John Smid and me-Graduation 1998 (above) & John Smid today (left) By now many have heard that Tennessee's Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities determined that the "ex-gay" program, Love in Action, is operating two “unlicensed mental health supportive living facilities”. LIA has until Friday, September 23 to respond. If LIA statements in Eartha Jane Melzer's article are indicative to how the "change" program might respond, we may see LIA change right before our eyes from a clinical mental health compound into a house of praise and worship. Gerard Wellman, business administrator for Love in Action, and a former Love in Action client, said Sept. 13 that the organization has been in contact with the state but would not comment further. “As a church, we operate under a different set of rules,” Wellman said. Curious, and what rules might these be? What is even more curious is that according to LIA's site only one staff member ...
Musings of Peterson Toscano, an ex-gay survivor and creator of Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House, Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible, and Bubble and Squeak podcast.

Comments
j.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
You always write well (when are you starting a blog???? :-)
CA, I'll make sure that Marvin gets a print out of that wikipedia page. Thanks!
It can be attractive to simply submit, not have to think, not have to choose what to do but it's never really true. Even if forced at gunpoint to do something, you have a choice. Not a very attractive one, but a choice none the less.
I think it's extremely important that people question authority where it's appropriate. You can't just pick someone, submit to them, and switch your brain off.
You were given the knowledge of good and evil, not to pass it up and let someone else be your concience, but so that you could do what's right, yourself.
You are first of all, and always, responsible for your own actions. And if there is going to be a great judgement at the end, I don't think the argument "but my pastor told me to" is going to cut much wood with the great Judge.
Dang, gone all philosophical. Well, as you may have guessed, I'm not all that good at submitting to authority either. I believe that's a good thing though. I submit only if I choose to. It means I'm awkward, but it also means I can face the mirror (or the Judge) without apology.