, Jill, for the prayer & living the example we’re called to live out.

Jill:

You rock.

I think Changing Attitude will ignore this report, stay on message, and press on.  The truth of the matter is that supporters will not care, opponents don’t matter, and most everyone else won’t notice. 

Faithful homosexual monogamy is a convenient fiction and everyone knows this.  It is presented as a stalking horse to ease the reticence of those who are uncomfortable with the open, accepted promiscuity that defines the homosexual community.  But sex liberated from the relational demands of women is a major attraction of the lifestyle.  That isn’t going to change. To accept homosexuality as normative is to accept promiscuity as normative - at least in private.

That being the case, Davis Mac-Iyalla’s supporters will find his behavior neither shocking nor unusual, and will seek to maintain his utility as a martyr for the cause.  The best way to achieve that objective is to ignore the situation and move on.  Is this inconsistent relative to it’s public presentation?  Yes.  But the cause seeks victory, and not consistency.

carl

David, thanks for posting the update from Oasis California.  It appears that their answer to the dilemma is to hang onto Mac-Iyalla as a poster boy (at least for now), deny there’s a problem, and try to change the subject by making the whisle-blower the scapegoat.  But we’ll see if the whole GLBT crowd follows suit.  I doubt that they will, but time will tell.

Like Obama eventually distancing himself from his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, they may be slow and reluctant to repudiate Davis Mac-Iyalla.  But in the end, they will probably be forced to do so, or they face the risk of having to abandon the hope of gaining further ground in church circles.

David, your brother rocks.  Kudos to him for highlighting this very, very revealing story.

David Handy+

Talk about reaping what you sow, Integrity and Oasis.

How many people are lead so similarly astray but the gospel of “inclusivity” and decay?

Interesting, Josh Indiana isn’t exactly a prude either, his blog’s latest posting is about a book that he doesn’t mind calling a “stroke book,” though apparently a well-narrated one, and a bit “vintage” since it’s from the 60’s (link) - he’s a lay evangelist in TEC.  It appears that there’s quite a “culture gap” regarding expectations when we talk about sexuality - I think many in TEC wouldn’t find it appropriate for a lay minister to post a review of a “stroke book,” compellingly written and historical or not - and going so far as to post a review on one’s own Gay Spirit Blog is also a step further than simply reading it.  But apparently for some it’s quite ok.  Seeing the source, I’m inclined to think that the behavior he describes was probably rather sorry indeed.

I hope we keep Davis Mac-Iyalla in our prayers, these next few days are likely to be very tough for him.  People who supported him are likely to take out their own frustrations on him.
I don’t know Josh Indiana’s motives, I think the Oasis person is hinting at “greed,” but one of the posters suggests that he’s doing a good job doing “damage control,” and indeed, if a posting like this is necessary for damage control, it’s very healthy that he alerts people in the organization that they are getting their priorities wrong.  And it does say a lot about Integrity that they chose Mac-Iyalla as a spokesperson for Lambeth.  They would have done better much better finding a gay Nigerian spokesperson describing his experiences who doesn’t claim to be a Christian, if depicting gay Nigeria was their principal aim.  We can pray for Josh too - he’ll be taking a lot of heat as well - maybe the Mac-Iyalla incident will make him think twice about what kind of sexual behavior and discourse / teaching is appropriate for a man who is proclaiming the word of Christ.

A week or two ago I was in a Christian discussion group with a few TEC lay people and a gay gentleman - atheist - who was describing his disgust with Christians for being “heterosexist” and for having oppressed him.  Some of the TEC people said that they felt that sex was ok as long as it was committed.  The man cheerfully responded that he was always committed to his “playbuddies” at the moment that he was “having fun with them”.  The “committed” thing is also a very slippery slope that’s already eroding.  The TEC people didn’t respond (I remained silent, I hadn’t voiced an opinion on sexuality) - nor even notice the irony of a man, claiming to have been oppressed by Christians, coming into a Christian discussion group at a church, and talking about having lots of loose sex and trying to make this out to be “committed.”  You’d think that a man who had been oppressed by Christians ... wouldn’t exactly want to do that ... and it makes one wonder, what was the nature of this “oppression?”  Perhaps it was objecting to this particular definition of “commitment”?

