Ex-Gay Watch

Joe Dallas, former leader of Exodus International and self-professed “ex-gay,” was on the Janet Mefferd Show to express his disapproval of Christians who support equality and of Christian members of the Queer community. Dallas, long an opponent of so-called “gay theology” (that is, Biblical exegesis that is affirming of the benign reality of homosexuality in humanity), declares that Satan has a clear role in leading people “astray” to homosexuality in his book When Homosexuality Hits Home.

Satan’s strategy is leading humans astray, whether the arena is doctrinal or moral, is to deceive an individual into thinking that what God has forbidden is not really wrong or destructive, but is, in fact, life enhancing. So it was I the garden when Satan tempted Eve; so it may well be with your loved one. The sin of homosexuality is human nature, but the belief that sin is not really sin comes not from human nature alone but from an ancient and evil messenger.

He is especially concerned for openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, whom he “trembles for,” and worries about how “young people” will be affected by the Gospel that Bishop Robinson preaches -  fearing that they will be told that “homosexuality is legitimate” and can “embrace their homosexuality and do so with God’s approval.”

I suspect that it will be a message to young people stating that homosexuality is legitimate, therefore they can embrace their homosexuality and do so with God’s approval. I am reminded of the warning to those who call good evil and evil good and darkness light. There is a particular judgment, and this is the heart of the matter, there is a particular judgment that is placed biblically on leaders who teach falsehood, it is of course serious when any Christian goes into error, whether moral error or doctrinal error, but you remember James said, ‘my brethren let us not be many teachers because we will receive the greater judgment.’

Dallas also invokes Godwin’s Law while unironically warning people that the Bible can be used to justify just about anything, if you twist it enough:

And as you know, if you took the Bible hard enough you could make it say whatever you want it to, cults can do that, Nazis did that and I’m afraid it’s being done today under the guise of civil rights and gay liberation.

Comparing gays to Nazis and indeed blaming National Socialism on gays is nothing new, but it is still amazing when such hyperbole is spouted by prominent ex-gay figures. His own ministry, Genesis Counseling, claims to help people who are struggling with sexual addiction and homosexuality by having them reclaim their “Godly sexuality.”

Hat tip: Right Wing Watch

The founder of a Brazilian group that claims to heal homosexuals has come out against them in an interview with the “Flying Teapot Project” blog.

The English and philosophy teacher, also a theologian, Sergio Viula, 42, born and resident in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the founders of the Movement for the Healthy Sexuality (MOSES), an evangelical NGO which helps people interested in quitting homosexuality.

He tells a tale familiar to that of John Smid, who recently came out against Exodus. Viula recounts how he got married and had children, only to admit that his attraction to men never went away. In fact, according to him, no gay person had ever succeeded in changing their orientation.

[Interviewer] Didn’t you ever get convinced that you had become ex-gay? Did you ever know that you were deceiving yourself?

[Viula] Today I know that I was deceiving myself. But back then, I thought that every sentiment or attraction was a mere case of ‘temptation’ and that it could be overcome with prayer and dedication to god. In the group, we used to think, basically speaking, that being gay was a sin, which should be confessed and abandoned and, therefore, we would proselytize, counsel, pray, preach, recommend certain books, read the Bible – things that believers usually do, but focusing on homosexuality itself … I worked 18 years totals with the church, MOSES started in 1997. In 2003 I was out. I spent about seven years within the group.

Viula is left with much anger toward the ex-gay industry, and tells of MOSES’ utterly abysmal success rate:

Nobody really quit being gay. There were relationships even within the group, between an activity and another, they would always find time for that. Can you figure out how much suffering to myself and to all of those who have already worked or been influenced by this kind of ‘ministry’? That’s enraging! And there are people repeating that stupid discourse until today.

After Smid and former Exodus Global Alliance counselor Paul Martin, Viula is the third ex-ex-gay leader to come out recently against the movement. The dominoes seem to be falling.

