Exodus Leader's Shocking Revelation Tonight

It will be most entertaining to watch the Christofascists react to the announced plan of Exodus International head Alan Chambers (pictured at right) to state on air on Our America that gay Christians can not only go to Heaven but that they need not change.  Worse yet, Chambers will state that Christofascists need to sop urging gays to :change" and become straight and instead accept gays as they are.  Tony Perkins, James Dobson, closet cases like Robert Knight, Peter LaBarbera, the ex-gay for pay crowd such as Greg Quinlan, and other wing nuts will go berserk over Chambers' supposed heresy.  The Advocate looks at the situation.  Here are excerpts:

[A] new interview tonight on the season finale of Our America With Lisa Ling called “Pray the Gay Away?” revisits the OWN show's groundbreaking episode on this topic, along with an exclusive new interview with Chambers, who says Our America changed his mind on reparative therapy — and gay Christians.

"Do I think there are people living a gay Christian life who are going to be in heaven with me?" he asks rhetorically. "I do. If they have a relationship with God." He says that Christians should now shift from "change" to "acceptance" because the gay cure doesn't work and gays who believe in God can know God as intimately as any heterosexual person.

Chambers, who has long considered himself an "ex-gay" and is married to a woman, says that he no longer believes prayer can make gays become straight but making that announcement has meant that there are "pockets of the evangelical community who think I've betrayed Christ," he tells Ling. "I'm a heretic in some circles."

The flying spittle in the Christianist, professional Christian and ex-gay for pay circles will be crushing and definitely require full foul weather gear.   This is going to be fun to watch.

Hate Groups Attack Alan Chambers for Speaking the Truth that Gays Can't "Change"

I've noted in prior posts on how Alan Cambers and the "ex-gays for pay" at Exodus International have taken a major step and admitted that reparative doesn't work and that there is no such things as a "ex-gay."  Sadly, Chambers and company continue to cling to the discredited Bible passages that have been used to stigmatize gays and label us as "sinners."  That said, the admission that reparative therapy is nothing but a huge fraud knowing perpetrated on the gullible and religiously brainwashed is huge.  And not surprisingly, the Bible thumpers and certified hate group leaders are veritably foaming at the mouth over Chambers/Exodus' belated honesty.  A case in point is hate group leader Linda Harvey (at left) who has ZERO, that's right ZERO credentials that make her a credible commentator on sexual orientation and/or medical and mental health issues (we traded e-mails some years back and she conceded her academic business background have ZERO to do with the things she now pretends to have expertise about).  Right Wing Watch looks at Harvey's attacks on Chambers and those who are willing to admit that the whole "ex-gay" storyline is a lie (Note: she claims thousands of gays have "changed" but offers up ZERO evidence):

Recently, the "ex-gay" organization Exodus International shocked the Religious Right when it announced that it would no longer promote so called "reparative therapy" which claims to help gays change their sexual orientation.

The announcement has, not surprisingly, angered professional anti-gay activists and today Linda Harvey lashed out at Exodus president Alan Chambers, saying that his admission that he still struggles with same-sex attraction demonstrates "very poor judgment" and blasting the idea that gays can be Christians because the Christian Church would never welcome a "compassionate pedophile":

For one, Chambers has said he doesn't believe a person can change his or her so-called sexual orientation. Now, there's not anything like this invented term called "sexual orientation" in Scripture in the first place, but then he also says that he still struggles himself with sexual feelings for other males. This shows very poor judgment as the leader of this ministry to, first of all, be experiencing this and secondly, to announce it to the whole world.

Of course a person can leave homosexuality; there are thousands of people who have done it and God's word clearly states that he can deliver us from sin. And the proud, open sinner who is publicly proclaiming it as good in defiance of God's word? It is highly questionable that such a person is saved.
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We would not be making this exception for well-adjusted adulterers would we? How about a compassionate pedophile? What about incest like two brothers involved in homosexuality? Why not just defy God's word on this?

This is plain old rebellion and worship of self and our own impulses, not the worship of our Creator and Savior. Please join me in praying for Alan Chambers and Exodus, but also in praying for Alan's influence to diminish unless he recants this untruthful misrepresentation of the Gospel.

