According to indefatigable US LGBT rights campaigner Wayne Besen, there is a sordid case of historic but recent adolescent sexual abuse at Kansas City Missouri’s “Desert Stream Ministries,” a so-called “exgay ministry.”

As a result of the incident, Besen has demanded that the US Exodus International national ‘exgay’ organisation close down Desert Stream, after its own leader, Andy Comiskey, recently disclosed on his own weblog that Desert Stream Ministries had been expelled from its former Vineyard Anaheim (California) host church after an incident where a DSM “counsellor” had sexually abused an adolescent male who sought the organisations help. According to Comiskey, the boys parents then allegedly “blackmailed” DSM, there were “police interrogations,” insurance company investigations and relocation from the Anaheim facilities to Kansas City, Missouri.

I wish Wayne well in this endeavour, although Christian Right pressure groups aren’t particularly noted for acknowledgement of malfeasance and any concept of public accountability for misdeeds. Or expulsion of extremists or predatory individuals, for that matter. Still, it might be worth asking whether local fundamentalist bookshops still harbour copies of Comiskey’s Pursuing Sexual Wholeness (Creation House: 1989).

Recommended:

Wayne Besen: “Desert Screams: Exgay leaders shocking admissions of ministry’s sexual abuse” Truth Wins Out: 13.03.10: http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/2010/03/7561

Comiskey Admission: http://andycomiskey.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/falling-mercies