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Andrew Hartzler, 25, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and his family was part of a conservative evangelical religious sect called the International House of Prayer. He told Insider that when he first came out to his parents at 14, they sent him to an anti-gay conversion camp.
"It was like some of the darkest moments of my entire life," he said of the experience. "It basically just teaches you, like, learned self-hate, like learning to repress like half of your mind. It's exhausting."
At Christmas break during his sophomore year, he once again came out to his parents. It didn't go well.
"I had had enough of lying to my parents about being 'straight.' And I told them that I was lying to them the whole time during conversion therapy and that I was gay and there was no changing me. And I really put my foot down," he said.
Sensing that something might happen when he returned to school, Hartzler told Insider he secretly ordered and set up surveillance cameras while he was home that Christmas. He had been concerned that his parents might go through the things he had left at home while he wasn't there, and he wanted to monitor his stuff while he was at school.
Hartzler said his parents contacted evangelist John Jacobs to perform the ceremony. Jacobs was the founder of The Power Team, a group of bodybuilding Christians that showed their belief in Christ by tearing apart phone books and lifting weights, though he stepped back from the group in 2003. (The Power Team is the inspiration for Adam Devine's "God Squad" in "The Righteous Gemstones.")
Hartzler said he wasn't surprised that his parents had called Jacobs to rid his room of the "devil."
"My father thought my identity issues were a 'demonic stronghold,'" he said. "He always used that type of language around my sexuality."
exorcist video:
https://imgur.com/gallery/XahA3Ts
Here is the OG viral post for people who like to read comments:
https://imgur.com/gallery/o3d2IOa
goodtimehadbyall
Kudos for that dude for having the courage to be himself around family members like that and most importantly, publicly calling her bullshit out.
HitandRyan
Crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good, when the levee breaks mama you got to move
getyourfruitoffmeyoudamndirtygrapes
International House of Prayer is a legit cult.
rumandbass
How do people talk and smile at the same time? It makes me feel really strange to do that.
manamongstyou
IHOP should sue.
Heelcat70
I thought the name iHOP was already trademarked.
neverhappytoasterdog
Giving the real IHOP a bad name.
sadurdaynight
The dumb kids and the karens have been allowed a lot of political position and exposure, and they're trying to drag everyone down with them.
LebistusReticulatis
Great video! It’s important to have other voices than radical christians who do not follow the teachings of Christ
Imyerhuckleberry80
Never heard this super-original talking point before lol..
DeathLemons
We keep tolerating people who exhibit such hate and ignorance.
ClutteredDesk
Sucks to have his family, but DAMN he's got a fine smile.
scoutMoonDiver
pukezz
It would be great if religious institutions were being silenced, because they literally never shut the fuck up.
Rufferstuff
Pray the gay away.
PrinceOfWhales
They "chose" to be straight in exactly the same way you "chose" to be gay. FFS, why do they not understand this?
katieNoodleTraveler
Poor dude, that's rough. My uncle is gay, and my mom hasn't spoken to him since I was a kid (I'm nearly 40 for reference). I can't even understand how people can do this sort of thing to their own family members.
Emiloo74
One of Mom's friends was asked to choose his long-term partner or a legit fortune from his family if he "chose" to be straight and get right with their god. He chose his partner. They lost a phenomenal person as their son. Fuck that kind of faith.
FlaminkoFactor
Reminds me of the Baldwin quote about equality feeling like oppression to oppressors. Keep on crying ya nasty bigoted Karen
JiffyGee
If that were me, I’d cover every fucking inch of that room in glitter. Then when you saw glitter anywhere else in the house (and I was home) I’d gasp and loudly exclaim for everyone “look! The gay! It’s spreading!” And cackle whilst walking off.
JiffyGee
Also set up Bluetooth speakers in the whole house and randomly play little quiet sound bites. “Yaaas queen”, “It’s Britney bitch”, opening part of YMCA, etc. Till it drove everyone crazy.
ChromePlatedEquator
"Let me be clear- Obergefell is not in any danger..........today."
N0tDave
Ah Missouri, you're such a shithole. Pop down to the Ozarks and talk to some of this trailer trash, they honestly believe Trans are everywhere and are coming to take away your kids and way of life. The Gay bashing has gotten way worse too. The Megachurches haven't helped in the slightest, as to be expected.
Copperbrat
Nothing more vile than people who produce phony tears to sway someone's mind. Manipulative bitch.
Kellibrew87
Go fuck your self you self righteous bitch
ImmaCatImmaSexyCat
If you want federal funding then you stop discriminating. Not a hard concept.
EricPisch
Dear America where the hell did all these fascists come from?
boognish115
America, sadly. The same circles of people have been trying to turn this country fascist since at least the early 1900s, and have grown in numbers since Trump’s election gave them a national platform.
CaldariBob
"International House of Prayer". IHOP. They called themselves the IHOP. Jesus fucking Christ...
ChromePlatedEquator
I have never ever had a gay couple come to my door and push their "ideology" on me, but I've a shitload of Christians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses etc etc etc do it. I'd much prefer the former than the latter.
