Christian Concern's Andrea Minichiello Williams spouts more hateful tosh

WILLIAMS, a Christian fundie notorious for generating hatred towards gays, lesbians, transsexuals and other  who don’t share her abhorrent prejudices, has had the bare-faced cheek to accuse the LGBT community of behaving like ‘Nazis’ for taking a stand against a ‘pray-away-away’ the gay cult called Core Issues Trust (CIT).

 

Image via YouTube

Responding to news that CIT has had its Barclays Bank account closed, the deranged Williams, above, slammed the LGBT community for waging “a cruel campaign of intimidation and harassment” against CIT.

In a statement to Fox News, she voiced concern that this type of “mob rule” could soon impact the Christian community in more significant ways. She said:

If it is CIT first, it will be churches next. This kind of demonisation and refusing of services to a Christian ministry is reminiscent of how Jewish businesses were treated under Nazi rule.

Wearing her other hat – the demented bigot is also Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre – Williams said on Christian Concern’s website:

If banks and other service providers start to placate social media campaigns by unilaterally terminating their accounts then the UK will be a very difficult place for biblically faithful Christian ministries.

Christian Concern also reported that CIT has received over 300 nuisance phone calls and numerous hateful messages. Its email address has been signed up to porn sites and other mailing lists.

Image via YouTube

CC said that on social media there has been a campaign of aggressive trolling and dehumanising of CEO Mike Davidson, above, Trustee Matthew Grech and Co-Worker Kylie Delia.

A text message hoped that staff family members are raped and killed. Multiple complaints to social media sites were made about CIT. CIT videos were taken down by Facebook as was the CIT banner.

CIT Instagram content was removed. CIT staff were blocked from posting on Facebook and were unable to block trolls.

Christian Concern also pointed out that an outfit associated with CIT – The International Federation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice – has also had its Barclays account terminated.

Davidson claimed:

A coordinated campaign has resulted in our ministry coming under immense pressure and key service providers canceling their services, action which we consider to be discriminatory.

Jayne Ozanne, a gay evangelical leading the effort against CIT, has accused Davidson of being:

A practicer and promoter of conversion therapy.

Ozanne, who published a UK survey on faith and sexuality, has asked us to point out that she has in no way been involved in any hate campaigns or death threats against the Core Issues Trust and has herself been receiving hate mail after Fox News mentioned her.

Her survey had 4,613 respondents, 458 of whom said there had been attempts to change their sexuality. A total of 193 said they had experienced suicidal thoughts and 91 said they had attempted suicide. Twenty-two people reported that they had been forced to undergo sexual activity with someone of the opposite gender.

CIT’s website says:

On Friday 3 July Tweets appeared pressuring Barclays Bank to stop providing CIT with services. On Monday 20 July Barclays appears to have agreed to this request by informing both CIT and IFTCC that their accounts will be closing in two months, mid-September.

The International Federation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice, a project supported by CIT has also received closure notice.

Barclays Bank, a top-ranking employer of Stonewall’s list has provided no explanation for the decision. Since 28 June 2020, CIT has faced a co-ordinated, aggressive campaign from activists who pejoratively label their work as ‘conversion therapy’.

These incitements via social media have now been reported in detail to the Parliamentary Petitions Committee currently inviting evidence submissions of online abuse, and as Serious Incident Reports to the Charity Commission of Northern Ireland. Some of the abuse received has been reported to the police.

CIT offers talking therapy to people who want to explore moving away from unwanted same-sex attraction and gender confusions. More specifically the organisation offers ‘SAFE-T’ (Sexual Attraction Fluidity Exploration in Therapy).

Davidson said of the phrase “conversion therapy:

This is a pejorative, imposed term, coined by an American gay activist, Dr Douglas Haldeman in 1991, that names some extremes such as electro-shock and aversion techniques only ever conducted by medics, long since abandoned from the 60s, or extreme behaviours already outlawed such as ‘corrective’ rape for which there are no prosecutions in the UK. 

Because the term speaks of talking therapies and counselling as “pseudo-science” in association with these extremes, to be heard defending talking therapy and counselling for unwanted same-sex attractions is then taken to be a defence of the indefensible ‘Conversion Therapy’ label. We reject this accusatory term.

Meanwhile the UK government is edging towards banning outfits like CIT – and it was reported last week that Mexico City had banned conversion therapy.

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