H/T commenter James

It’s not news that the solution Exodus gives to young people for their attraction to the same sex is to refrain from acting on it and “deny themselves for Christ.” But a recent article brings Exodus to a new Orwellian level, this time by saying that being ascetic with one’s interpersonal relationships is a Godly calling when you are gay.

In “Loneliness is Good,” an article cross-posted to the Exodus Student Blog, Mike Goeke tells of his struggle to find Christian male friends after being told doing so would be a way to help heal his homosexuality.

I read many books, and a common ‘cure’ for my problems included finding some good male friends with whom to have healthy, authentic relationships.

This is in line with the disproven hypothesis that gay men become gay because their lack of “authentic” relationships with other men, especially of their fathers. But despite joining an inter-denominational Bible group, Mike found himself more alone than ever:

I sat alone most nights, and rarely spoke to anyone.  I looked around the room and everyone seemed to know everyone else.  Instead of finding friends, my loneliness only seemed to grow heavier.

One night, after he had decided to give up on Bible study altogether, God caused him to come to a realization.

In the dark of my room, as I expressed my frustration, I sensed God speaking into my heart.  He said, not audibly but clear nonetheless, “go to the Bible study to meet ME.”

In the days that followed, I realized that my greatest need at that moment was not connecting with a friend.  My greatest need was connecting with my God.  As I quieted myself down, it became clear to me that God could not entrust me with the kind of friendship I longed for at that time.  I had set up ‘friends’ as a sort of idol and made friendship the key to my joy and my fulfillment and my healing. I would have devoured friends had He given them to me then. God was gracious in many ways to deny me what I so longed for because it compelled me to Him and the true source of my affirmation and identity.  And, amazingly, as I pursued a deeper relationship with God, I found myself developing relationships with other men, and the friendships I had longed for began to happen.

For ex-gays, just about any red flag or stumbling block can be justified as part of the struggle, maybe even as a message from God Himself. Struggling to make friends? God must be denying you friendship for some reason. And it must be related to your struggle with homosexuality. Exodus’ real purpose, it appears, is helping one rationalize all of life’s stumbling blocks into something God intends.

I have gone through several seasons of loneliness.  I believe that God orchestrates those seasons in my life – in all of our lives – to help pull us back to Him.  We can be so prone to lose sight of Him and to make something else or someone else our center.  But when He becomes all we have, we realize more clearly that He is really all we need.  When He, in His godly and relational perfection, speaks affirmation and friendship and love and acceptance into our souls, we are perfectly satisfied.  And when we are perfectly satisfied in Him, we are so much more ready to be a true friend to someone else, and to receive true friendship in a healthy way.

I agree that any obsession or extreme dependency can be unhealthy. It can indeed cause one to lose sight of what’s important – for the religious person, it can cause one to lose sight of God. But why must simple social awkwardness or a struggle to connect with strangers be conflated with one’s struggle with same sex attraction?

God designed us to be in community and to be in friendship.  Those are good things, and things we all must have.  But God did not design us to idolize or worship friends and relationships.

It’s natural for human beings to seek out communion with other human beings. We are, with few exceptions, social creatures. Experiencing loneliness, even in an extreme way, does not mean one is ultimately “idolizing friendships.” But I suspect a different motive behind Goeke’s longing for and wariness of male friendship.

Befriending someone is a natural first step to a romantic relationship – something disallowed as a celibate gay person.

He promises that He can satisfy you, and you will discover the immensity of what it means to be fulfilled and have abundance in Christ alone.  And when your eyes are off of you and on God as the true center of your existence, you might just realize that you are not alone after all.

But such ethereal comfort is not the same thing as earthly comfort. This article does nothing to address specifics of a lonely, if religiously devout, life. The plain fact is, not all religious people are called to be celibate, and being forced to embrace such a lifestyle can cause extreme loneliness that feels anything but “good.” In fact, it can lead to depression, despair, and all the consequences associated with it.

