from Ethical Issues
By Elaine Silodor Berk, Co-Director of JONAH (www.jonahweb.org)
March 22, 2007 - The answer is "We don't know what happened," but obviously Montel Williams and his staff are to be credited with producing an "almost fair" show carved out of a studio taping that completely railroaded reparative therapy and the concept of being able to grow out of homosexuality.
The Taping Of The Show On February 28, 2007 In New York City:
I was in the audience, along with my Co-Director at JONAH, Arthur Goldberg, and about 10 supporters of the concept of reparative/reorientation/change therapy. The majority of the audience was composed of gay activists and members of pro-gay organizations.
We expected "our side of the story" to be given short shrift, but we didn't expect the pompous, cynical attitude that Montel Williams showed towards his guests who were trying to share their stories of going from gay to straight. Montel showed none of this cynicism towards his guests who tried to change, but failed-- their stories were accepted with affirmation.
Here are the words of Richard Cohen, Director of the International Healing Foundation, describing the taping. Richard was one of Montel's guests who was supposed to appear on the stage but got bumped to the audience a few days before the show was taped in order to make room for Mike Jones, the male prostitute who outed Ted Haggard:
"Montel was anything but tolerant. In fact, it was more like an ambush. He was dead set against ministries and therapies that assist those with unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA). He attacked Alan Chambers [of Exodus] over and over again. . . he did his best to denigrate the possibility of change.
Montel asked me one question, and never called on me again. He didn't want to hear about the wonderful life I have as a changed man, nor the many powerful stories of clients who came out straight.
It was a very unpleasant experience to say the least. I found Montel to be bigoted, prejudiced and intolerant from start to finish. So much for diversity!"
The Actual Televising Of The Show
"Homosexuality. . . Can It Be Cured?" On March 15, 2007
My colleagues and I were quite sure the actual show would be worse than the taping. Surprisingly, and thankfully, we were wrong. The stories of those who had grown out of homosexuality were given almost equal time to the stories of those who did not change. The approximate breakdown of screen-time minutes allowed for each side: 19 minutes for those against the possibility of change; 15 minutes for those who had changed.
Alan Chambers of Exodus was favorably shown telling his personal story, and Montel's worst badgering of Alan was cut from the taping. Alan was given the most screen time of anyone on the show with 11 minutes on camera.
Richard Cohen was on camera only about 3 minutes but gave a strong presentation of his story.
The biggest surprise was that Arthur Goldberg was on screen for the last minute of the show. We thought Arthur would be cut completely because he shouted comments from the audience and was not scheduled to be on the show. Arthur is shown forcefully explaining how the Hebrew Bible uses the word "abomination" in relation to homosexuality. Arthur stated that the word abomination is never used to describe a person, but is only used to describe homosexual behavior and that the person committing the act is considered to have been "led astray" by his/her same-sex attraction.
Was the Show Fair and Balanced?Fair and balanced? No. However, at least "our side of the story" was allowed to be heard so that our message that "change is possible" reached the large audience who watches the Montel Williams Show. For many viewers, this may have been the first time they ever heard that change is possible and for that opportunity we have to thank Montel Williams and his staff.