Posted: 8/8/03
Exodus International's convention
touts 'freedom' from homosexuality
By Hannah Lodwick
Associated Baptist Press
ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP)–A panel consisting of a mental-health counselor, a former lesbian now mother of three and three men who consider themselves “ex-gays” held a press conference this summer to promote “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”
The press conference was part of the annual meeting of Exodus International, a Christian group that says reorientation of same-sex attraction is possible based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The group says homosexuals can learn to resist same-sex temptation and find their identity in Jesus rather than in homosexuality.
| Critics of the movement say it uses misinformation to make people think they have a problem when they don't. |
About 1,000 participants spent five days in Orlando, Fla., attending workshops, worshipping and listening to speeches. Topics included same-sex attraction, family support, transsexual issues and ministering to homosexuals.
Exodus proponents say working through underlying relational and abuse problems plays a large part in the process of change.
“Christ offers a healing alternative to those with homosexual tendencies,” the Exodus mission statement says. “The individual is freed to know and experience true identity as discovered in Christ and his church.”
The panel also spoke about the changing role of Exodus, a 28-year-old interdenominational non-profit organization, which now wants to teach the larger church how to minister to homosexuals.
“For many years, Exodus has been an organization working with the individual,” said former homosexual Alan Chambers, executive director of Exodus International of North America. “We believe in this day and age it is important to educate the church. Our desire is to be within the body of Christ to take the lack of information and present research and studies … to equip an army of believers.”
Fueled by events like the recent Supreme Court decision to overthrow anti-sodomy laws, the debate about the role of homosexuals in the church has become increasingly volatile. Groups like Exodus say they can help bring unity to the church.
Joe Dallas, an ex-homosexual and author of “Desires in Conflict,” said the sodomy ruling and recent legalization of homosexual marriage in Canada represent cultural changes that call for response.
“When a culture experiences a change, millions of people look to their spiritual leaders to see whether the change should be celebrated or a cause of concern,” Dallas said. “We are helping to call the church to a balance … that involves compassion and conviction in equal force.”
While secular homosexual groups regularly and publicly oppose Exodus, it faces criticism within Christian circles as well.
One primary area of disagreement involves what Steven Baines, a homosexual Christian activist, calls “debunked” psychological evidence. Baines said ex-homosexual ministries like Exodus destroy homosexuals' belief that God made them as a special part of his creation. Instead, Baines said, Exodus uses misinformation that makes people think they have a problem. Rather than finding freedom, Baines said, the guilt Exodus produces leads people to depression and suicide.
“It's shaming for people,” said Baines, who now works for People for the American Way. “People read the Scriptures and they pray, and they read and they pray, and they think they are damned if they don't change.”
Baines grew up a Southern Baptist and even served on staff at First Baptist Church in Charleston, S.C. He now attends a Disciples of Christ church in Washington, D.C.
“We need to take seriously that these people (Exodus participants) are repressing their sexuality,” Baines said. “They have no long-term empirical evidence that they sustain a heterosexual life in the long term.”
Exodus leaders acknowledge they commonly are accused of homophobia and homosexual-hatred, but they insist they promote freedom and love. They classify homosexuality with other “sexual sins,” which they say can become a thing of the past.
And, they say, the issue of homosexuality is too big for Christians to ignore.
“The church finally had to come together and take a stand on the issue, promoting not what we're against, but what we're for,” Chambers said. “We have a great opportunity to proclaim what we're for–God's freedom.”
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