JustFeedMePieDammit
Whoof that poor dude has a real shit family =\
kitticuskattus
He seems remarkably well balanced considering
huho
Must be an akward thangsgiving
jodeum21383950
I'm from Missouri. Trust me when I say there's a LOT of shit families with relatives in the State Senate and House right now.
NarratesTheDarkerStory
International House of Prayer is fucked up too. I used to live by one. they had a small place in a strip mall. within a year they had the whole strip mall. then they moved to a bigger place.
JustFeedMePieDammit
I hate that their church name makes me want pancakes.
orangeyougladididntsaypoop
Yeah. Kids family is pure evil. Wish they would drive off a cliff. Fuck em
Fedotia
Poor dude is hecka strong for still being able to smile where others would have commited suicide.
TheoreticalString
And the exorcist is hecka strong to be able to tear through phone books and basic compassion with his nonsensical witch doctery.
FizzyBacon
Yup, and he still kept his head on his shoulders and lives life.
notacobra
The biggest irony of the massive conservative movement against LGBTQI+ is that they are pushing more people in that direction. Instead of all communities mingling, they're forcing an "us vs them' scenario where each of us finds ourselves identifying more with others who are queer than we may have done otherwise. I'm a lesbian, but I can appreciate men. Had I not been forced into the queer group by Christians with whom I didn't align, I might have had a very different life. Nature vs nurture.
Heninthefoxden
I'm bisexual and all this hate just turns me into more of an ally and more entrenched. Like, fuck these people trying to tell ME how it's okay to live MY life.
BurntRamen
if they can't pray the gay away, they'll lock the gay away and/or attempt to aggressively and maliciously eradicate the gay in the name of peace, love and forgiveness.
SteveMND
CanadaEhBuddy
Half expected him to walk away have have chaps and a thong on as a joke
euphoricopportunity
Nice cropping.
thedudeman519
Nice shitting, croplord!
PlankTableGo
Unpopular opinion: If this guy so upset with Christian doctrine & scripture, why is he still even in the clergy, let alone the religion? The "bad" ones have literally the same book as the so-called "good" ones.
inkasep1
Because religion isn't the problem. It's organized religion. It's a very important distinction. There are thousands of genuinely good christians scattered out there throughout the world, many ashamed of the way their faith is portrayed. Many do try to fight it. Others simply live their lives using the messages in the bible as a sort of aesop's fables, a set of stories to lead one to live with decent morals and be a good person.
SteveMND
"Religion can be good for a person, but it is terrible for a people."
Thornaxe
I was taught in confirmation that liberal Christian’s should “avoid criticizing our brothers and sisters in the faith”. Well……that advice has gotten us to where we are today. Vast swaths of people aren’t aware that there are loving, caring Christian groups out there.
GCRust
Indeed. We're told that we should bring concerns about behavior up to others in private with Church Elders...where we're quickly ganged up on because they isolate us from each other.
inkasep1
Yeah while the message was never spread it's clear many have given up on that concept. They're now all telling their fellow christians to, as this man stated, stop fucking whining.
inkasep1
Religion, christianity especially, goes corrupt when people with power are allowed to meddle with it. Perfect archaic example being when the pope could forgive your sins if you paid him cash. But some few people are immune to it, and they simply lean on the concept of a higher power for psychological comfort to live their best lives. Truth be told I consider it a lost cause, but if it still does good for some people, more power to them.
Syrpynt
inkasep1
It's not the expectation, as someone whose mother is one such person. It's just being raised on concepts, rather than the divine reward itself. We were all raised on certain stories or lessons to learn WHY a thing is bad. From tortoise and the hare to the wolf and sour grapes. There ARE parables in the bible that are very plainly meant to be like "this is why you shouldn't do this dickish thing, because it will end out like this" and it's basically the same thing.
cosinewave
They want to do the forcing and the silencing. When they cannot, they feel they are being silenced.
afewgoodhens
"We're being silenced!!" she sobs on television to an audience of 8 billion people from the floor of the US House of Representatives.
1ahorseIbowdeepinme
Pervaroo
ClutteredDesk
Pardon me, but YOINK!
trigaranus
Not to piddle into anyone's punch here, but if you read the book, the old feller with the big beard is pretty damn clear about just how homophobic he is. (And yep, that includes the New Testament.) Let's maybe not act as if a vengeful Levantine skydaddy with a penchant for genocide and no understanding of human psychology has our best interest at heart.
1ahorseIbowdeepinme
I love the atheists who are like "I don't believe in God but I have a very rigid belief system in what God said".
trigaranus
Meh, if you have a book that -- amongst other atrocities throughout -- directly advocates the execution of homosexual men, and whose "vanilla update New Testament" explicitly excludes men-who-lie-with-men from paradise, that is not a me problem. I wish you the best with that book.
1ahorseIbowdeepinme
The book you don't believe in but have strong opinions on how everyone else should interpret? K.
trigaranus
Sure. As I said, not a me problem.