A BLOG BY ALAN CHAMBERS

Coverage of Exodus Conference

Check out some of the stories on the Exodus West Coast Regional Freedom Conference:

ABC News 30 in Fresno and Again

KSee 24 NBC

KMPH FOX 26 and Again

The Fresno Bee

 

Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Article Now Online

My recent article How Will You Respond to Homosexuality? is now online.  Let me know what you think.

Christianity Today on Exodus

If you haven't already, at least read the last three paragraphs from Tim Stafford's article in Christianity Today. We couldn't really ask for a more honest accolade of the work God is doing through Exodus. (An Older, Wiser Ex-Gay Movement: The 30-year-old ministry now offers realistic hope for homosexuals, Oct 07)

Which sums up much of ex-gay ministry today. No hype. Limited faith in techniques. No gay bashing. No detectable triumphalism, religious or political. Just serious discipleship. This may be the only group in America that realizes all the way to the bottom that when you decide to follow Jesus, you don't always get to do what you want to do.*

The ex-gay movement runs against the cultural tide. Given adverse public opinion, the ambivalent support of conservative churches, and the common assertion that ex-gays condemn themselves to a life of frustration, you would think the movement would shrivel. Yet Exodus affiliates have doubled in number over the last 18 years. Many of its leaders have been in the public eye for 20 to 30 years. They show every sign of stability.

They live by radical ideas about sexuality—that we are not, as our culture would have it, defined by our desires, heterosexual or homosexual. Rather, we are defined by our Creator and Savior. Our attractions, always disordered to some extent, must be submitted to Christ, who alone can redeem us. For those who feel strong same-sex attractions, that task is especially difficult. But it is the same basic struggle every Christian must face.

* Emphasis added.

Entire Article: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/october/6.48.html

Alan & Leslie Chambers on The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet

Please tune into your local FOX Station Thursday morning to see Alan & Leslie Chambers, Jayson Graves and Peterson Tuscano discuss the issue of change and homosexuality.

For more information on this segment visit The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet online.

Alan on NPR

The Fresh Air interview I taped in August with Terry Gross aired yesterday nationwide.  The Exodus office received numerous calls, emails and new hits to the website as a result. The majority of the feedback was extremely positive, but there was negative feedback, as well.  I listened to the interview yesterday afternoon and, prior to getting any feedback at all, realized that I said one thing that I wished I could have clarified.  Thus, I want to do so here.

Without listening to the entire interview again I won't be able to give the exact quote, but I said something like, "One of the greatest myths operating in our culture today is that the majority of the gay community is interested in anti discrimination laws."

I have to say that my experience is anecdotal.  The majority of everyday gay and lesbian folks I meet or hear from (a significant number) do tell me that they aren't interested in the gay rights battles for anti-discrimination laws, benefits for same-sex couples or marriage.  I have several activists friends who regularly tell me that they are angered by the majority of their gay friends because of their ambivalence to the gay rights issues and politics in general.

An activist friend (on the other side) emailed me some stats from a 2003 Gallup Poll that stated 9 in 10 Americans (88%) support "equal opportunities for gays and lesbians in the workplace."  I would like to see the questions that were asked, how many people were sampled and who those people were.  Depending on the questions asked that poll might have included me as one of those making up the 88%---but I am far from a proponent of anti-discrimimnation laws.

According to another poll conducted by the LA Times, 72% of Americans favor "laws to protect gays against job discrimination."  Again, what was the question that was asked?  Who were the people polled?  What area of the country were they from?  I know that a lot of Christian and conservative people might fall into the 72% depending on how the questions were phrased---like I said above, even I might fall into the category.

I also received an email with some survey results from a survey that was conducted by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force this year.  The results were that the two top policy priorities for LGBT people were 1) Marriage equality and 2)Non-discrimination laws.  In this survey conducted at 7 gay pride events, 1440 or so people were polled.

Unless there is more to the study than I saw, this information is much the same as mine: anecdotal. Those who attend gay pride events are ones who, for the most part, are politically and socially active.  They are a good representation of the activist community, but not of everyone who is gay or lesbian. What cities were these events in?  Who was polled?  The results aren't surprising given the events and the typical attendees.

Nonetheless, I wish I had stated clearly that the information I was giving was based upon my own experience and was in fact my opinion.

Thanks to those of you who weighed in on both sides of the debate.

Will John Edwards the Next Politician to Declare that He is a "Gay American"?

I admit that I was incredibly into my hair--when I had enough to worry about--But this is RIDICULOUS. Can you say (or spell) narcisism?

Check out the 'New Breck Girl'.

Michaelangelo Signorile

For those of you who missed it, I was a guest on Michaelangelo Signorile's radio show this afternoon. I found Mr. Signorile intolerant of my views and unwilling to allow healthy conversation and debate. Like many pro-gay talk shows the agenda was more important than the guest. Below are some of the points that Mr. Signorile brought up that I didn't have time to affirm or comment on:

1). That the Christian community has made out homosexuality to be an issue and a sin that is worse than other issues or sins.

The word that comes to mind is hypocritical. For many years the Church has been hypocritical when it comes to condemning one sin and overlooking another. Homosexuality conjures up more anger and offense in some people than other sins do and that ought not be. Homosexuality is but one of many sexual sins running rampant in our world (and Church) today. God does not favor one sin over another nor would He have kept Jesus from dying for our sins if there hadn't ever been a homosexual. Jesus would have had to die anyway. It is true, there is sin in the Church and it needs to be addressed.

2). Exodus founders fell in love, left Exodus and are still together.

Two men who were apart of the original Exodus conference, one as a volunteer and the other as a true founder of what would become Exodus did meet, have an affair and leave their wives. They were together until one of them died of AIDS in the 1980's.

3). Exodus' forces it's opinion on people and that is hateful and causing people to kill themselves.

I was one of those gay teens who contemplated and attempted suicide on a number of occasions. I wanted to die after I was told that I had to be gay and that there was no alternative. Having no choices made me want to die. I wanted to change.

I hear people tell me all the time that I shouldn't be so hateful by saying that homosexuality is a sin. Well, then that means that I should not quote the Bible when it references such. And, if I shouldn't quote that part of the Bible then I shouldn't quote any of the Bible. Follow it to their logical conclusion and there is no basis for the Bible or Christianity or even God.

Truth hurts. No child wants to be told that they are in the wrong or that the shouldn't do something because it is wrong. There are many people who kill themselves because they just don't believe they can do whatever it is they think they should do (ie: lose weight, stop drinking or doing drugs, make good grades, etc.) But, does that mean that we should stop talking about the risks of obesity or alcoholism or drug addiction or that we should let our kids fail out of school? NO. We must always promote the highest standard and do so in the most truthful and loving ways.

Conclusion
Many homosexual people are bitter, angry and intolerant of Christians because they have been hurt, sometimes devastated, by them. More than ever before we, the Church, need to be quick to apologize for areas where we have fallen short, while standing firm on the word of God.

As I said above, truth hurts. Homosexuality is a sin and that truth needs to be told---but homosexuality does not deserve more condemnation than other sins. Most of all, we as Christians need to be promoting what God is for more than what He is against. If we spend all of our time talking about what is bad then what is good gets lost.