Regarding The Vigilant Christian Mario, Anti-LGBT Preacher

[SoleLove]

The Vigilant Christian Mario, who has a huge following, is now admitting it was a mistake for him to follow "a brother in the Lord's advice and not take medication." He acknowledges that in his case, prayer alone ain't sufficient (to treat his bipolar, anxiety and panic attacks).

But at the same time, he *insists* it is possible for LGBTs to be "cured" through prayer alone (and possibly so-called conversion therapies that include prayers).

I am sincerely worried about the negative impact his vlog may have on the way his viewers see LGBTs, their reality, and on the nefarious impact it may have on young, impressionable LGBT Christians who may believe his words!


As he knows, there is absolutely no mood stabilizer or antipsychotic on the market to "cure" LGBTs, make LGBs completely heterosexual and transgenders completely cisgender.

Besides, the World Health Organization stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental illness and sexual dysfunction decades ago, so have countries such as Canada, France, the US and even China! France has also declassified transgenderism as a mental illness.

"Medical, scientific, and government organizations in the United States and Britain have expressed concern over conversion therapy and consider it potentially harmful." Such organizations include the American Psychiatric Association. The Israeli Ministry of Health holds the same stance.


He knows that there is not any pill that may "cure" or even "soothe" homosexuality, bisexuality or transgenderism, so what makes him so certain "a relationship w/ the Lord" alone can cure it all?

According to him, the following biblical verse suggests LGBTs may be "cured": "2 Corinthians 5:17 therefor if anyone is in Christ THEY ARE A NEW CREATION: old things HAVE PASSED AWAY; behold ALL THINGS ARE MADE NEW".

Why hasn't God completely healed him yet then?


His YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheVigilantChristian/videos

 

[gb2000ie]

Humans pretending to speak for God are all dangerous. Even if she does exist, no mere human can know for sure what she wants.

Telling people who are perfectly healthy that they are sick is a form of mental torture IMO - I have no time for these dangerous extremists.

B.

 

[SoleLove]

Yeah, but he's now crying and crying in online videos over his bipolar gaining tons of sympathy. Heck, many girls would now want to bed him! lol

He seems sincere when discussing his bipolar; he's shedding real tears. If lying and it's just for show and ad money, he's a Hell of a good actor! What's bothering me is what makes him so certain prayer alone can "cure" LGBTs when prayer alone won't heal his own bipolar, and all the people his ministries influence...

 

[gb2000ie]

Yeah, but he's now crying and crying in online videos over his bipolar gaining tons of sympathy. Heck, many girls would now want to bed him! lol

He seems sincere when discussing his bipolar; he's shedding real tears. If lying and it's just for show and ad money, he's a Hell of a good actor! What's bothering me is what makes him so certain prayer alone can "cure" LGBTs when prayer alone won't heal his own bipolar, and all the people his ministries influence...

Humans have a spectacular ability to compartmentalise - to hold utterly incompatible views simultaneously, with their heads exploding in a ball of logic.

The bible may be wrong about bi-polar, but that is the ONLY thing it is wrong about - it is perfect and inerring in every other way.

Makes no logical sense at all - but humans can hold that kind of shit in their heads without vanishing in a puff of logic.

B.

 

[topdog]

Well, I was in ex-gay christian therapy in the 1980's, so I can relate.

What you have is the age-old question: How do you resolve a dissonance between traditional religious doctrine, and contradicting real-world facts? This is a bigger deal than just adjusting to a new piece of information. It's like pulling a piece out of a Jenga 3D puzzle, knowing that the entire structure could topple at any moment.

Classic example: Scriptures say that the sun revolves around the earth, but science now says that the earth revolves around the sun.

First of all, if your faith tradition isn't giving you anything of value, and you encounter a dilemma like this then the answer is easy - dump the religion. Problem solved.

But if your faith is, let's say "working" for you, then you are left with a problem.

• Some people will dump the religion anyway - call it a crises of faith - maybe feel like they were sold a cheap bill of goods, and move on.
• Some will reject the real world facts; question the motives of those presenting them; call it a test of their faith to hold strong, even in the face of damning evidence.
• Some may find enough resilience and flexibility in their faith to incorporate the new information; make adjustments rather than throw away religion.