1.  Chambers needs to come fully clean and jettison the whole antiquated religious brainwashing that seeks to condemn many millions of individuals around the world based on the misinterpreted writings of ignorant, uneducated Bronze Age nomads and herders.  I'm sorry, but to pretend that the Bible is the "inerrant word of God" insults the intelligence of pre-teenager much less that of a supposedly mature adult. f

Alan Chambers Fails to Come Clean on "Hardball"

While I applaud Alan Chambers' long over due honesty (and by extension the new found honesty of Exodus International) in finally - and many would say very, very belatedly - admitting that reparative therapy doesn't work and that claims that one can "pray away the gay" are fraudulent at best.  Unfortunately, Chambers and Exodus have stopped short of a full and complete confession.  First, no apology can compensate for the families that have been torn apart by the propaganda that Exodus and its affiliates have disseminated for years.  Second, no apology can atone for the suicides that ex-gay "ministries" have promoted  by their lie that being gay is a "choice" and something that can "change."  Lastly, Chambers fails to own up to the real agenda of the "ex-gay" proponents from the beginning which is summarized well by Wayne Besen:

Ex-gay programs have never really been about converting gay people into heterosexuals. It has really been a gigantic marketing and public relations campaign used by anti-gay organizations to say, “Gay people don’t need equal rights, they need therapy and prayer instead.”

In exploiting the “ex-gay” industry, our opponents have positioned homosexuality as a sinful, unnatural behavior that could be altered, rather than being an integral and immutable part of a person. This message has either directly or indirectly been used as a club in which to bash LGBT people in referendums for the past fifteen years and serves as a wedge issue to fire up their base in election cycles. Embracing these groups also allowed the Religious Right to smarmily and cynically claim they “loved” LGBT people and were just trying to help them.

If religiously brainwashed and tortured gays want to be masochists and betray both their own integrity and lie to those they claim to love it's one thing.  But the moment they take this lie and use it against others as "ex-gays for Pay," they truly deserve a special place in Hell.  They have simply made themselves feel better about themselves at the cynical expense of others - while making a buck in the process. (see the image below for some of these lying frauds)  Cheap whores have more integrity and virture than "ex-gays for pay" such as Chambers.  I hope Wayne Besen is correct when he predicts:

Without holding out the magical promise of change, Exodus has little value to the Religious Right’s political ambitions. While some evangelical voters may see celibacy or sham marriages as reasonable options, most Americans will consider such demands as cruel, unrealistic, and potentially damaging to both the gay person and their spouse. In other words, pushing the impractical idea of turning millions of LGBT people into sexual ascetics won’t play beyond the extreme right’s base.

Just a couple of years ago, Exodus offered flashy ads that exploded with hope. One ad for their national convention confidently screamed: Revolution, radically change your world. Freedom from homosexuality is possible.

What is Exodus’ new message to teens? “Live a life of hell on earth so you can get to heaven when you die?” Or, maybe their new recruitment brochure might say: “A life of sexual frustration and loneliness has never been so fun!”

 I can only wonder how many of the individuals in the image above have either (i) given up the lie, ( II) found themselves in sham marriages, or (iii) committed suicide.

Exodus International is Still Dangerous and Wrong

Exodus International and its "ex-gays" for pay claim that they are moving away from making claims that so-called reparative therapy but that the organization will continue to "simply focus on helping clients reconcile their anti-gay beliefs" and helping them live lives of celibacy or sham marriages to straight spouses.  The approach is in my opinion totally ass backwards.  Exodus ought to be focusing on helping clients understand the wrongness of their anti-gay brainwashing and helping them find gay accepting denominations.  Of course, if Exodus did this, the money pipeline from the anti-gay hate groups that masquerade as "family values" or "Christian" organizations would stop in a heart beat.  And then - Heaven forbid - folks like Alan Chambers (pictured above) would have to find real jobs. Not to mention get over their own psychological damage.  Think Progress looks at this hypocritical shift by Exodus and its "professional ex-gays".  Here are excerpts:

Media outlets across the country have published an Associated Press story today claiming, “Christian group backs away from ex-gay therapy.” Exodus International, an umbrella organization for various ex-gay ministries, is rebranding itself by no longer trying to “cure” people of homosexuality. According to its president, Alan Chambers, the group will now simply focus on helping clients reconcile their anti-gay beliefs (internalized homophobia) by embracing celibacy or marrying an opposite-sex partner despite their same-sex orientation, like Chambers himself did.

By so generously granting Chambers’ premise, the AP completely ignores the actual intention of ex-gay therapy. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness. This meant therapists were to no longer treat homosexuality as a problem itself, but to instead help people reconcile the reality of their innate sexual orientation. It was only after — and because of — this decision that the first ex-gay ministry, Love in Action, began. From its integration into Exodus International in 1976 to the first introduction of the term “ex-gay” in 1980, these ministries have always been founded in the dangerous idea that being gay is a problem to be addressed, repressed, or circumvented.

