Ex-Gay Watch

World Magazine has awarded Exodus President Alan Chambers their 2011 Daniel Award.  With this award, Alan Chambers joins the ranks of Kenneth Star, John Ashcroft, Phillip E. Johnson (“father” of Intelligent design), Peter Akinola (rabidly anti-gay Nigerian priest), and Stephen C. Meyer (Intelligent Design), among other past recipients.

In an article which appears in the December 17th edition, Chambers and Exodus are painted in glowing, courageous terms.  Many of Chambers’ key talking points are covered nicely, while any opposition is portrayed in a one-dimensional fashion.  This website is said to have “whole sections devoted to condemning Chambers and other ministries to homosexuals.”

We would like to think it is the facts which “condemn these groups, but then World Magazine hasn’t exactly attempted to cloak their own bias when it comes to Exodus.  They have written this type of PR piece for Exodus in the past (the same author, Jamie Dean), and one has to ask if this is more of a corroborative effort than journalism.  Could this be the first volley in the effort to re-brand Exodus International, or at least it’s president?  If so, it seems skewed into the conservative space, heavy on “change is possible” rhetoric.

The World Magazine article contains several factual errors.  Let’s give them a brief review of a couple:

Self-denial isn’t a new concept to Chambers. The 39-year-old president of Exodus International—a Christian ministry that helps people struggling with homosexuality—grew up in a Christian home but embraced homosexuality as a teenager. But through years of an active gay lifestyle, Chambers couldn’t shake the biblical conviction that what came naturally to him was also sinful. He didn’t want to be gay. [emphasis added]

According to an early account written by Chambers in 1999, there is no way to say that he had been through “years of an active gay lifestyle.”  Even if one overlooks the generalization of “gay lifestyle,” (assuming that means open and sexually active for this purpose), Chambers could not be said to fit that description for more than a few months in 1990-1991, when he was barely eighteen years old.  He says he had a couple of sexual encounters in Middle School (essentially experimentation during overnight stays), and one in High School.  But all this ended when he was “outed” by the latter, which indicates he was not open before that. Read more…

Exodus International - 190 N Westmonte Dr Altamonte Springs , FL

Exodus President Alan Chambers called a meeting together this past November 16.  The subject was quite simply how to keep Exodus International from social and financial oblivion.  In attendance were Exodus leadership, prominent religious leaders (such as Gabe Lyons) and lay people.  The latter were mostly those who once counted themselves in the ex-gay camp but now are either in the process of changing their views or are fully gay affirming.

We had been following odd activity at Exodus for some time.  It was clear that something was up but only after being contacted by some of those directly involved did our speculation clarify into fact.  The past couple of years have seen Exodus cut it’s staff, lose key alliances, and suffer from a general moderation in American views toward homosexuality.  So difficult has this been for them that they have increased efforts abroad where there exists less formal opposition to their message — that living a gay affirming life is sinful, wrong and unhealthy, and change is the only way to truly please God.

Three years ago, Exodus purchased a building for a little over $1.1 Million.  This was at the height of the real estate bubble and it’s value must have decreased significantly since.  While they seem to have shed as many of their obligations as possible, debt service for that building must be a great draw on their meager resources.  According to IRS documents, they burned through $200,000 of their savings in 2010 alone.  In short, if they continue on their current trajectory, there seems little doubt that Exodus will fold in the near future.

Knowing this, Chambers called the New York meeting together and posed the question, “how can we save Exodus?”  Unfortunately for those of us who might have a glimmer of hope to the contrary, this plea does not seem to be based on any deep, inner change of heart or ideology.  According to first person accounts, the emphasis was on how to make Exodus more “donor accessible.”  The meeting was filled with the modern lingo of those who advise on the solicitation of charitable funds.  This is about money. Read more…

Image: Exodus International

Exodus International President Alan Chambers has decided, over a year after the launch of the It Gets Better project, that he should support the campaign instead of condemning it.

In May, the ex-gay leader was livid that Toy Story character Woody was being used to promote the message that things get better for bullied teens. We figured out what enraged him so: The message and ministry of Exodus International depends on the opposite message — according to Exodus, it only gets worse until you submit to its religious agenda, renounce your “gay identity” and try to change your sexual orientation. Put simply, as long as gays are oppressed and miserable, Exodus remains in business.

