More on Exodus's Exit

Exodus President Alan Chambers apologized for harm he and Exodus have done, speaking on Our America with Lisa Ling on June 19.

This televised apology preceded the 38th and presumably last conference of Exodus International at Concordia College in Irvine, California, June 19-23.

Exodus Int’l President to the Gay Community: “We’re Sorry”

Leader of 37-year old ministry admits grave errors

Irvine, Calif. (June 19, 2013) — Exodus International, the oldest and largest Christian ministry dealing with faith and homosexuality, issued an apology to the gay community for years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the Church as a whole.

The apology (http://exodusinternational.org/apology) dovetails with the ministry’s 38th annual conference in Irvine, Calif. – and the Thursday, June 20, airing of the television broadcast “God & Gays” on Our America with Lisa Ling. On Ling’s program, Exodus President, Alan Chambers, sits down with gay and lesbian people hurt by the Church with the goal of reconciliation.

“It is strange to be someone who has both been hurt by the Church’s treatment of the LGBTQ community, and also to be someone who must apologize for being part of the very system of ignorance that perpetuated that hurt,” said Chambers. “Today it is as if I’ve just woken up to a greater sense of how painful it is to be a sinner in the hands of an angry church.”

Chambers also said:

“I am sorry for the pain and hurt that many of you have experienced.  I am sorry some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents.

“I am sorry I didn’t stand up to people publicly ‘on my side’ who called you names like sodomite—or worse. I am sorry that I, knowing some of you so well, failed to share publicly that the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that when I celebrated a person coming to Christ and surrendering their sexuality to Him, I callously celebrated the end of relationships that broke your heart. I am sorry I have communicated that you and your families are less than me and mine.

“More than anything, I am sorry that so many have interpreted this religious rejection by Christians as God’s rejection.  I am profoundly sorry that many have walked away from their faith and that some have chosen to end their lives.

“You have never been my enemy.  I am very sorry that I have been yours. I hope changes in my own life, as well as the ones we announce tonight regarding Exodus International, will bring resolution, and show I am serious in both my regret and offer of friendship. I pledge that future endeavors will be focused on peace and common good.”

Portions of the Exodus Freedom conference, June 19-23 at Concordia College, are open to the media. Live streaming is available for the main sessions. The event draws men, women parents, teens, pastors and ministry leaders for four days of teaching and support. Many attendees are attracted to the same sex, and desire to live in congruence with their faith. Others attend looking for help in coming alongside those with same-sex attraction.

Exodus President, Alan Chambers, is available for interviews. For press credentials or to set up an interview, contact Amy Tracy at 407/808-9831 or 719/355-9075. 

For additional information and a schedule of activities, please go to http://www.exodusfreedom.org.

A preview of “Our America with Lisa Ling” can be seen here (http://exodusinternational.org/2013/06/sneak-peak-lisa-ling-special-report-god-gays-with-alan-chambers-video/).

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Exodus International | P.O. Box 540119 | Orlando, FL 32854 | exodusinternational.org/press | 888-264-0877

Contact information: Exodus International, Exodus International, PO Box 540119, Orlando, FL 32854

Goodbye to Exodus

Hallelujah!

Exodus International, the "ex-gay" ministry founded in 1976, has closed down with its operations.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/20/19056718-ex-gay-group-says-its-shutting-down-leader-apologizes-for-pain-and-hurt?lite=

Its president, Alan Chambers, said that he continues to have same-sex attractions despite his marriage to a woman.

He also apologizes for "pain and hurt" he caused in people's lives by telling them they could be "cured" of their homosexuality.  His group was the oldest and largest of its kind.

"I do not believe that cure is a word that is applicable to really any struggle, homosexuality included," Chambers told The Associated Press last year. [as quoted in the NBC news report, link above]  "For someone to put out a shingle and say, 'I can cure homosexuality' — that to me is as bizarre as someone saying they can cure any other common temptation or struggle that anyone faces on Planet Earth."

This is a milestone.  

The world was very different in 1976.  The National Organization for Women (NOW) had recently (in 1971) adopted gay and lesbian issues as part of its agenda after difficult and divisive debate.  Betty Friedan was one of those who feared a stance on lesbian rights would harm the larger women's movement.  Opponents said all feminists were lesbians.

In 1976 Evangelical Women's Caucus was two years old and would not take a stand on gay rights for ten more years (in 1986), later changing its name to Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus and now EEWC--Christian Feminism Today.

Christians for Biblical Equality, which formed in 1986 as a reaction to EWC's stand, still requires members and exhibitors at conferences to sign an agreement with its statement of faith, which includes the following statement:

We believe in the family, celibate singleness, and faithful heterosexual marriage as God's design.

Thus EEWC-Christian Feminism Today cannot have a table in the exhibit halls of CBE conferences.  We're all for family and celibate singleness, but is heterosexual marriage the only option in God's creation  of humans?  I can't sign on that dotted line.

Also in the statement of faith:  
            We believe that, as mandated by the Bible, men and women are to oppose injustice.

CBE's core values include: 

1. Believers must promote righteousness and oppose injustice in all its forms.

Except injustice to people who are born with same-sex attraction or somewhere on the spectrum between gay and straight sexuality.  

The history on CBE's website describes its founding meeting of evangelical leaders including Gretchen Gaebelein Hull and Catherine Clark Kroeger in 1987 but does not mention EEWC or gay-lesbian issues:

"The group determined that a national organization was needed to provide education, support, and leadership about biblical equality."

The same goals as EWC, a national organization already existing.  Hmmm.

The official founding was on Jan. 2, 1988, followed by CBE's first conference in 1989, in Minnesota.  

Also omitted: that Cathy Kroeger and the Minnesota chapter of EEWC had offered to hold the 1988 EWC conference in Minnesota, but those plans were cancelled after EWC's pro-gay rights stand in 1986.

Note: CBE has been very successful, especially in fund-raising.  Why?  Biblical feminism had become more accepted among evangelicals by 1987 (thanks in part to EWC's work), and their anti-gay stance made them a safe investment.

Well, all this is water under the bridge.  CBE is doing a great job of working for women's equality in evangelical churches and in opposing injustice in some of its forms.

I plan to attend my first ever CBE conference this coming July in order to report on these sisters in the faith.

My prediction is that as cultures change and understanding of human sexuality changes, CBE International, like Exodus International, will become more tolerant of gay issues and gay rights.  It will revise its understanding of God's design and of the few biblical statements it now uses as a basis for opposing faithful same-sex unions.

Resources:
Letha Dawson Scanzoni and David G. Myers, What God Hath Joined Together: A Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperCollins, 2005, 2006).

Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? A Positive Christian Response (HarperSan Francisco, 1978; rev. 1994).