In this regard, nothing has changed at Exodus. At its core, the organization clearly still believes that homosexuality is the cause of a person’s struggles, not the anti-gay society in which they live. Regardless of how these therapists attempt to treat homosexuality, they are still causing harm by trying to treat it at all — in complete violation of all social science research and ethics.

This disingenuous rebranding of ex-gay therapy away from a “cure” is not unique to Exodus. The Mormon contingent of the ex-gay movement has similarly been suggesting that just because a person has same-sex attractions doesn’t mean they have to identify as gay. Focus on the Family is still encouraging gay people to “resist same-sex attraction.”  .   .  .  . It’s not an exaggeration to say they are all simply advocating that people lie to themselves to conform to heteronormativity.

To many, ex-gay therapy may be a fringe practice, or a difference of opinion that isn’t particularly risky to those who might choose it. The truth is that the false belief that sexual orientation is not innate is at the root of all anti-gay beliefs, and nothing can rebrand the harm caused by that ignorance.

These ministries are poisonous and do a disservice to both the tortured "ex-gays" and the straight spouses duped into marrying them.  But then, the Christofascists care nothing about the damage they do to people.

A Schism at Exodus International?

The "ex-gay" crowd are facing more and more legitimate scientific evidence that their claims that gays can "change" is little more than self-serving horse shit.  Why self-serving?  Because it gives "ex-gays for pay" a career they'd otherwise be without, it provides snake oil merchants with a source of income, and it provides a tool to Christofascists who seek to dupe elected officials with the "choice myth" in order to oppose LGBT equality under the civil laws.  The most recent blow to the "ex-gay" cause was Robert Sptizer's retraction of his 2003 research that supported the theory that at least a small percentage of reparative therapy participants might actually be able change their sexual orientation.  Sensing the drift of where the science is going, Exodus International president Alan Chambers has modified his claims concerning "change."  This has caused a shit storm with some within the fraudulent "ex-gay" industry as Warren Throckmorton notes.  Here are some highlights:

Apparently, Exodus President Alan Chambers’ recent comments about change of sexual orientation have not been well received by some Exodus ministry leaders. Earlier today, Andy Comiskey posted a link on his website which called for changes at Exodus in light of his disagreements with the Exodus President.

The controversy relates to Mr. Chambers recent statements that “99.9% [of people who have tried] have not experienced a change in their orientation.”

Comiskey’s newsletter comes just days after Robert Spitzer retracted his 2003 paper on change efforts. If anything, Chambers seems to be articulating a stance more in line with where many researchers are moving, without changing his basic theological position. Perhaps, it is inevitable that tension will come between those who continue to promote change and those see Exodus as a support group for same-sex attracted evangelicals. 

I have long argued that these programs need to be shut down for being both fraudulent and dangerous.  Sadly, some in the Christianist set care nothing about the harm that these programs do to participants.  Having known individuals who went through these programs, all the did was truly damage them emotionally.

Exodus President: 99.9% Have Not Seen a Change in Their Sexual Orientation

Apparently, Alan Chambers forgot that "godly Christians" are exempt from telling the truth and in comments at the annual conference of the Gay Christian Network slipped up and told the truth. And what's that truth? That 99.9% of those who have gone through ex-gay "change"ministries and clinics such as the one run by Michele and "Marcia" Bachmann have not experienced a change in their sexual orientation. Stated another way, the claim that "change is possible" is a lie. Or at least a lie except in the context of 0.1% of all would be "ex-gays," many of who I suspect are actually "ex-gays" for pay. Here are highlights from Warren Throckmorton's blog:

Alan Chambers is asked, I think by GCN Executive Director Justin Lee, about the way Exodus and member ministries describe the work they do. Specifically, Lee asked about the slogan “change is possible.” Chambers responds by discussing his views of sexual orientation change, saying

The majority of people that I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9% of them have not experienced a change in their orientation or have gotten to a place where they could say that they could never be tempted or are not tempted in some way or experience some level of same-sex attraction. I think there is a gender issue there, there are some women who have challenged me and said that my orientation or my attractions have changed completely. Those have been few and far between. The vast majority of people that I know will experience some level of same-sex attraction.