The last has been my path. (They are all plausible.) And I have noticed that it is easier if you are the kind of person that can say, "Well, I guess I misinterpreted those beliefs. The big picture (love, forgiveness) is solid, but I know more now than I did before." If you are the kind of person that defines what is right once, and then never goes back to reconsider, then the flexible path own't be appealing.

It looks like Mario is taking the second option.

I will say that Mario is in a shrinking minority. Most of the christian counseling organizations from my day have either gone out of business, or recognized that people don't change their sexual orientation, through prayer or any other means. They may still think that gay sex is sin, but they have stopped trying to change people.

This, of course, leaves them trying to explain why some people are gay, through no fault of their own - one could even say they were "created" that way by God - and why their love should be off limits.

Millions of American christians have filed the gay thing in the same category with "earth revolves around the sun" and "women should keep their heads covered" - something that was part of the culture back in the day, but not part of the Bible message for the 21st century.

 

[SoleLove]

I have edited my first post and clarified it a little:

"The Vigilant Christian Mario, who has a huge following, is now admitting it was a mistake for him to follow "a brother in the Lord's advice and not take medication." He acknowledges that in his case, prayer alone ain't sufficient (to treat his bipolar, anxiety and panic attacks)."


Same-sex attraction and transgenderism could be referred to as mental states, and possibly even physical or physiological states. As for bipolar, anxiety and panic attacks, those could be seen as mental states but also conditions caused by chemical imbalance.

Mario insists it is possible for prayer alone to "cure" same-sex attraction and transgenderism, but now admits prayer alone is not sufficient for his own mental (and possibly chemical) condition — he is not making sense.

I have taken the time to discuss w/ followers of Mario, and they usually come up w/ the following answers:

1. "Homosexuality is a choice (as in a conscious choice)." One could argue some adult actresses and actors more or less choose bisexuality, and it's true that some individuals like to experiment w/ their sexuality, but from basic observation, it appears the vast majority of human beings did not consciously chose their sexual orientation.

2. "Homosexuality is a symptom of demonic possession, a trap from Satan, etc." If so, fervent prayers and exorcism could "cure it", right? Why are conversion therapies so ineffective, then?

3. "Homosexuality is a mental illness, some sort of a sexual dysfunction." The WHO no longer regards it as such, and there is no medication on the market to "treat it"...

4. "Homosexuality is caused by sexual abuse or parental abuse." How many heterosexuals did suffer from sexual and/or parental abuse?

5. Insults...


"It looks like Mario is taking the second option. I will say that Mario is in a shrinking minority."

I agree that he fits in that second category, but is he truly in a shrinking minority? He has a rather large viewership, and it keeps on growing. Reading replies, I see that a whole lot of people agree w/ him and support him.

He's also a skilled businessman. He named himself (The Vigilant Christian) after The Vigilant Citizen. After Prince's passing, Mario made a video on how he was Illuminati blood-sacrificed, and it racked over 66 000 views within several hours!

That video is now close to getting 1 million views. His two other video's on Prince being blood-sacrificed have racked up over 430 000 views and 557 000 views.

Just a week ago, he uploaded three videos in a row on supposedly ex-gay individuals now "free from the bondage of homosexuality"; over 22 000 views, 9 200 views and 12 600 views respectively.

His last 5 videos on his bipolar have now racked up over 54 700 views, and judging by replies and likes, most views seem to come from followers.

 

[SoleLove]

Here's the latest upload by The Vigilant Christian. What about pro-LGBT Christians? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT-affirming_Christian_denominations
All Mario is doing here is pinning LGBTs and allies against Christians when many LGBT and allies are in fact Christian...

He now admits he needs medication for his bipolar and a relation w/ the Lord & prayer ain't enough, but he insists LGBTs can be "cured" through prayer alone...

This cartoon is right about one thing, though... I hate all them bigots for they hate us too, whether they admit it or not. Just read the comments left... Why deprive us of our right just because they disagree? What about the majority that agrees?

 

[Otage]

Control by fear, that's what all extremists need. Some thing for people to be afraid of, some thing to cure, some thing to fight against. It's easier to blind people into religious frenzy with hate, than with boring old love and peace. And gays just are an easy target for them ofthen because of their beliefs, and racism towards another race is seen nowdays as an too big of an taboo even for most of the extremists (religious ones). Hate needs no logic, lies are good enough.