Tag Archives: Alan Chambers

Christians Adapting to the New Gay World

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With rapidly increasing popular support for legal r ecognition of same – sex relationships. either in full marriage or as civil unions, and for protection of LGBT individuals from discrimination and violence, many religious groups are coming to reconsider their own traditional hostility:

Some Christians shift on gays

“This is a new season,” declares Exodus International President Alan Chambers,who has shut down his controversial gay-to-straight conversion ministry and apologized for the hurt the program inflicted. In the weeks following Chambers’ bombshell, the Supreme Court has issued rulings accelerating this change of season for gay rights in America, and same-sex marriage advocates are gearing up for new drives in Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon.

For conservative Christians, the people who have fought gay rights the hardest and have wagered a good deal of their religion’s credibility in the process, these latest developments accentuate a predicament that seems to grow worse by the day — along with, we can hope, a chance to pivot toward a more winsome way to engage a rapidly changing culture.

The good news: They need look no further than the Bible, and a growing number in their own ranks, for a way to navigate this new terrain.

Consider what Chambers said last month when he rocked the opening of his group’s conference with the announcement that Exodus would exist no more. In the ashes of the country’s oldest and largest “pray away the gay” Christian ministry, he is launching a new organization. “Our goals,” he says, “are to reduce fear and come alongside churches to become safe (and) welcoming communities.”

The evangelicals and conservative Catholics most aggrieved by the advance of gay rights might find it helpful to follow Chambers’ lead. If there’s anything to fear, it’s the damage that the fear-based anti-gay culture war will wreak on Christianity’s good standing.

Read more at  USA Today

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Ex-Gay Groups Go Back to the Future

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Exodus leader Alan Chambers, who recently admitted that since “reparative” therapy cannot “cure” homosexuality his group will no longer promise “change,” has come under fire from other ex-gay proponents. One of those seeking Chambers’ scalp is Dr. Robert Gagnon, who has called for Chambers to resign as head of Exodus.

Apparently, what chaps Gagnon’s butt the most is Chambers’ assertion that gay Christians can go to heaven “if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ.” Gagnon is apparently so upset about Chambers’ position that it took 35 pages to cover all his objections, including this one:

Alan’s approach of providing assurances of salvation to those actively engaged in sexually immoral intercourse is a very different approach than Jesus’ and Paul’s warnings that immoral sexual behavior, among other offenses, can get one excluded from the kingdom of God and thrown into hell.

Gagnon’s verbose reaction belies the truth that “reparative” therapy is finally on its last legs, condemned by every reputable psychological organization and propped up only by discredited studies from the likes of de-certified Paul Cameron and the work of Robert Spitzer, who recently disavowed his own research.

Chambers is simply the latest “ex-gay” to realize he isn’t. Exodus’ founder Michael Bussee discovered that back in 1979, when he and Gary Cooper—another ex-gay pioneer—fell in love and got married.

“By calling ourselves ‘ex-gay’ we were lying to ourselves and others. We were hurting people,” Bussee recalls.

Now that “pray away the gay” is quickly headed for the historical dustbin, Gagnon and his “ex-gay” enthusiasts will need a new generation of leaders to keep the snake oil business going.

I have a suggestion. Instead of relying on new “science” why not get medieval on homosexuality and hire former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt? He recently claimed on The David Packer show that he can exorcise the gay right out of you.

via Candace Chellew – Hodge, Religion Dispatches.

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Sexual Healing: Evangelicals Update Their Message to Gays

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At the world’s largest ministry for homosexual Christians, there’s no more talk of “curing” same-sex attraction. 

Thirty years ago, Alan Chambers was a Christ-loving 10-year-old with a terrible secret. He knew he was attracted to other boys. He also knew that the Bible called homosexuality an “abomination.” After nearly a decade of hiding his feelings (and his love of shopping and decorating) from family and pastors, he discovered a ministry called Exodus International. Today, Chambers is the president of Exodus and the author of the book Leaving Homosexuality. He oversees more than 260 ministries, spearheads large annual conferences, and is married to a woman.

More recently, Chambers publicly rejected reparative therapy — a school of counseling that aims to make gay people straight. At the Gay Christian Network Conference in January of this year, Chambers told the audience that “99.9 percent of [Exodus participants] have not experienced a change in their orientation.” Around the same time, he pulled all reparative therapy books from the Exodus bookstore. His actions irked a number of therapists, including one marriage counselor, improbably named David Pickup, who argued that Exodus had “failed to understand and effectively deal with the actual root causes of homosexuality.”

The question is whether Chambers’s changes will filter down through the rest of his organization. One of Exodus’s policy statements promises that the group will “stand with the LGBT community both in spirit, and when necessary, legally and physically, when violence rears its head in Uganda, Jamaica, or anywhere else in the world.” It’s no coincidence that those particular countries are mentioned. Just last month, Exodus board member Dennis Jernigan traveled to Jamaica, where homosexuality is a crime, and urged the country not to change its laws. In 2009, another board member gave a speech in Uganda that inspired a Christian campaign to make homosexuality punishable by death.

” (On Friday, the day after we spoke, Exodus sent out a press release distancing itself from Jernigan’s statements and announcing his resignation from the board.)

-full report at Atlantic

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Defining Exodus: A Letter from Alan Chambers (Extracts)

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We want to reiterate that our mission is, first and foremost, to serve, support and equip the Church in providing refuge to individuals or families impacted by same-sex attractions (SSA).  Quite simply, our goal is to make the Church famous for loving and serving people as Jesus would and pointing them to Him.

While my office seeks to serve the Church, the 260 churches, ministries and counselors here in North America and our alliance of partner ministries across the world are there to serve individuals who freely come to them for support.  People seeking this encouragement and guidance do so because they have decided to pursue an identity or life based on their relationship with Christ over their same-sex attractions. In most cases these are Christian men and women who desire to live in accordance to God’s design for sexuality, clearly defined in scripture.   Exodus also has an extensive support system for family members or friends of those who are same-sex attracted and/or gay identified.

We believe that in Christ we have been given completely new hearts and the ability to have power over the sin that remains confined to our earthly flesh.  While believers absolutely can fall to temptation, the mark of a maturing believer is finding increased victory in areas that have, at times, overwhelmed us. Exodus does not believe in a punishing or demanding God, but One who loves us as a perfect Father and desires the very best for us. For our benefit He has given us boundaries in scripture on a host of matters relating to life, including human sexuality.

We respect everyone’s right to pursue their own course as it relates to seeking resolution for struggles. No one is ever coerced, forced into therapy, nor do we seek to ‘pray away the gay’ as many have suggested.  In fact we are no longer an organization that associates with or promotes therapeutic practices that focus on changing one’s attraction.  I found the greatest amount of freedom when I stopped focusing on my sin and struggles and started focusing on the grace and peace found only in Christ and the man He created me to be.  This life isn’t most about sin management but about living daily as the sons and daughters of God.  In part, it is the peace and rest found in that identity alone that transforms us daily.

-full letter at Exodus International

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