Wow, I highly recommend the whole article by Peter Ould.  In the article, Peter also reveals the statement on sexuality on the Changing Attitudes website that would make their criticizing of Davis difficult at best.

It is embarrassing to read of all this Bit—slapping going on in the gay community—-I thought they were all brothers and brothers, sisters and sisters…

If you read the entire article you will get a very different view of the writer than just this snip.  He goes on to say that he doesn’t like Mac-Iyalla but he respects him, considers him a man of God’s work… even says “if God is for him who can be against him.”  On the one hand he describes the man’s actions as reprehensible but on the other hand he honors the man’s work to make those actions normative.  In doing so, he is almost saying that the GLBT movement is God’s work and he is absolutely declaring that which is unholy as holy.  The turnaround in this article makes the descrepency clear. 
This indeed is very sad.  Don’t read it for the gossipy smear story, read the whole thing, folks.

I love this bit:

Since you have chosen to repay our hospitality with an ‘expose’ that plays into the hands of those who seek to demonize gay and lesbian people, it would be fair for you to reimburse Oasis California for the expense of your round trip flight

Now you’re telling the truth, we’ll have our money back.

“...plays into the hands of those who seek to demonize gay and lesbian people…”

Why seek to demonize gay people? They are exceptionally good at demonizing themselves and each other.

Grave sickness of the soul. Lord, protect your flock.

The saddest part of the story to me is this Thomas Jackson of Oasis California’s response to Josh’s post.

It is clear from Jackson’s post, that he nor his organization care about Davis Mac-Iyalla as a person at all.  To them he is a useful prop, a great story for political leverage, a fine mascot for their organization.

The people who could actually love and help Davis are people counted by Oasis as “enemies”, people like Mario Bergner or Peter Ould himself.  Oasis would let this man drown in his own sins (even sins at a very liberal perspective) than lose a useful political prop.

There are many good, well-intentioned people on the Episcopal left (I think, for instance, the woman who used to post here and on Father Jake’s from time to time named Grace).  But the movement as a whole is based on a lot of baloney, phoniness, and narcissism.

“Don’t read it for the gossipy smear story, read the whole thing, folks.” AHHHHH, shucks, but I like gossipy smear stories—- about OTHER people.!

Here was what I found interesting, and also give weight to the the “honor among thieves” maxim:

I also had to warn Bishop Gene Robinson, who had consented to a joint appearance with Davis at a Pride Week Eucharist in New York, of the difficulties Davis’s behavior presented, so that the bishop would not be embarassed by the association.

I just found it interesting that the 2 lesbian “host” priests as well as Gene Robinson knew about his “reprehensible” behavior and yet let nothing stand in the way of his eventual adulation and posterboy status for the left’s advance of the LGBT cause.

Wow- This is major…but so was Mac-Iyalla’s credibility problem (and Colin Coward’s) when they claimed to tell of the violence against a particular Nigerian gay man earlier this year (or was it against Davis?), and no one in the GLBT lobby seemd much to care.
At any rate, it appears reasonable to conclude that Integrity and Changing attitudes have tried to cover up the obvious character issues associated with Mac-Iyalla’s behavior for their own purposes, using him to gain publicity for a pre-set agenda.  It’s either that, or his sexual ethic and lack of integrity do not concern them in the least, and that also would be telling, as it tells us it’s their norm. 

Bishops at Lambeth - Hope you are reading this.
Yuck
Carrie

Anyone surprised by this?  How about a show of hands…When you define your identity by what you do with your sex organs, to do nothing with them is to deny one’s very existence.

The Oasis reply is just too delicious, no?

