Subject: Mel White speaks on Colin Cook
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 1995 14:53:13 -0500

A Personal Statement for Immediate Release    
Friday, October 27, 1995
>From Dr. Mel White, Minister of Justice, UFMCC
(Available for telephone interviews at 214-878-6908)

     (Dallas, Texas)  Colin Cook's method for 'curing' homosexuality ranks
alongside leaches and lobotomies in the tragic history of medical
malpractice.  I congratulate Rick Cendo, Virginia Culver, and the Denver Post
 for having the courage to expose this leader of the well-intentioned but
totally fraudulent "ex-gay" movement.  I'm sorry that Colin Cook must suffer
this terrible public embarrassment, but I am relieved that the truth about
Colin's personal life has been revealed at last.  
     
    Like myself, tens of thousands of gay men and lesbians in the U.S. have
been victims of the worthless "reparative" or "ex-gay" therapies espoused by
Cook and by Cook's sponsors, Kevin Tebedo's Colorado for Family Values,
 James Dobson's Focus on the Family  and Pat Robertson's 700 Club.  I wasted
a quarter-of-a-century of my life and more than $150,000 of my resources
struggling to "overcome" my homosexual orientation through Cook's unproven
and misleading 'ex-gay' methods.  I know from terrible experience that after
years of trying, Cook's victims end up far worse than where they began.  We
minister to thousands. 

 In my autobiography, Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay And Christian In
America, I describe my painful journey. As late as yesterday, October 26, at
the seminar Cook is teaching at the Colorado Springs Sheraton, Cook discussed
my "case" publicly with conferees, dismissing my struggle with simplistic
contempt, condemning my acceptance of my homosexual orientation, and
denouncing my ministry with God's gay children.

 For years we have monitored this false and inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric of
James Dobson, Kevin Tebedo, Coach McCartney and other sincere but misinformed
Christian leaders. Much of that anti-gay rhetoric flows directly from the
false belief espoused by Colin Cook that homosexuality can and should be
cured.  

 In today's Denver Post, once again we are reminded through Colin Cook's own
personal tragedy, that homosexuality, like heterosexuality, is a gift from
God that cannot and should not be changed.  I invite Colin to accept his
homosexuality as another of God's gifts.  Instead of bearing false witness
and holding out false hope,  it is time for Colin to accept the gift that God
has given him and live his new life with integrity.  He is always welcome to
attend any one of our 300 congregations of the Universal Fellowship of
Metropolitan Community Churches where God's gay and lesbian children find
acceptance and spiritual wholeness at last.