There was also some discussion of change meaning a change of viewpoint and behavior but the consensus was that Chambers was giving an honest appraisal of the aspect of sexuality that involves essential attractions. As one who once defended sexual reorientation change efforts, I have to agree with Chambers’ assessment. Credible reports of change are rare and do come more often from women than men.

Now, I wonder. Will this news be reported by Christian media, or become part of the evangelical blackout?

I suspect we all know the answer to Warren's question about the so-called Christian media. This information will never see the light of day in the Christian media because it would help cut the Christianists' fraudulent "choice" argument against gays off at the knees.

New Zealand Denies Exodus International Affiliate Non-Profit Status

Many countries allow charitable organizations some sort of non-profit status provided that they document that they offer educational and non-profit motivated benefits to society. Unfortunately, in the USA many of the far right Christianist organizations hide behind the smoke screen of such educational endeavors when in reality their stock in trade is hate and prejudice - not to mention interference with the civil rights of other citizens. Worse yet, they peddle bogus science and in reality serve as PR arms for theocrats who want to subvert the U.S. Constitution - particularly the constitutional ban on an established religion. Part of this cesspool of faux charities is Exodus International - the largest purveyor of the "ex-gay" myth - myth used repeatedly by Christianists in opposing full civil legal equality for LGBT citizens. It seems that in New Zealand some people are waking up to Exodus' foul agenda and Exodus Ministries Trust Board's application for non-profit status was not renewed. Indeed, the conclusion was that the organization was "not performing any public benefit, because being gay is not a mental disorder and does not need curing." Would that the IRS would exercise such forthright thinking. Here are some highlights from GayNZ.com:
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The Charities Commission says the Exodus Ministries Trust Board is not performing any public benefit, because being gay is not a mental disorder and does not need curing.
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The trust is affiliated with the United States-based Exodus Global Alliance, which promises "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ". It has had charitable status for more than a decade, but that status has now been removed by the Charities Commission under a regime introduced in 2007.
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The trust claimed it had a legitimate point of view and provided support to homosexuals during "very difficult times". It said a comparison could be made with Rainbow Youth having charitable status, "clearly an education provided by Rainbow Youth Inc. would be from a preconceived point of view, ie that homosexuality and other forms of sexuality are perfectly normal for some people."
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The Charities Commission disagreed.
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The full Commission decision can be found here. Among other things the Commission noted that the American Psychological Association found reparative therapy to be unethical and that all major mental health associations held that such "ex-gay" therapies were not effective and, indeed, could be harmful. I have long advocated that regulatory boards in the states need to crack down on "ex-gay" ministries and, better yet, yank the licenses of therapists who engage in such programs. Maybe New Zealand's example will be the beginning of a trend. Of course, that would mean that Alan Chambers and other ex-gays for pay might need to find legitimate employment.

Alan Chambers Admits Sexual Orientation Cannot Be Changed

Alan Chambers is President of Exodus International and a leading "ex-gay" for pay. In a new book, he more or less admits that the claim that one's sexual orientation can be changed is a lie. Chambers has an interview up on Daddy Dobson's CitizenLink wherein he states that " there is a way out for those who want it. But it doesn’t say that they’re going into heterosexuality, because that’s not the point. The point is that people can leave whatever it is that God calls less . . . " Frankly, I am rather amazed that the interview was published by an FOF affiliate since Focus on the Family's bogus "Love Won Out" program continually claims that sexual orientation is changeable. Here are some more highlights from the interview:

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1. The title of the book is telling. It’s called Leaving Homosexuality, not Entering Heterosexuality. Why is that? What’s the difference?

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The key thought here is the opposite of homosexuality isn’t heterosexuality. It’s holiness. There are people who are conflicted with their sexuality, involved with homosexuality, and there is a way out for those who want it. But it doesn’t say that they’re going into heterosexuality, because that’s not the point. The point is that people can leave whatever it is that God calls less than His best and move into something that is His best, becoming more like He is.

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2. Now, I’ve heard it, and you’ve heard it: Gay activists are going to read that and say, again, “Alan Chambers is living a lie. He’s suppressing who he really is.” You make a great point in the book that is very applicable to anyone who struggles with any temptation -- and that is, self-denial isn’t a bad thing. How do you respond to those who say you’re just living a lie?

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For so long I’ve heard gay activists say to me, “You’re just in denial. You’re not grasping the reality of the situation. You’re just denying who you really are.” The truth is, I am in denial, but it is self-denial. I’m not in denial of who I used to be. I’m not in denial of the temptations that I could still experience. I am denying the power that sin has over me.

