Ex-Gay Watch

Aaaaaaand it turns out to be more of the same. Literally.

2011 = Simplify, Amplify and Intensify — Letter from Alan Chambers for November 2011
Nov 17, 2010

First, we are reminded of the mission of Exodus:

Mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality.

Implication: Homosexuality is a negative impact.
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The agenda…

He [God] has impressed on our entire team the need to do 3 things with what we already have: simplify, amplify and intensify.

~Simplify:

We want to be clear about what we do and don’t do at Exodus. [emphasis added]

Clear:
definition: understandable, apparent
antonyms: ambiguous, indistinct, mysterious, obscure, unintelligible, vague

To use it in a sentence: Clearly, “change” is possible, “temptation” may last a lifetime and “the opposite of homosexuality isn’t heterosexuality, it’s holiness.”

Everybody clear on the meaning of clear now?

~Amplify:

[T]he greatest area of need in our culture is outreach to young people. We will be changing the name of Exodus Youth to Exodus Student Ministries in order to encompass middle school thru [sic] college age students. [em orig]

As the article says, that means a messaging that’s more internet savvy, as well as “short to the point booklets.”

We also want to amplify the specialties that our member ministries provide

["We now have a variety of ways that parents can help their homosexual children decide which indoctrination service ministry is best."]

~Intensify:

We also want to strengthen our communication about the true point of this ministry … Staggering numbers of young people are abandoning their faith because they cannot reconcile their homosexuality with their Christianity.

And who better to intensify that increasing faithlessness than an organization that promises — by calculated implication — heterosexuality.
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This is a scene from a movie called Disgrace. I watched it months ago and didn’t really care for it, but I had to rent it again so I could write this part down. It nails it.

Dad: When you were small, our next door neighbor had a dog. A golden retriever, remember?

Daughter: Jimby.

Dad: It was a male, and whenever a bitch went passed, it got excited, unmanageable, and with Pavlovian regularity, its owner would beat it so that at the mere smell of a bitch the dog would run around the garden with it’s ears flat and it’s tail between it’s legs, whining and trying to hide.

Daughter: I don’t see the point.

Dad: Well, you can punish a dog for chewing the slipper. The dog can accept that, but it’s desires are another thing.

Daughter: Is that the moral, that males should be allowed to follow their instincts unchecked?

Dad: No, that’s not the moral. What was ignoble about the spectacle was that the poor dog had begun to hate it’s own nature. It no longer needed to be beaten, it punished itself. At that point it would have been better to shoot it.

Fortunately the dog didn’t have a gun, or fingers to tie a noose. So the dog’s mother didn’t have to experience the HORROR of walking in on the sight of her son’s dangling or beheaded body.
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So, it would seem that Exodus’ 2011 agenda is, in effect, a finessing of the message that one’s nature is something to be rejected — for life — in order to escape the eternal clutches of God’s loving wrath.

Sammy Davis Jr. “I Gotta Be Me”

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patrick.fitzgerald@exgaywatch.com

An article from the UK’s Daily Mail bears this title: How I went from committed lesbian to a happily married mother of four. It describes British comedienne Jackie Clune’s winding testimonial as a woman who, once “committed” to her lesbian identity, decided to “try men again” after growing tired of lousy relationships and rigid, self-imposed stereotypes. In a 2005 article from The Times entitled Love, etc. Clune called lesbian culture “dictatorial and intimidating” and “the opposite of the sapphic fluffy nirvana [she] expected.” She married a man and finally had a family, something she “never thought possible” as a lesbian.

The title of the article has the first red flag. Clune describes her girlfriends and her former self as being “committed lesbians.” As if being attracted to the same sex makes one a member of a club they then must commit to. This is as absurd as thinking that when one comes out they are given a copy of the mysterious “Gay Agenda™” or that if they “convert” others into members they’ll be rewarded with new toasters. More stereotypes and generalizations follow. At first attracted to men as a young woman, at age 22 Clune made a very important conscious decision.

I had studied feminist literature at university and it opened my eyes to the possibility of sexuality as a life choice.

She then “threw [her]self into the fullblown lesbian lifestyle – gay clubs, bars and pubs:”

From 1988 until 2000 I lived in lesbian households, drank in lesbian pubs, went on gay rights marches and viewed my long-term future as being exclusively with women.

During those 12 years she entered into several long-term committed relationships with women. Usually, if it’s a male ex-gay telling the story, they’ll say they entered into multiple short-term sex-centric trysts with men, because this is what is stereotypical. But among female gays, it is the long-term relationship that is the stereotype, and it comes with its own set of constricting features. This is just the beginning of Clune’s stereotypes and sweeping generalizations. Read more…