Now, five months on, Chambers has realized he was wrong:

A few months ago I went on record criticizing the “It Gets Better” campaign that has gone viral with an anti-bullying message for LGBT teens. My criticism was over the use of “Woody,” the fictional star from the box office smash Toy Story trilogy. I reacted because I hate when iconic children’s heroes are used to further what I perceive to be adult causes. With further reflection and thought, though, I have to admit that I was wrong to question their marketing strategy without expressing my full support for what is the heart of their campaign – encouraging LGBT teens to choose life.

This slowness is nothing new to Exodus. In March 2009, Exodus board member Don Schmierer participated in a conference that fanned the flames of homophobia in Uganda. An announcement of the Ugandan “Kill the Gays” bill swiftly followed. Yet it was eight months before Alan Chambers weighed in to denounce the bill, a year before Exodus made an official statement and 15 months before Exodus issued a mea culpa taking some responsibility for Schmierer’s role in the conference.

Always too little, too late. If you’re a Christian leader and it takes you a year to realize that executing homosexuals is an idea worth fighting against, or that the lives of kids are more important than your religious agenda, it’s probably time for a radical reassessment of your values.

The former leader of Exodus International’s oldest ministry says you can’t repent of homosexuality — and he now publicly admits he is homosexual himself.

John Smid, who resigned as Executive Director of Love in Action in 2008, has made his strongest statements yet disavowing the message he preached for years as the head of a ministry that promised gays they could change. Writing on the website of his new ministry, Grace Rivers, Smid says being homosexual (he generally uses this rather clinical term rather than “gay”) is an intrinsic part of a person’s being, not a behaviour he can repent from:

One cannot repent of something that is unchangeable. I have gone through a tremendous amount of grief over the many years that I spoke of change, repentance, reorientation and such, when, barring some kind of miracle, none of this can occur with homosexuality.

He also makes a confession you won’t hear from Exodus (except Exodus President Alan Chambers in an off-guarded moment, although he later backtracked) — he’s never met a real ex-gay person:

I also want to reiterate here that the transformation for the vast majority of homosexuals will not include a change of sexual orientation. Actually I’ve never met a man who experienced a change from homosexual to heterosexual.

Smid goes on to address a hypothetical question: Which is worse, two gay men in a 30-year faithful, committed relationship or a heterosexual married five times? He commends the gay couple for an “amazing feat” of faithfulness and sacrifice, and suggests they “could be more faithful in their walk with Christ than the person married five times” (and vice versa). Basically, he seems to say, it doesn’t matter — and Jesus is the judge of the heart.

He also talks about the change in how he defines homosexuality. The Exodus line is that, essentially, homosexuality is a behaviour and an “identity,” both of which must go. Smid now has a different take: Read more…

Exodus International has relaunched its online bookstore at Exodusbooks.org, but some key titles are missing from the shelves.

In particular, there appear to be no books by the notorious Dr Joseph Nicolosi, the father of ex-gay reparative therapy and former president of the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Nicolosi’s seminal work Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality (1992), in which he articulated his view that distant fathers and overbearing mothers cause homosexuality, is no longer listed. Also missing are Nicolosi’s A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality and NARTH’s Handbook of Therapy for Unwanted Homosexual Attractions, although I can’t confirm if those two were previously in the catalogue.

So is it an oversight, or has Exodus made a conscious decision to disassociate from NARTH and its promise of a gay cure through psychiatry? If the latter, I can’t help but note that Exodus chief Alan Chambers has harsh words for apostates who try to distance themselves from his own organization.

Anyone notice any other glaring omissions from Exodus’s new bookstore?

The new documentary This Is What Love in Action Looks Like is the definitive account of one of the most shameful episodes in the 40-year history of the ex-gay movement. It’s the story of what happened to gay teenager Zach Stark at Love In Action, a Memphis, TN-based ex-gay ministry, in the summer of 2005.

Zach, then 16, told his parents he was gay. They reacted badly. “They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they have raised me wrong,” he wrote on his MySpace blog. “I’m a big screw up to them, who isn’t on the path God wants me to be on.”

They enrolled him, against his will, in Refuge, LIA’s teen program. Zach described it as “a fundamentalist Christian program for gays.” For eight weeks he was forced to endure counseling and therapy, both individual- and group-based, in a strictly controlled environment. The object was to turn this gay teen straight.