It is a twisted way of telling young gay people that a “Godly” life of loneliness is how it “gets better.”

Marcus Bachmann - Source: TWO

An undercover Truth Wins Out investigation claims that the counseling clinic headed by Marcus Bachmann, husband of U.S. Senator Representative and presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), offers reparative therapy to clients troubled by their sexuality. Bachmann had previously denied that his clinic, Bachmann & Associates, practiced reparative (change) therapy.

TWO reporter John M. Becker went undercover as a man struggling with his sexuality, meeting with counselor Timothy Wiertzema for five sessions, with a hidden video camera in tow (footage has not yet been released). He writes:

At the start of our second session I went straight to the point: what could I do? Would I ever be able to be completely rid of homosexuality, or merely learn to cope with and manage it? Wiertzema’s response was that it’s situational. Some people have been able to get rid of it completely over a long time period, others over a shorter time period. Still others are able to get it to “subside,” down to a “manageable” level, but it’s still there in the background.

In later sessions he would say that he “…think[s] it’s possible to be totally free of [same-sex attraction]. For sure.” and that “It’s happened! It really has happened to people.”

Ex-gay activist Janet Boynes’ book Called Out is sold at the clinic, Becker says, with an enthusiastic endorsement by Mr. Bachmann.  He reports that during the sessions Wiertzema echoed Joseph Nicolosi of NARTH in saying that everyone is born heterosexual; some of us just encounter homosexual temptations. Becker was encouraged to find a heterosexual “accountability buddy” to help keep him on the heterosexual “wagon,” as it were.

Marcus Bachmann called gay people “barbarians” during a radio talk show interview in 2010.  His wife Michelle has enthusiastically participated in anti-gay politics for several years, likening the failure to pass a 2004 Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to ignoring the signs leading up to the Attack on Pearl Harbor. She was recently the first to sign a document denigrating families headed by gay couples, and glorifying slavery in the process. It claims that black children were better off during that time because they were more likely to be raised by a mother and father.

Jeff Buchanan - Exodus

With Jeff Buchanan laterally promoted to VP and former Exodus blogger Randy Thomas out of the organization, there has already been an immediate shift in tone on their website. Three posts have gone up since the personnel-change announcement – two of them targeted at vulnerable gay youth – and all are denigrating to gays and lesbians.

Gays pursue “counterfeit relationships,” writes Exodus President Alan Chambers. Gay Christians “serve two masters” while claiming to serve God alone.

“Study Shows Gay, Bisexual Teens More Prone to Risky Behavior” reads the headline of Buchanan’s latest post. The final line states “[t]he CDC report seeks to link the tendency among gay and bisexual teens to engage in risk behaviors to their sense of societal rejection,” as if this is a simple hypothesis rather than established reality.  Buchanan turns data which reinforces the need for more support of LGBT youth into ammunition to further stigmatize and pressure them.

“My heart breaks a little more each day as false hope is communicated to susceptible youth with slogans like ‘It gets better’,” writes ex-gay Matthew Walker, blasting a campaign started in reaction to the suicides of several gay youth last year. Walker makes clear that his struggles with suicide were not caused by the condemnation of the Church, “as the liberal media would have you believe,” but rather caused by a “very real spiritual enemy” whose “whispers and lies twisted the Bible into a condemnation of [him] rather than the sin that was overtaking [him].”

In other words, Queer and questioning kids, we at Exodus don’t hate you, just your “sin” that’s overtaking you. The boy you fell for from afar in History class, the girl you go out of your way to pass by in the hallway before 3rd period – those things are caused by an evil force controlling you. If these things involved people of the opposite sex, it would be considered perfectly normal and even the stuff of high school movies. But it involves people of the same sex. Because of this detail, your feelings are of the Devil.

