Dr. George Alan Rekers would like us to remember this passage from the Gospel according to Mark:

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Like many wretched sinners who try to be decent Christians, I like this passage, because it gives me hope that I have a place in Christ's world.

Dr. Rekers — a prominent advocate of the proposition that homosexuality is something that can be "cured" — would like us to keep that passage in mind when considering why he might have paid a young man to accompany him on a ten-day European trip. The young man in question has a profile on a social networking site, of sorts:

The pictures on the Rentboy.com profile show a shirtless young man with delicate features, guileless eyes, and sun-kissed, hairless skin. The profile touts his "smooth, sweet, tight ass" and "perfectly built 8 inch cock (uncut)" and explains he is "sensual," "wild," and "up for anything" — as long you ask first. And as long as you pay.

Dr. Rekers would like us to bear the Mark 2:17 theory in mind to the exclusion of his prior explanation, which is now non-operative:

Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. "I had surgery," Rekers said, "and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." (Medical problems didn't stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)

No, Dr. Rekers explains, his real purpose was ministry.

My hero is Jesus Christ who loves even the culturally despised people, including sexual sinners and prostitutes. Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them.

Dr. Rekers, if you're listening, I want to tell you two things: (1) I am, among other things, prideful, wrathful, slothful, and gluttonous, and (2) I've always wanted to take a three-week trip to Australia.

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