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5. There are some remarkably honest passages in this book -- from the details of your childhood to the details of your sexual addictions to the details of your wedding night and your honeymoon. This book is not going to go under the radar when it comes to the attention of gay activists. A lot of them read CitizenLink. They’re going to see this story. What would you say to them as they learn about some of the details of your story they may not have known before?

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This is me being honest. I have nothing to hide. There is absolutely no reason for me to be anything other than candid about the truth of my life, because I think it really speaks to the bigger issue. And that is, who do I trust? Who is my hope in? Who is my security found in? Who do I look to for every answer? And that is Jesus Christ.

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Actually, I think Chambers has a lot to hide: all of the lives of gays that he and his fellow "ex-gays" for pay have harmed and those who have been driven to suicide due their inability to "change." Jeremy at Good As You has a good summation of Chambers and those like him who continue to cling to flawed interpretations of a few Bible passages as a reason to lead miserable lives and encourage others to join them in their misery:

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We really have nothing to add. In fact, it seems that we basically have the same assessment of Alan as he has of himself. He's "self-denying" what is naturally within him, making a choice to live as who he thinks he should be rather than what he naturally was/is/could be. And he's doing so because he, unlike medical science, refuses to see homosexuality as an orientation that is fittingly compared to heterosexuality, instead choosing to position it as an aberration from the one and only accepted norm. but we get it and fully support his right to live, what seems like (but may not be), a conflicted life.

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Our issue is now and forever has been Alan and his community's role in passing off this information as factual information rather than personal belief/choice. Let's not forget that this is the same Gary Schneeberger who, just this month, tried to spin what was essentially an internal NARTH press release as a credible, peer-reviewed journal purporting to find benefit in "ex-gay" therapy. And let's not forget that this is the same Alan Chambers whose sole paycheck (as far as we can tell) is derived from using his own personal choice to convince countless many parents and impressionable (often hurting) teens that this, their own constrictive version of the gospel, is, well -- the gospel.

Christian Boot Camp Claims to Cure Gays

One of the big pushes of the Christianist organizations in the USA is to export their anti-gay agenda to Europe where society in general is far more gay accepting. One of the forms of snake oil being used in this effort is to export bogus programs like Focus on the Family's "Love Won Out" and programs put on by Exodus International. Typically, at these events the only "ex-gays" that can be produced by these potentially harmful programs are the salaried "ex-gays for pay" who make their livelihood by deluding themselves and pretending they are now straight. They point to their wives who have bought into the delusion and their children as proof they are "cured." Believe me, being married and having children means absolutely nothing in terms of your true sexual orientation. I've been there and done that and it's a fraud on all concerned.

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In light of the Christianists' effort to export their hate and disinformation abroad, including to the United Kingdom, it is interesting that the London Times did a story on one of the bogus "cure" programs put on by Exodus International. Unlike the typical news coverage, the Times story looks in much more depth at the negatives of the "ex-gay" programs. Would that journalists in the USA had the balls to take on these quacks. Here are some highlights:

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Welcome to ex-gay boot camp. The belief that homosexuality can be overcome has been fuelling controversy in the US for decades. Although research supporting SSA therapy has been discredited, “ex-gay” ministries are expanding worldwide, even in the UK, where a discreet network practises SSA therapy under the umbrella of “Christian counselling”.

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The first full day requires us to pick our classes. I sign up for “Journey Through Lesbianism”, a workshop addressing possible factors contributing to the development of lesbianism. These include, apparently, “unhealthy relationships with family members and peers, abuse, shame and self-hatred”. Loneliness, the media, and being deprived of affection as a baby in a hospital incubator will later be added to the list.

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Some of my classmates are veteran Exodus followers attending the annual conference for a “willpower top-up”, like recovering alcoholics going to AA meetings; others are boot camp virgins. Everyone has paid $600 (£340) for the privilege. . . . Each evening, a roll-call of “former homosexuals” hold up their husbands and wives like kitemarks of their newfound heterosexuality. We are told repeatedly that marriage is evidence of healing. Stereotypes are the ex-gay currency, and the heterosexual ideal is practically ringed by a white picket fence.

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It could be comical were it not for the teenager shaking in the corner, and the man sobbing as he prayed. Excusing herself from a session, Michelle goes to her room and cries. “I don't think I want to willpower right through it,” she confides before going to sleep. “Where's the change in that?” Later I find her surfing the website of the protesters who have been picketing the campus. They are led by Wayne Besen, an ex-gay-camp-attendee-turned-campaigner (an ex-ex-gay, so to speak).