“Today we desperately need courageous Christians who are willing to stand up against the gay agenda and say enough is enough,” concludes Walker. Exodus is taking the gloves off. With finances, membership, and staff dwindling, Buchanan’s hardline blog posting may represent their last viable method of action.

Exodus’ Freedom Conference began yesterday and goes until the 11th of June. Touted with the motto “The Reality of Grace,” attendees come to hear “a message of Biblical truth and Christ-like compassion to a world impacted by homosexuality.” Watchdog group Truth Wins Out is holding a counter-conference through June 10th.

Exodus couches their rhetoric with words like “truth,” “love,” and “Christ-like compassion,” but their true core beliefs are much less kind.

Chaz Bono, formerly Chastity, currently stars in a show, “Becoming Chaz,” that takes a close look at his life as a female-to-male transperson. This show has received some buzz, as it is currently being broadcast on Oprah’s “OWN” network. It’s been too much buzz for Exodus International blogger Randy Thomas to ignore. His latest post retreads an argument he previously made which calls the gay community “hypocritical” for welcoming transpeople into their ranks while shunning ex-gays like himself. And, in the process, he makes a statement which is a complete fabrication.

Let me state right out of the gate that there is no proven genetic link to homosexuality.

This is a bold statement, literally and figuratively. This is not the ambiguous argument that “there is no gay gene,” a statement that is technically true, but infers the lie that there is no genetic component to sexual orientation. There is, in fact, a proven genetic link. This complete fabrication that there is zero genetic component has been stated by Exodus before, by Alan Chambers in an audio interview. Evidence of a biological/genetic connection continues to mount as time progresses, with studies that demonstrate this link in multiple ways.

That aside, Randy continues with his tired argument about the “hypocrisy” of his “gay activist friends:”

That said, It’s always confounded me that my gay activist friends will vehemently defend people who identify as transgendered as having a “right” to go against their biology to “become who they truly are.”  Yet that same activist will vehemently say that for people like myself, homosexuality is genetic and there is no way to escape that reality.  That I should just accept being gay and stop the self-loathing they seem to think I live in.

If you take that thinking to its logical conclusion, genetics has a tyrannical hold on my life, identity and self-determination but does NOT hold that same power over the transgendered.

That, my friends, is hypocrisy.

Transwoman Yuki Choe explained the flaws in this argument in a previous XGW article:

[Randy's] belief that transgenders are ignoring their “genetic destiny” is completely inaccurate. He takes for granted the biological, chromosomnal and psychological state of transgenders, as the whole article failed to address sexual ambiguities that may face children even before puberty. The genetic destiny of transgenders actually lies in these various factors, something which Thomas did not seem to be well informed of.

Indeed, both transgendered people and homosexual people are embracing “genetic destiny:” by coming out of the closet; by embracing their true gender identity despite their physical biological state. The difference between ex-gays like Randy and transgendered individuals like Chaz Bono? Transsexuals, many of whom spend thousands of dollars on multiple surgeries to harmonize their physical appearance with their gender identity, do not need to bring themselves to their knees and pray for the daily strength to “deny what comes naturally to them.” They know who they are and embrace it. Ex-gays like Randy and Alan are in a perpetual battle, fighting their “natural sinful nature,” which they conflate with their sexual orientation.

The final part of Randy’s article delves into Christian theology having nothing to do with Chaz’s life, since his conversion was biological and not religious. Randy seems to think that Chaz’s gender transition is a blind maneuver; a gamble that “might” give Chaz a secure identity. The implication is that Chaz will remain confused and searching because his transition was not one to an “identity in Christ.” Quite the contrary, Chaz has made a long thought-out decision, one that will ultimately give him the liberation Randy is so earnestly “praying” that Chaz “will find someday.”