The whole thing is very sad, and it is an incredible testimony to Abp Mouneer’s perceptive comments of the other day when he said about the liberals:

They talk about the slavery and say that 200 years ago Christians were opposed to the freedom of slaves and they compare us to those Christians for our attitude to gay and lesbian practises. To be honest, I think this is inviting us to another kind of slavery, slavery of the flesh, to go and do whatever our lusts dictate.

Let their be no rejoicing over fellow human beings enslavement to sin.

How will Changing Attitude and Integrity respond?  I think we already see one response from California’s Oasis (attack the messenger who first brought this up).  I think that Carl is correct when he says:

The truth of the matter is that supporters will not care, opponents don’t matter, and most everyone else won’t notice.

I really do think (especially if you read Ould’s whole piece and the quote Andrew Gross refers to) that the CA/Integrity movement doesn’t have a problem with Davis’ behavior, except to the extent that it causes bad publicity.  Anyone who brings this up will be accused of being mean, playing gutter politics, and being hateful and homophobic.  Never doubt it.  At most, you will see CA/Integrity moving Davis out of the limelight as they did with Gene Robinson.

I think that the best response from conservatives is not elation, making fun, or anything like that, but rather to express sadness at how this story proves the truth of Abp. Mouneer’s words.

I struggle time and again with the knowledge I have of life amongst my gay and lesbian friends - who struggle desperately with what it means to be homosexual in our societies. I have lost more than one of them to AIDS or suicide, which has been routinely laid (by the gay activists) at the feet of the “homophobic majority” as demonstrating the impact that the homophobia has and if the majority would just embrace the agenda - everything would just work out in the end. The bitter truth (which will always be dismissed by activists) of my friends’ lives, is one of resignation punctuated with spikes of hope during what seems to be a promising relationship, which falls apart after the initial interest wears off and they are faced with dealing with each other as mere people, not infatuation. It sees echoes in heterosexual relationships as well, but is, or seems to be, more intense. No amount of social (or Anglican) permissiveness in our relationships can remedy this situation. Our inborn sinful and broken natures have to die - not simply proclaim itself “Christian” and therefore entitled somehow, but die, to be resurrected in Christ and made a new creation where the Holy Spirit can work to renew and restore that right nature truly aligned with God and His intentions for us. That Mac-Iyalla has demonstrated that he is no paragon of virtue was no shock to me. I was impressed that he could remain in the public eye for so long and not have the elements of his lifestyle be revealed. My heart bleeds for my brothers and sisters in Christ who have been deceived by the activists that an unrenewed and unpenitent life is acceptable in the church and before God. It is among the most heinous lies that the devil has propagated into the body of Christ, and calculated to cause the widest possible damage to the church.

Carrie (#21)—

At any rate, it appears reasonable to conclude that Integrity and Changing attitudes have tried to cover up the obvious character issues associated with Mac-Iyalla’s behavior for their own purposes, using him to gain publicity for a pre-set agenda.  It’s either that, or his sexual ethic and lack of integrity do not concern them in the least, and that also would be telling, as it tells us it’s their norm.

Actually, it’s both.  They know very well that what MacI does is not uncommon.  They want us to believe otherwise.

God’s norm for humans is to marry and stay with one wife/husband for eternity.  How could anyone in sanity believe that hundreds of partners, most of them anonymous, is healthy, let alone normal?

Thus their lies.  And very telling the barb from Oasis at their being called on MacI’s behavior.

There’s nothing honest about these people.  Not intellectually, not theologically.  Not even the ones who claim to be Christian.  They’re not and never will be.

masternav, I wrote elsewhere on Stand Firm about my working with homeless teenagers,(many of whom were runaways and those who had been abandoned by the state foster care placement system) and my attempt to get a writer for an alternative weekly newspaper to write something to raise awareness on the subject. Many of these teenagers are exploited by some in the homosexual community as prostitutes. These kids face the nightmare of living on the street, hunger, fear of violence, exposure to the elements and are easily victimized because of the privation they suffer from.