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At one last seminar, “Smooth Transitions: Life after the Conference”, Joe, a Latino man from Miami, speaks proudly of leaving his boyfriend and changing his friends, his address, his job and his gym after leaving his first conference. “It's about doing what's uncomfortable,” he tells the class, describing how he forced himself to watch baseball with macho sportsmen at parties, and to wear looser shorts when walking his chihuahua.

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[T]hey believe that you're born with your religion and choose your sexuality, when that is the opposite of the truth.” One ex-gay leader who has come to the same conclusion is Jeremy Marks. A mild-mannered 56-year-old from Surrey, he pioneered one of the first ex-gay networks in the UK. But after ten years, the attempted suicide of a former resident led him to question the value of SSA therapy. He found that, rather than helping people, it led to depression and dysfunctional behaviour. “They stopped going to church, stopped going to work,” he recalls. “The only ones who appeared to be doing well were those who accepted that they were gay and got on with their lives.”

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Marks is now openly gay and runs Courage, a support group for gay Christians. “Really, what the ex-gay movement is all about is salving the conscience of the Christian leaders who don't like to be accused of homophobia,” he says. “That way they can say ‘we don't hate gays - look how we are welcoming them'.”

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Packing her suitcase, Michelle feels that she has found an answer. “To focus on sex is missing the point,” she says. “It's not about gay or straight. It's about holiness and my relationship with Christ.” She wants to marry but admits that she may never be attracted to men. “Then it means I've been called to singleness.” And lifelong celibacy? “I'm surrendering to God's way.” And she leaves, ready to face a new life in which love and sex are reduced to the sound of elevator music.

Exodus International - Arlington Group Membership Shows Political Agenda

I have long maintained that the real purpose behind the ex-gay "ministries" is political and NOT to help "support for individuals who want to recover from homosexuality." It is absolutely critical to the Christianist agenda to deprive LGBT citizens of legal protections that sexual orientation be view and constantly marketed to the public as a choice. Once the general public understands that one's sexual orientation is not changeable, it becomes much harder to urge elected officials to vote against non-discrimination laws and the like. As Ex-gay Watch has revealed via a Boston Globe story (http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2008/03/exodus-will-remain-a-member-of-the-arlington-group/), Exodus International, which describes itself as "the largest Christian referral and information network dealing with homosexual issues in the world," is in fact a member of the Arlington Group, which has a clearly poltical motivation, and hasno intention of withdrawing. Here's a description of the Arlington Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington_Group):

The Arlington Group is a coalition which unites the leaders of almost all of the most prominent Christian Right organizations in the United States. Founded in 2002 principally through the efforts of American Family Association President Donald Wildmon and Free Congress Foundation Chairman Paul Weyrich, the group seeks to establish consensus goals and strategy among its members and translate its combined constituency into an overwhelming force within the Republican Party, particularly at its highest levels. Its membership and purpose overlaps to a high degree with the Council for National Policy; but the group is much more narrowly focused, choosing to emphasize such issues as same-sex marriage, abortion, and confirmation of like-minded federal judges.

Obviously, if Exodus International's goal is only a charitable ministry to help individuals, why the involvement in the Arlington Group? A review of the Arlington Group's membership makes it very clear that raw political power and a policy of intimidation to further the Christianist agenda is the organization's sole purpose. Thus, was Alan Chamber’s recent announcement that Exodus has “decided to back out of policy issues,” concerned that they “might be alienating people that simply wouldn’t call [them] for help because of the perception that [they] were becoming a partisan and political organization rather than a ministry for all" a lie? It would seem so.

Combine this situation and the recently release by the American Psychological Association and co-sponsors of a booklet making it VERY clear that reparative therapy and ex-gay programs are unethical for mental health and health care professionals just underscores Alan Chambers' dishonesty. Exodus is a fradualent organization perpetrating a fraud on the uninformed and unwary. Of course, in the process Chambers makes money peddling books, receiving speaking engagements, etc.

TRUTH WINS OUT RELEASES 'EX-GAY = EX-WIFE' VIDEO THAT DETAILS HOW EX-GAY MARRIAGES LEAD TO HEARTBREAK AND DIVORCE

My friend Wayne Besen at Truth Wins Out is releasing a new video to combat the false message put out by the Christianist funded "ex-gay" programs. I am setting out Wayne's press release in full because it not only addresses the failed marriages of ex-gays, but also the failed marriages of other LGBT individuals who try to conform to societal and religious dictates only to meet with ultimate failure. I know of what I speak - I am one of them and my children are collateral damage.

