Mario Berger ~ Setting Love In Order
From: Baker Books
Mrs. Giggles did a post recently on Authonomy which is a Christian Self Publishing outfit and I wanted to show the type of classy books coming out of that segment anyway. Baker Books by the way is part of the Baker Publishing Group sending out adverts to people who send them manuscripts for Authonomy.
So about this book…
From: The Independent ~ The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion
She tells me what to say internally when I think about an attractive man: “Father I need help, I know it’s wrong, you have all the power over my thoughts and I give that image to you Father, and I ask that you will help me to put the right image in my mind.”
Lynne recommends I read a book called Setting Love in Order by Mario Bergner, an “ex-gay”. In it, he claims that through prayer he also managed to cure himself of HIV. So with prayer can an HIV-positive person really become negative? “Well the Lord heals, doesn’t he?” she replies. “Are you HIV-positive?”
Now you might think this is some new twist that the Christian Right has come up with about using prayer to get rid of HIV and Homosexuality but it’s not. I was part of the Navy’s experimental gp 160 program with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation out of Bethesda Naval Hospital back in the early nineties. I watched a young kid with a severe HIV infection and I would not be surprised if he had recieved a AIDS diagnosis from the doctors since he was so tripped out whenever I saw him. Anyway he found religion and got taken in by a local church and was told by the pastor of that church that if he prayed and changed his Homosexual sinning ways God would heal him of his HIV.
He proceeded to get married and infect a young woman he got pregnant. That’s right, he ended up infecting a mother and his child.
Did you get that? I hope I am being clear here. There is nothing remotely healthy or scientific about the “ex-gay movement” or it’s self hatred message and it is being used to victimize others. This is the type of dangerous twisted fucked up shit going down in the “ex-gay movement” and it is being promoted through books like this published by these Christian Publishing houses. So of course Self Publishing through Authonomy or any other Vanity Publisher is a scam but these guys are already up to the assholes in scams as it is. They are helping to export our Crazy Christian Right and It’s accompanied ignorance and dangerous “self help cult” messages steeped in hate globally.
Tags: eBook CommentaryTags: eBook Commentary
K. Z. Snow wrote,
What a tragic and terrifying story, TeddyP.
There’s a growing number of books like this, some of which are authored or co-authored by a douche named Joseph Nicolosi, e.g.,Healing Homosexuality and A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Sad to say, no matter how much the scientific community or American Psychological Association or gay rights groups try to counter all this dangerous fallacy with fact, there will always be a big (and usually “religious”) segment of the population that thinks homosexuality can be wished or voodooed away.
Sometimes ignorance is so entrenched, you can’t dig it out with a fucking backhoe.
Link | February 7th, 2010 at 9:03 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Yeah, it just bothers me when people see Christian Publishing as some sweet innocent “Chicken Soup For The Soul” type enterprise that just prints Bibles and Sunday School books for the kiddies.
They do not notice this is actually the play ground of some majorly fucked up assholes with fake PHDs out there spewing misinformation, lies, and Right Wing pseudo science bent on hurting people.
Link | February 7th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Amanda wrote,
This is really the kind of backward mentality that gives me nightmares.
Link | February 7th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Mrs Giggles wrote,
Teddy, Authonomy isn’t the publisher here – Authonomy is this big showcase website where aspiring authors put up their work and get critiqued by their fellow Authonomy members. The supposedly highest rated works have a chance of getting picked up by HarperCollins, but the website now is just one big ad for Createspace. HarperCollins is using Authonomy to net authors for Createspace.
Link | February 8th, 2010 at 8:32 am
TeddyPig wrote,
I know they are not a publisher Mrs Giggles but the idea is that promoting Authonomy as some way to become traditionally published by going through this process without also mentioning depending on what the book is about that traditional publishers might also have a problem with that process when considering “right of first publication” etc etc…
As I said these publishers have never struck me as above board to begin with since they are very willing to publish books like the one above so I am not surprised by them jumping on board self publishing or anything that might earn them a few more bucks for advertising to their slush pile.
The point was “to lose integrity” you have to have integrity in the first place.
Link | February 8th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Jake Cullen wrote,
HIV is a disease that is still incurable today. We should always practice safe sex and also educate our people how to avoid the spread of this disease.
Link | March 1st, 2010 at 5:22 am