The writer in question has written a piece attacking the city government for it’s focus on shutting down certain areas that homosexuals used for “cruising”, where they go to find and engage with prostitutes in illegal activity. The writer’s premise was that the city was guilty of violating homosexuals’ rights to engage in what was a part of homosexual “culture” and “lifestyle” and that made the city’s government “homophobic”. He referred to these “cruising” spots as being akin to “lovers lanes”, and didn’t care that the city has at the same time sought to shut down all prostitution activities in the city.

When I sought to get him to consider the plight of these young people (I was very naive back then, I assumed he did care about human rights), and how a rationalization of prostitution helped enable their vicitimization, he stated to me that these young people turned to prostitution to find the relationships they couldn’t normally form because they were homosexual, and society forbid it. He disagreed with me when I informed him that many of the young people I worked with who had been victimized had not considered themselves homosexual, in fact he preferred to frame them to fit his own agenda. He referred to his rationale of homosexuals paying these kids to engage in sexual acts, as an “embrace” by the “homosexual community”. The writer was an admitted homosexual.

It appears that their answer to the dilemma is to hang onto Mac-Iyalla as a poster boy

Some inclusion!  Hanging an African-American boy! 

He was continually sexually predatory, in ways both disgusting and laughable. .... I could not pry him loose from an explicit Gay website…offering dating and chats with “sugar daddies.” He was in mid-chat and he wasn’t about to lose a live prospect. .... The entire tour was like that, but we managed to keep it together. He “scored” twice, both times while we were resident at American seminaries.

In short, he was like a kid in a candy store.

And the revisionist camp just can’t comprehend why Africa, given its current struggle with AIDS, is reluctant to condone this lifestyle?

[21] cityonahill,

You wrote

At any rate, it appears reasonable to conclude that Integrity and Changing attitudes have tried to cover up the obvious character issues associated with Mac-Iyalla’s behavior for their own purposes, using him to gain publicity for a pre-set agenda. I think your comment is overgenerous toward both Integrity and Changing Attitude.

The comment on the AkinolaRepent blog post from Thomas Jackson (apparently a subdeacon in the Dioceses of California) makes clear that there is no refutation offered for what Mr. Indiana reports. Rather than covering it up, they are simply ignoring it. A cover-up implies concern over one’s reputation, which in turn reflect on a number of ethical values, the most obvious being one’s truthfulness.

The absence of anything from the representative of Oasis California even resembling a demurral to the allegations by Mr. Indiana suggests not simply a lack of concern with respect to their possession of those ethical values, but shamelessness to the point of demonstrating some level of willful amorality, the fact that this is related to homosexuality completely aside.

Blessings and regards,
Martial Artist

Article in todays (7/31/08)Guardian:
“Condemn homosexuality, Vatican official tells Lambeth conference.”
Article is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/31/religion

While I’m thinking about it—

He was in this country for a few weeks and only scored twice?  How could he be such a great catch (and release)?

Thomas Jackson sounds like quite the charming person himself, doesn’t he?  I would love to see Oasis California try to sue Josh Indiana and watch the fur fly.

If the British tabloids get hold of this, with Lambeth still ongoing, it could get quite ugly.

This reminds me of James Thurber’s comic short story, called “The Greatest Man in the World” that was later dramatized on PBS. An illiterate, arrogant, and thoroughly profligate aviator named Pal Smurch manages to fly solo around the world without refueling in the ’30’s.  He’s immediately turned into a Lindbergh-like hero by the media and lionized by everyone.  However, all he’s interested in is women, booze, and money. His embarrassed handlers can’t reform him, so they arrange for him to “fall” out of a hotel window.  Then they give him an elaborate funeral worthy of his hero status.

I’m not suggesting a similar ending to Mac-Iyalla’s story, but he does remind me of Smurch.