If you’re driving through Louisville’s downtown area, you might be unfortunate enough to see this billboard, which was erected by an “ex-gay” organization called Abba’s Delight:
Not everyone who is straight is happy. They too have options, and no one should be pressured into the life-destroying fraud that is “ex-gay” therapy. Let’s find out more about Abba’s Delight, a name that doesn’t sound weird or repressed at all:
Abba’s Delight founder Daniel Mingo says the billboard, which tells unhappy gay people that “you have options,” was intended to be a helpful message, so he was taken aback by the negative feedback he’s gotten. Gay reform ministries are quackery to begin with, but they usually aren’t this passive-aggressive. Abba’s Delight is still denouncing homosexuality and claiming it’s incompatible with religious faith, but if gay people are happy being sinful and wrong, this ministry seems to say, they can have at it.
Mingo, the aforementioned founder, explains that he was never out of the closet, but rather just having sex behind his wife’s back for years. Instead of working through this with a real therapist and choosing the option best suited for both him and for his wife, Fran, Mingo decided to found a sham “ex-gay” ministry based on false promises and junk science:
Daniel became a born-again Christian at age 17, yet for nearly 30 years secretly involved himself in homosexual activity through anonymous encounters.
Intensely pursuing discipleship in Jesus while dying to the temptations of same sex attractions proved a monumental internal conflict, yet Daniel neither took on a gay identity nor immersed himself in the gay culture. Realizing he had been feeding a sexual addiction for nearly 30 years, Daniel went into recovery in 1993 through mentor counseling and attending support/recovery group meetings, and continues that overcoming process today.
Daniel served for 4 ½ years as the Louisville Branch Director of CrossOver, Inc beginning in 2003, then established Abba’s Delight in April 2008, which serves the Louisville, KY and Southern IN areas. Both ministries were Exodus International member ministries at one time. In ministry, Daniel relies on the Bible as the inerrant Word of God; the leading of the Holy Spirit; his 20+ years of experience pursuing his own sexual addiction recovery and purity; and the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit to change, and more perfectly conform, His saints to the image of Jesus.
Daniel and his wife, Fran, were married in 1983 and have three adult sons.
Oh dear. Here is a local news report on the billboard, in which the founder explains that he placed the billboard in the Highlands, which is a very gay area. That way the predator’s message can reach the greatest number of prey. Mingo explains that he really doesn’t want to change people (right), but simply to “disciple” them, so that God can change them. As we, of course, already know, sexual orientation cannot be changed through prayer (or any other methods), which sets up any clients who visit Mingo for failure that often leads to further depression, alienation and, in tragic cases, suicide.
Great life’s work you got there, Mingo.
[h/t Joe]
