Focus on the Family this week warned conservative Christians not to watch the upcoming Lifetime TV movie, “Prayers For Bobby.” (Previous TWO coverage.)
The movie truthfully recalls the suffering of a Christian mother after her attempt to make her son turn ex-gay resulted in the son’s suicide.
The mother remains Christian, but today encourages parents to persue reconciliation rather than warfare against their gay teen-agers and adult offspring. The movie and a related book were produced with the assistance and support of the mother.
Focus on the Family does not explicitly tell would-be viewers not to watch; instead, Focus creates a climate of fear which is intended to scare conservative Christian readers away from media that are deemed to be ideologically damaging to Focus ideology.
First, Focus lies about the movie, claiming that it “casts Christians in (an) ugly role.” Then, Focus:
- falsely describes the son as “gay-identified,”
- falsely blames the son’s homosexuality — and the absence of a father — for the suicide,
- falsely implies that the mother is victimized by an anti-Christian movie, and
- falsely states that the movie does not respect a “redemptive” view of Christianity.
Instead of encouraging parents to make peace with their children, Focus idolizes antigay mother Terri Brown, who for 17 years has demanded in vain that her son pray-away-the-gay while she does the same.
Focus antigay activist Jeff Johnston says that the movie’s message against ex-gay falsehoods, parental ignorance, rejection, and untreated depression “runs contrary to God’ [message].”
