Of Patoots and Horses

Via Ed Brayton, we have a truly crazed homophobe:

An American church is promising gay men they will be cured of their homosexuality if they stroke horses.

Okay, that unintentional humor is bad enough ... but it gets worse:

The Cowboy Church of Virginia, led by chief pastor Raymond Bell, believes homosexuality and other 'addictions' can be cured by Equine Assisted Psychotherapy.

Horse therapy, in the right hands, can be used to help overcome fears, develop communication skills, and is generally beneficial to mental health.

But Bell says the horses in his church, a cowboy ranch in the south, are part of teaching men to stop being gay and encourage them to be more masculine.

Cowboy Church ... Equine Assisted Psychotherapy ... and, OMG, "Horse therapy, in the right hands" ...

Whatever else Raymond Bell is, he is a walking, talking, gum chewing (but not, of course, all at once) epitome of unconscious hilarity.
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Update: As Jon Fleming notes in the comments, the story is being challenged: Equine Assisted Therapy Pastor Denies Gay Therapy Story and I Have Updated My Post on Generalizing Research on One Type of Therapy to Another Type of Therapy – UPDATED