Groups That Encourage Marriage As A Cure For Homosexuality Destroy Families And Treat Spouses and Children As Collateral Damage

NEW YORK - Truth Wins Out released an exclusive National Coming Out Day video today, "Ex-Gay = Ex-Wife," that features the stories of four courageous women whose families fell apart after their closeted husbands came out. This video is the latest in TWO's "Talking Truth" campaign and highlights the harm of ex-gay programs from a unique perspective - that of the spouse who gets left behind when the promised "cure" does not endure.

"Ex-gay programs love to show the wedding photos, but they never show you the divorce papers that result from such ill-conceived marriages," said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director, Wayne Besen. "These programs hold marriage up as the Holy Grail to heterosexuality, but the truth is, these marriages wholly fail, leaving shattered lives and broken families."

Bonnie Kaye, an author and director of the organization www.GayHusbands.com, has dedicated her life to counseling women after the demise of her own marriage. She blames anti-gay activists, such as Alan Chambers of Exodus International and James Dobson of Focus on the Family, for creating such miserable and doomed marriages.

"Alan Chambers and James Dobson are destroying the lives of families, not helping them...It's not a choice, people are who they are. Learn to love them and learn to embrace them and help them love themselves so they don't have to go and get married to be somebody they're not," said Kaye.

In the video, Nancy Davis shares how her former father-in law, a psychologist, recommended that his son meet a woman, get married and lead a straight life. "I feel like I was used, I was like an innocent lamb lead to slaughter," Davis said. The pain of such marriages can linger, long after the divorce is final. "Many of us are severely damaged...the spouses and children end up being the collateral damage," said Carol Silverman of the Straight Spouse Network, who was divorced after being married for nearly three decades.

Ignoring the failure and destruction all around them, ex-gay groups arrogantly and selfishly continue to use such families as pawns in their divisive culture war. "These organizations that try to convince people that they can be cured need to be stopped," asserted Tracy Rosenberg, who divorced her husband after almost 20 years.

"This video is a powerful reality check and a warning for those who would marry thinking that it will help them go from gay to straight," said Besen. "We are now looking to tell the stories of husbands whose marriages ended when their ex-gay wives came out as lesbians."

Ex-Gay Cat Fight

All Hell is breaking loose in the fraudulent world of ex-gays following Alan Chambers' following comment to the Los Angeles Times:

With years of therapy, Chambers says, he has mostly conquered his own attraction to men; he's a husband and a father, and he identifies as straight. But lately, he's come to resent the term "ex-gay": It's too neat, implying a clean break with the past, when he still struggles at times with homosexual temptation. "By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete," Chambers said.

Adding the the ex-gay heresy are statements by Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, that "we should not be surprised" to find a genetic basis for sexual orientation. The concession that homosexuality may not be a choice, but a matter of DNA totally undercuts professional ex-gays like Stephen Bennett, who has a profitable business pretending prayer washed away the gay, and professional anti-gay rights whacko Peter LaBarbera (a/k/a Porno Pete), who has an unnatural need to go "undercover" at gay leather events.

Here's a summary of Bennett's comments following Alan Chambers' act of blasphemy:

There is ZERO biological, scientific "evidence" for homosexuality to this date. The biblical evidence for homosexuality is very clear: it's sin.

For Bible believing Christians, homosexuality is, was and always will be a sinful lifestyle - condemned by God throughout the Old and New Testament - a sin that anyone involved in, must repent from.

Stephen Bennett, an ex-gay himself now for 15 years, happily married for 14 years to his wife Irene and the father of their two children, stated, "Frankly, I am shocked that the President of the largest information and referral ministry in the world on homosexual issues, would ever make such irresponsible and false public statements. If Mr. Chambers, a married man and father who once engaged in homosexuality himself, says he's never met 'a former ex-gay' or one who has 'changed completely', he's personally invited to our home in Connecticut to meet one. I'd also be happy to introduce him to numerous other individuals - all former homosexual men and women."

Bennett once engaged in the homosexual lifestyle for 11 years with over 100 men - losing partners and friends to HIV/AIDS, until everything changed in 1990 - when he was confronted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He dealt with his root issues and in 1992 completely changed. Stephen no longer struggles whatsoever with homosexual temptation.

"Homosexuality is an outward expression of an inward conflict. When I completely dealt with my inward conflict, my alcoholism, cocaine addiction, bulimia AND homosexual struggle were completely gone," said Bennett.