But Zach’s story, which he tells here for the first time, is just the main thread in a narrative that interweaves several related stories. There is the story of the protesters, including many of Zach’s shocked school friends, who gathered daily outside the LIA facility to show their support for the teenager. There is the story of Lance Carroll, whose parents forced him into Refuge at the same time; in the film, he describes how hearing the protesters outside helped him survive the program. There are also former LIA clients Brandon Tidwell and Peterson Toscano.

And there’s the story of then-LIA Executive Director John Smid. Before I saw this film, I assumed the title was mostly ironic; it’s an account of what Love in Action is and does, but it’s also indictment of the hypocrisy: This is what love in action looks like? Sure.

But what comes through strongly in the documentary is the love of those who rallied around Zach. Local activist Janelle Treibitz says:

We also … came out with, like, a consensus about how we would conduct ourselves in these protests, how we would conduct ourselves to people, to staff members, and … our approach was one of love.

Smid recalls his daily encounters with the protesters:

… I remember driving through, and I heard something different. I heard these people in the streets saying to us as we left, ‘God loves you. God loves you.’ And I just felt a complete shift in the way I perceived the entire process. So for the next week and a half, every time I would come to work or leave, instead of feeling frustrated or angry or embarrassed, I felt loved and cared for by a God that loves me, using whatever vehicle he chose to use to tell me that.

Smid later resigned from LIA and, in 2008, began a new ministry with a different emphasis. In 2010, he issued a formal apology.

Director Morgan Jon Fox doesn’t appear to probe in his interview with Smid; as with other interviewees, he simply allows the subject to tell his story. So there is room for skepticism in evaluating where Smid has come from and where he’s going, and doubtless many gays and lesbians, especially ex-gay survivors, will be totally cynical. My policy is to welcome such steps tentatively, remembering that actions, and not words, will be the ultimate test.

While Fox concentrates on Love in Action, in doing so he provides a wider sketch of the ex-gay movement and its abuses. What we see of Love in Action in the documentary is not an isolated case; the denial, false hope and misguided love pervades the message and ministry of ex-gay groups across the world. That the story is told largely through interviews with those most intimately involved with the LIA controversy only makes the film more compelling here.

Other key players in the story declined to be interviewed. They include Zach’s father, Joe Stark, who stands by his actions, and Alan Chambers, Executive Director of Exodus International, the umbrella organization of which Love in Action is its oldest member ministry.

This Is What Love in Action Looks Like had its premiere in June, 2011.

Other upcoming screenings:

• August 27th at SHOUT, the Birmingham LGBT Film Fest
• September 10th at the Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
• September 20th at ReRun Theatre, in New York City
• September 29-Oct 6 at OUT ON FILM, the Atlanta LGBT Film Fest
• November 4th at Indie Memphis Film Fest
• November 3-12 at REELING, the Chicago LGBT Film Fest

Last month, we reported that Willow Creek Community Church, the Chicago evangelical megachurch, had cut ties with ex-gay organization Exodus International. Today, Christianity Today reported the story with reaction from Exodus President Alan Chambers.

Predictably, Chambers makes the break all about Exodus, revealing an attitude we’ve seen before:

The choice to end our partnership is definitely something that shines a light on a disappointing trend within parts of the Christian community, which is that there are Christians who believe like one another who aren’t willing to stand with one another, simply because they’re afraid of the backlash people will direct their way if they are seen with somebody who might not be politically correct. … I really do think decisions like this, ultimately, highlight a reticence in the church to stand up for biblical truth, and they’re coming at a time when we’re going to have to stand up for what we believe.

As far as Exodus is concerned, if you reject the organization, its message and its methods, you’ve rejected God’s truth. Chambers added:

Biblical truth is unpopular, and when you’re supporting unpopular truth, you are unpopular too; which means, some days, getting upwards of 10,000 phone calls and emails, and it can be overwhelming.

(We found the 10,000-a-day claim as risible as Truth Wins Out did, by the way.)

Willow Creek’s response indicates it may be indeed be pursuing a softer approach to the issue of homosexuality:

Willow Creek has a whole host of ministries for people dealing with these issues, and we would never intend for them to feel sidelined. All we’ve changed is how we’ve gone about inviting them into the church, which is the primary issue here.

CT notes that the church’s founder and senior pastor, Bill Hybels, met with pro-gay Christian activist group Soulforce a few years ago.

