Evidently, quite a few. Another culture warrior has been outed today. The Metro Daily reports:
A conservative Christian legal group has fired one of its senior attorneys after reports surfaced on the Internet that he may have had romantic relationships with younger men.
The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), founded by anti-gay televangelist Pat Robertson and led by Jay Sekulow (pictured above), confirmed in a statement provided to Metro Weekly that James Henderson, a senior counsel with the group who focused on federal civil rights and constitutional law, had been fired from the group Sept. 25, one day after a report surfaced on a blog that he may be gay.
“He is no longer affiliated with any ACLJ entity,” said Ronn Torossian of 5W Public Relations in an email to Metro Weekly. “ACLJ will not comment further on this personnel matter.”
ACLJ’s confirmation comes after two blogs — Exposed Politics and The Patriot-Ombudsman — published troves of information about Henderson and his relationship with two younger men. Henderson is married and has eight children.
Although there has been speculation as to the age of the two men, it is unclear if they were under the age of consent in the state of Virginia where Henderson lives.
According to the two bloggers, Henderson used a Facebook account to communicate with the two men. Conversations obtained and published by the two websites indicate that Henderson may have provided the younger men, who appear to be possibly younger than 21, with alcohol and marijuana. The Facebook account cited by the bloggers has since been deleted.
Neither blogger has indicated how they obtained the mountain of information published last week. The editor of Exposed Politics, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, told Metro Weekly he received an anonymous tip alerting him to the story.
Metro Weekly contacted Henderson at his home in Springfield, Va. Henderson referred queries to his lawyer, Christopher Zampogna, a civil rights employment attorney located in D.C.
Zampogna would not comment on the grounds for Henderson’s termination or what legal action his client is considering, but did confirm that ACLJ had terminated Henderson’s employment.
ACLJ, which is located in D.C., was founded in 1990 by Robertson as a means to counter the American Civil Liberties Union. In recent years, ACLJ has argued a number of cases before the Supreme Court, including several cases regarding prayer in public schools and demonstrations outside abortion clinics.
Over the years, Robertson has repeatedly made anti-gay comments, including describing gay people as suffering from a sickness and accusing them of targeting children for recruitment. He has also advocated for discrimination against gay people, equating them with criminals.
Although it does not appear Henderson worked specifically on any anti-gay cases during his time at ACLJ, the organization nevertheless remains an arm of Robertson’s broader social-conservative crusade.
For more than a week, ACLJ has refused to comment on Henderson’s termination. After the story began to percolate on the Internet, ACLJ scrubbed Henderson from its website, deleting his bio page and the multiple articles Henderson wrote during his years at the organization…
I am no longer surprised by reports such as this. Evangelicalism promotes sexual repression and dysfunction, and if there is one thing I know about sexuality, you can’t repress it forever. I think there are countless Evangelical gay and bisexual men in prominent positions within Evangelicalism. They live secret lives, constantly fearful of being exposed.
How many gays are in the Evangelical Closet? A lot.
What a hypocrite, a twisted bigot.
Hi Bruce,
I know of two Evangelical gays that attended a church I was at for over 10 years and who came out. The hostility from the Evangelical community, not only towards these two young men, but also towards their Evangelical parents was very great.
Both left the church. Unfortunately, one committed suicide. It’s very tragic.
So hostile are so many Evangelicals to same sex oriented persons that it is impossible to even get a discussion going on the topic for fear of open hostility. I tried a couple of times when I was attending the Baptists but got hostile responses like “God said its an abomination” quoting Leviticus and “This will lead to Sodom and Gomorrah with whole cities going gay as we are in the last days just prior to Jesus’ return” or “are you going gay?” My wife also got an angry response, but graciously asked the person “How did Jesus treat outcasts?”
With such anger and hostility to same sex oriented people in so many Evangelical churches, is it any wonder that so many remain in the closet?
Shalom,
John Arthur
I think the biggest problem with the Biblical account of homosexuality is that it everywhere treats it as some sort of excess of heterosexual lust. This seems the natural reaction of some iron age heterosexual patriarch musing on what it would take for him to “go gay.” It’s long past time to get over the Iron Age. It’s long past time to put away childish things. Bravo to Bruce for constantly reminding us of this. A voice in the wilderness.
As a close friend of the family I’m just glad the Hendersons are doing well through all of this. They have always been a close knit support group, and they’re embracing their father (and husband) with loving arms. I pray they continue to show strength through their adversity. God bless you guys!
If you have seen Hotel Transylvania, Count Dracula is this soft spoken soul, but when he vamps out, he becomes this vicious scary person. I laughed when I saw it cause it reminded me of so many evangelicals who talk love of God… but get them on a topic like homosexuals, and they are transformed into a completely different person.
I remember riding home after church with an elderly Southern Baptist woman after Sunday evening service one night. Sweet little old lady….but when asked what she thought of charismatic/pentecostal phenomena, practically grew fangs, and spit…
I left conservative Christianity when I came to the conclusion that LGBT people deserved the right to love and marry one another. That meant I could no longer believe that the Bible was inerrant (or my church’s version thereof). The 2 people who convinced me, by living a loving caring life together, are my husband’s sister and her spouse (they got married). They are good people, and when I reasoned it out in my head I had to reject what is in the Bible regarding these issues. I have NOT found any convincing Liberal Christian interpretation regarding gay marriage, it always seems strained. Easier to believe that the Bible is NOT perfect.