MY NEW HERO
Alan Chambers
Exodus International, a large Christian ministry that claimed to offer a “cure” for homosexuality, plans to shut down. In a press release posted on the ministry’s website Wednesday night, the board of directors announced the decision to close after nearly four decades…. “We’re not negating the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people, but a new generation of Christians is looking for change — and they want to be heard,” Exodus board member Tony Moore said. The closure comes less than a day after Exodus released a statement apologizing to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for years of undue judgment, by the organization and from the Christian Church as a whole.
I devote a good deal of time, energy, column inches, and brain cells to holding intolerant “Christians” up to well-deserved ridicule. It’s been thus for almost 12 years. Every now and again, though, an individual or organization wakes up and realizes what damage they’ve done through their wingnut fear-based theology…and they cop to it. It takes a lot of courage to admit that you’ve been wrong and caused a good deal of sorrow and pain. When that happens I try to make the effort to recognize and applaud a brave act of contrition.
Exodus International has over the years done incalculable damage to untold numbers of individuals struggling with their sexuality. The group’s (prior) belief that homosexuality could be “cured” through prayer led to unknowable numbers of gays and lesbians being subjected to persecution and abuse. Exodus International President Alan Chambers led a group dedicated to teaching that homosexuality isn’t innate, but a choice…and a very poor and sinful one at that. Chambers has finally recognized that his group’s fear- and ignorance-based teachings had nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ…and he’s owned up to it:
Exodus is an institution in the conservative Christian world, but we’ve ceased to be a living, breathing organism. For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.
The idea of “reparative therapy” and the “‘ex-gay’ movement” is being dismantled, brick by brick. The idea that someone could be “ex-gay” is being rendered obsolete; it’s increasingly coming to be viewed as just another point on the broad spectrum of human sexuality. Ain’t tolerance grand?? (It most certainly is, though it appears that not everyone got the memo….)
And so today I bestow a hearty “WELCOME TO THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY!” on Alan Chambers for doing the right thing. This isn’t meant to excuse the past crimes of Exodus International, of course…but the past can’t be changed. What we can do is work together towards a better, more tolerant, and more inclusive present, one where you’re defined by the content of your character and not by whom and how you love. Chambers’ mea culpa will not repair damage already done, but we can hope that it might nudge other similar “Christian” organizations towards doing the right thing. No one should be holding their breath, but Chambers’ actions represent a baby step toward creating a world in which Christians actually live the teachings of Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t that be something? Christianity used as a tool to make the world a better place, instead of being employed as a club to bludgeon those who dare to think, believe, live, and/or love differently?
Whodathunkit??