Mark Yarhouse, however, a conservative Christian social scientist whose revealing research into ex-gay marriages we reported on earlier this week, also chimed in on news of the split. CT writes:

Mark Yarhouse, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity at Regent University, agrees that the primary issue in the split is not abandonment of the gay community but simply a shift in tone toward gays.

“Churches are realizing that while there is a small contingent of the gay community responding to language like ‘freedom from homosexuality’ or ‘freedom is possible,’ the vast majority strongly disagree. They’re angry and they believe it’s impossible to change, and to hear this is so offensive that they will have nothing to do with Christians. So I think churches, in response to that vast majority who say, ‘We’re not interested,’ have decided to look at other approaches in an attempt to connect with the gay community on at least some level. That doesn’t mean that churches disagree with the language of ‘freedom from homosexuality’ doctrinally; they’ve just found that it doesn’t work on a social level.”

Christian writer J Lee Grady says that homosexuals can alter their sexual orientation, and points to Exodus President Alan Chambers as evidence of ex-gay change.

In a column published online last month, the Charisma magazine contributing editor urged Christians to “learn the argument” when it comes to homosexuality and gay rights. “Sorry, but timidity on this issue is not an option,” he wrote, before depicting sexual orientation as a sinful inclination that could be altered:

Many “gay Christian” advocates insist that some people are born homosexuals and therefore they have no hope of altering their orientation. But this is a lame argument since we all are born with a propensity toward certain sins. … Just because you are born with an inclination toward adultery, alcoholism, shoplifting or pride doesn’t mean you have to stay that way.

Grady speaks unmistakably of actual orientation change here, not merely acknowledging one’s orientation while resisting temptation. No surprise — Grady is a Pentecostal who no doubt would maintain the possibility of miraculous healing from homosexuality, even if he admitted the scientific possibility of change through, say, therapy were slim. What is surprising is that he holds up Alan Chambers as evidence of change:

The more strident voices in the gay community hate when Christians speak about homosexuals being healed or reformed. … They choose to ignore the fact that thousands of people have left homosexuality after coming to faith in Christ. … My friend Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, came out of the gay lifestyle many years ago and now has a great marriage with his wife, Leslie, plus two beautiful children.

Alan Chambers promoted the article on his Twitter feed without comment.

Yet this is the same Alan Chambers who says he still struggles daily with his attraction to men. His fundamental orientation is unchanged. This is what he said of his “same-sex attractions” in 2008:

And so every single morning — this is a ritual for me — I wake up and I say, “Dear Lord, I can’t make it today without You. I choose to deny what comes naturally to me. I choose to submit my will to the Lordship of your Son, Jesus Christ. And I choose better. I choose to follow You, I choose to allow Your Holy Spirit to walk before me, to guide me, to speak for me.”

Grady goes on to speak of self-denial, castigating Georgia Pentecostal pastor Jim Swilley for coming out gay to his congregation last year. He caricatures “gay Christians” (scare quotes his), saying “many … insist that if you are gay, it’s fine to go out and have all the sex you want.” Their message, he says, is simply to “go ahead and indulge.”

So once again we hear the familiar anti-gay, ex-gay narrative: Gays are just licentious hedonists, lacking in morality, while Alan Chambers is cured of his homosexuality, and his “great marriage … plus two beautiful children” is proof positive. And Chambers, the hero of Grady’s myth and so eager to show God’s grace to the “homosexual next door,” does nothing to correct Grady’s prejudiced perception.

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.

In May, we learned that Randy Thomas was stepping down as Vice President of Exodus International and taking on a part-time role. Yesterday, he announced he was stepping down altogether from the ex-gay organization. Today, Exodus has announced Jeff Buchanan as its new Executive Vice President.

This is a promotion for Buchanan, previously Senior Director of Church Equipping and Student Ministries. But it’s also a money-saving move for Exodus, as is apparent from its June newsletter, Exodus Impact:

[Jeff] will continue to oversee Church Equipping and Student Ministries until the recession lifts and we are able to hire others to help in one or both of those areas.

Before coming to Exodus in 2008, Jeff was an Associate Pastor in Nashville, TN and was the director of Journey, a sexual wholeness ministry in his local church.  He is an ordained minister and has a Masters of Theological Studies from Liberty University.