Exodus International to Shut Down
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“From a Judeo-Christian perspective, gay, straight or otherwise, we’re all prodigal sons and daughters,” Chambers said. “Exodus International is the prodigal’s older brother, trying to impose its will on God’s promises, and make judgments on who’s worthy of His Kingdom.
“God is calling us to be the Father — to welcome everyone, to love unhindered.”
Why is it that my voice always seems to be loudest when I am saying the dumbest things?
“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,” Tony Moore, Board member of Exodus.
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Chambers continued: “From a Judeo-Christian perspective, gay, straight or otherwise, we’re all prodigal sons and daughters. Exodus International is the prodigal’s older brother, trying to impose its will on God’s promises, and make judgments on who’s worthy of His Kingdom. God is calling us to be the Father – to welcome everyone, to love unhindered.”
I have no idea how Exodus Int ministered, but these statements are disturbing. In the first quote they seem to be saying that practicing homosexual Christians should be heard and have input into how homosexuality is dealt with. This is perplexing. Do you ask an open fornicator if sex outside of marriage is OK? If they think it is OK does that make it so?
The second quote is simply odd. Did they minister as if they were perfect and were not sexually tempted? Of course people dealing with homosexuality should be loved. Of course we should do as Paul said to the Galatians 6:1 (NKJV) “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” But they idea that homosexuality is acceptable behavior is simply not Biblical. One of the problems has been that conservative Christianity in the media has been strong opposing homosexuality, but in public addresses we ignore heterosexual sins like un-Biblical divorce, promiscuity, fornication, and adultery. In the “gay marriage” debate the atrocity of rampant divorce in our society has been played to the hilt to support homosexual marriage.
My understanding of these statements is that the leaders of Exodus are not saying that homosexual behavior and homosexual marriage are ok. Rather, they are modifying their previous position that homosexual orientation/feelings can in all cases be reprogrammed and/or in all cases are in and of themselves sinful. The “new” position is: some people, even Christians, will struggle with homosexual temptation (just as some Christians struggle with heterosexual lust, or alcoholism, etc.); those Christians may or may not come to a place where the temptation is permanently removed; the temptation is not sin and does not disqualify them as Christians; giving in to the temptation is sin but does not disqualify them as Christians; homosexual marriage is not marriage, but they’re not going to fight about it any more. In addition, they’re apologizing for past instances of actual misconduct by Exodus counselors because, while they took action against those counselors, they did not apologize at the time for the harm done by the counselors.
The end result, at least from what I have heard, is that the organization is shutting down. This is not a reevaluation of how they do things, but a total cessation of their work.
There may be questions about the approaches that they used and the methods of “treatment” with which they attempted to combat or remove homosexual tendencies, but that’s not the real issue. They are ending their fight against a rampant sin entirely, not revising their approach.
As comments were made by leaders of similar groups, including a man that would describe himself as a “former homosexual” that was cured of it by the methods of Exodus International, it’s a sad day because that fight is being given up.
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