Note how Bennett, like most of those who have become professional ex-gays has a history of alcohol and drug abuse. I suspect Bennett's root issue was the need to make money and find some form of acceptance and the ex-gay route provided both. In the case of Porno Pete, he strikes me as a bit too shrill and is probably a self-hating closet case. No one straight is that obsessed with homosexuality in my view.

Ex-gay or Just Exploited?

The Orange County Register newspaper (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/irvine/article_1732269.php) has a story on competing conference that will take place on the merits (or lack there of) of ex-gay programs. One is the annual Exodus International "Freedom Conference" with professional ex-gay, Alan Chambers. A bike ride away, at UC Irvine, co-sponsored by the university, is scheduled "The Survivor's Conference: Beyond Ex-gay."

What is interesting is that one of the attendees at the Survivor event is one of the original founders of the Exodus movement who has changed his view on the legitimacy of "ex-gay" programs:

Michael Bussee, who co-founded Exodus at Anaheim's Melodyland Christian Center in 1976, said he quit counseling people to go straight when he realized he couldn't even "cure" himself. Bussee, who now lives in Riverside and is a licensed marriage and family therapist, said he knew he was gay since he was a boy. At age 12, he went to the public library looking for a book "about homosexuality so I could cure it, but the books said it was the result of mental illness."

Bussee became a born-again Christian, got married, studied anthropology and psychology at Cal State Fullerton, and hoped while involved with Melodyland that he could live as a straight man. "I loved my wife and we both thought over time God would create heterosexual feelings in me," Bussee said. "Instead, I fell in love with my wife's best friend's husband." By 1979, Bussee began to believe he was hurting the people he was trying to counsel in his ex-gay group. "There were suicide attempts," Bussee said. "I had a guy in my group who took a razor blade to his genitals because he felt so guilty."

Sadly, Alan Chambers, pictured with his wife, still has yet to recant. I am sure if it is because he cannot let go of the religious brainwashing that he received growing up and/or in the Exodus program, or if because the money he makes playing "ex-gay" is too attractive. Which ever the reason, I feel sorry for his wife in that she was suckered into marrying a guy who will never truly be the straight husband she deserved. Meanwhile, here's what the legitimate experts have to say on ex-gay therapy:

"Reparative therapy" is "based on an understanding of homosexuality that has been rejected by all the major health and mental health professions," according to the American Psychological Association.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reported in 2004 that "current literature and most scholars in the field state that one's sexual orientation is not a choice; that is, individuals do not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual."

"Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation," a position paper of the American Academy of Pediatrics states.

The American Psychiatric Association reported that the "potential risks of 'reparative therapy' are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient."

More Lies From Exodus About Gay "Cures"

I have little use for ex-gay organizations, which in my opinion peddle snake oil and should be shut down for intentionally fraudulent operations." Unfortunately, since most operate as religious related "ministries," they avoid the licensing requirements imposed on legitimate therapists and real mental health clinics. Ex-Gay Watch, on which I have had columns published, has a new story on how Exodus is now, with no documented evidence, claim that sudden and immediate change is possible (see: http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2007/06/exodus-fails-to-document-sudden-radical-complete-change/). Here's a portion of the posting:

Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization and increasingly active anti-gay rights lobby, is now making a rather bold claim. Without any explanation, support or fanfare, they have released two radio spots as part of a media campaign to promote their upcoming Freedom Conference in Irvine, California.

"Revolution - a sudden, radical, complete change - through Christ - freedom is possible for those who struggle with same-gender attraction…”

Both audio clips use the same script with different background music to fit the various radio programming formats. The page contains no information or support concerning the claim, and as far as one can tell it would only be heard by someone listening to the radio or happening across that particular page. A web search would not find it.

In the past, Exodus president Alan Chambers has denied this kind of immediate transformation, and certainly no proof exists to support it. When confronted by Anderson Cooper about Ted Haggard’s claim to have become heterosexual after three weeks of therapy, Chambers said: "Well, the truth is that’s not my story, and it’s not the story of anyone I’ve ever met. I don’t know Ted Haggard’s journey over the last three weeks, but like Mark, I would say that it’s something that — it doesn’t seem like something that is really the case."

I truly feel sorry for gays and their families who are duped by Exodus' bogus propaganda. The only ones who benefit are the professional ex-gays who make money off the unwary and desperate. In my view, these "ex-gays for pay" are parasites.