TWO reports that one of their board members, the Rev. Jerry Stephenson, is starting a new ex-gay survivor group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida:

I am starting an Ex-Ex-Gay Group called GOD’S WORTHY CREATION with Atlantic Institute Spiritual Counseling Center to help gays and lesbians know that they are wonderfully made as they are in God’s wonderful creation.  We seek to bring healing to those coming out of the Ex-Gay Movement. Call us at 954-632-1529 or email us at JeryLSt@aol.com

Stephenson has also authored the books “Out of the Closet and into the Light” and “Overcoming Obstacles in Life and Coming Out On Top.”

Christopher Jay Hall, a guest blogger at “Raging Pride,” attended Exodus’ Love Won Out conference in Pheonix, Arizona on February 19th and was horrified by the kind of information being given as “fact:”

Long after gays are given the equal rights they are due, and long after LGBTQ equality becomes a given, no matter the biological significance of homosexuality in nature, Exodus and their ilk will still cling to the “gay gene” canard. It’s much easier than trying to argue actual science – since they know it is not on their side.

Since a lesbian by definition is a woman who is exclusively attracted to other women, it wouldn’t surprise me if a relationship with a man “went sour.” But LWO here seems to say that when women get “tired of men” they’ll just flip a switch and go with women.

Additionally, Hall heard messages being delivered to queer and questioning youth in attendance that are extremely irresponsible, considering the rate of suicide among such young people:

Apparently, there [are] no such thing as homosexuals as we are all broken heterosexuals. They told the youth that homosexual behavior is always a sin. People who believe they are homosexual are not the sin itself. The person is not an abomination rather their behavior is the abomination they must seek help in overcoming.

There was, however, some hope.

[T]he youth were very intelligent and to some degree liberal. They were curious as to why our “sin” of homosexuality was a focus of the church when there are so many other sins within the church itself that are being ignored. The best question that left the presenters baffled was, “If it is bad to change one’s sex because it was god’s original intention to have us born the way we are, than why do we dye our hair, wear braces to “fix” our teeth, receive plastic surgery, etc. I was happy to see the amount of liberal individuals who attended, I am just saddened to see so many hurt souls who are forced to attend and the church feels they have no role in the high rates of suicide amongst our LGBTQ youth. What ignorance!

What ignorance, indeed. With all their talk of  “grace for the homosexual” and having compassion and “true tolerance,” the messages being delivered at the conference give quite a different image.

A new website brings a fresh look to Exodus International, and XGW took a fresh look at their Frequently Asked Questions to check on what their official positions are concerning several topics, including political and civil topics.

1. They refuse to talk about a success rate for sexual orientation change.

When asked, they redirect the question so that the one actually posed never gets answered – and that’s the one we want answered: whether people can successfully change from homosexual to heterosexual.

Let’s rephrase that question. Is there realistic hope that men and women who experience same-sex attraction can overcome those temptations and lead a life of sexual integrity? Can they reasonably expect a time when same-sex attraction will no longer dominate their existence, determine their behavior, or define their identity? The answer to those questions is yes!

They eagerly emphasize that behavior can change. You can go from being a creature with a sexual appetite to one that is sexless. You can be celibate. But nobody, gay or straight, seriously denies that you can do any of these things. The question people really want to know is “can someone change their core sexual orientation from gay to straight?” And they refuse to provide an answer.

2. You cannot be gay and Christian – the two are incompatible.

No, you’re not supposed to judge others, and you are  not to presume you know the heart of another human being as intimately as, for example, God would – but that doesn’t mean you can’t question it, to yourself, out loud, within their earshot.

if someone actively pursues homosexual involvement and refuses to acknowledge this behavior as sin, it’s valid to humbly question whether his or her commitment to Christ – and especially to growth in holiness – is genuine.

It’s not enough to let it go as yet another schism; “pro-gay theology” must be “refuted.”

That’s why it’s critical to understand, confront and refute so-called “pro-gay theology,” which alleges that Scripture has been mistranslated and misinterpreted when it comes to the issue of homosexuality.

Exodus knows the correct way to read the Bible concerning the topic of homosexuality. It is unequivocal for them. Read more…