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<\/a>\n<\/a>Dear Mr. Chambers:<\/p>\n
I am writing in regard to your apology yesterday for all the devastating things that your \u201cex-gay\u201d organization, Exodus International, has done to LGBTQ people and their families over the past thirty-seven years. It\u2019s so heartening when a person apologizes for how wrong they\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n
And congratulations on all the press coverage your apology is receiving! First you issued your\u00a0I Am Sorry<\/a>\u00a0statement,\u00a0right<\/em> after that you announced, during\u00a0your\u00a0opening address<\/a>\u00a0at last night\u2019s 38th Annual Exodus Freedom Conference, that Exodus was shutting down\u2014and then, the very next day, you starred in a massively promoted tear-jerker of a TV show<\/a> being broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network!<\/p>\n Why, it\u2019s almost like you\u2019ve been strategically planning your heartfelt apology\u00a0for months!<\/em>\u00a0I\u2019m sure you haven\u2019t, of course: nobody is so low that they would turn a moment of piercing remorse brought on by the realization of how destructively wrong they\u2019ve been into a manifestly self-serving, blatantly opportunistic, emotionally manipulative media event. But the timing of it all sure worked out well for you, didn\u2019t it?\u00a0Yesterday you were the head of a once powerful organization that had become utterly discredited, maligned, and irrelevant, because it was founded upon the life-ruining lie that God is righteously angered by any gay person who does not pray away their gay. And now, with all lights turned toward you, you\u2019re launching Reduced Fear, the brand-new organization run by you and all your friends at Exodus International!<\/p>\n How great for you is all\u00a0that?\u00a0<\/em>Way to go!<\/p>\n I have just a couple of quick questions, though. And since I know that you want to be as open and transparent as possible about everything you and Exodus are doing, I thought I\u2019d go ahead and ask them.<\/p>\n Amongst the many conciliatory-sounding things you wrote in your apology are buried these words:<\/p>\n I cannot apologize for my deeply held biblical beliefs about the boundaries I see in scripture surrounding sex \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n and also these:<\/p>\n I cannot apologize for my beliefs about marriage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now, my guess is that, with everything going on, you got so busy that you simply forgot to edit out of your apology those two statements. I figure that must be the case; otherwise, one is forced to conclude that you haven\u2019t in the slightest changed your belief that gay people can and should pray away their gay. And if you still believe that the Bible proscribes, denounces, and condemns homosexuality, then \u00a0\u2026 well, then what exactly are you apologizing for?<\/em>\u00a0About what are you feeling remorseful\u00a0that matters?<\/p>\n Then, as far as I can tell, the only thing that you can be actually saying is that you regret not what Exodus\u00a0was,<\/em> but only how Exodus went about being<\/em> what it was.<\/p>\n And if that\u2019s<\/em> the case, then of course you\u2019re not really apologizing at all. Then you\u2019re no different from the guy saying, \u201cI apologize for being the leader of a group of white-hooded KKK guys who burned a cross on your lawn. That was wrong. You niggers still need to go,<\/em> of course. But we\u2019re gonna stop with the hoods and the cross burnings. People just don\u2019t get behind that the way they used to. So we\u2019re gonna regroup, lose the name \u2018KKK,\u2019 and come up with a more acceptable way of promoting what we believe. Isn\u2019t that great?!\u201d<\/p>\n So \u2026 isn\u2019t that message pretty wholly the\u00a0opposite<\/em> of reducing fear? I think it is.<\/p>\n Assuming that you had only made an editing mistake or two in your I Am Sorry,<\/em>\u00a0I next listened very carefully to your speech opening the Exodus conference, in which you announced the closing of Exodus International and the opening of Reduced Fear (the website for which, btw\u2014and contrary to what you indicate in your talk\u2014is not, as of this writing, up). To the members of your audience, most if not all of whom still believe that if they only become strong enough Christians they can stop being gay, you said:<\/p>\n [The shutting down of Exodus] doesn\u2019t mean I believe anything differently than I did a decade ago, when my message was different from it is today. \u2026 I\u2019m not saying that we abandon what we believe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So may I ask: Would you please take another look at my questions above?<\/p>\n You concluded your speech with these words:<\/p>\n My board and leadership and I want to see reconciliation and restoration in the church. And we believe the time is now for the church to open its door, and allow the marginalized in \u2026 so that they, along with us, can experience mutual transformation.<\/p>\n During times of crises, like natural disasters, we don\u2019t stop and ask people who need help whether they\u2019re gay or straight, or anything else. We see someone in need, and we help them. And it\u2019s time for the church to get back into the business of serving and loving people in need. \u2026<\/p>\n In the midst of this message tonight, and in the midst of this scary reality of what in the world do we do<\/em> about this community [of Exodus International members]: Christ died to give you peace. The King is on the throne. And you can trust Him. \u2026<\/p>\n We [the members of Exodus International\/Reduced Fear] are to serve as missionaries in this culture. \u2026 We must be a beacon of hope. \u2026<\/p>\n While [the closing of Exodus] is a painful thing \u2026 something better is coming. There is<\/em> more. This doesn\u2019t negate our stories. It doesn\u2019t negate what God is calling you to do. It\u2019s just simply a new time. [Alan: it was\u00a0awesome<\/em> the way, right after you said that, you froze in place, and for a full eight and one-half seconds I\u00a0<\/em>(I timed it!)\u00a0silently stared directly into the camera you\u2019d been ignoring for the whole previous hour!\u00a0Boy. Way to use your super-handsomeness to drive home the point that you and Exodus are like a phoenix on the rise!]<\/p>\n My prayer for us this week is that we have an amazing last Exodus conference \u2026 \u00a0that we celebrate the amazing things that have happened over the last thirty-eight conferences and thirty-seven years. \u2026<\/p>\n We are the church. Amen? And we have good news to share. And it\u2019s time that we share the good news of Jesus Christ.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, as I say, I\u2019m just a tad confused. Not once in your speech\u2014which I\u2019ll be the first to say was veritably jammed with talk about God and forgiveness and healing and welcoming and redemption and reconciliation and peace and love and joy and salvation\u2014did I hear you express regret for you and Exodus having spent over three decades helping to destroy the lives of gay people and their families through your peddling\u00a0and capitalizing upon the message that God\u2019s greatest desire for every gay person is that they cease to be gay.<\/p>\n I heard you say that you regret the way in which Exodus communicated that message. I heard you say that you regret the way in which people now think of Exodus. I heard you say how proud you are of Exodus. And I definitely heard you repeatedly say that it\u2019s high time for the church to start welcoming gay people, and all others who are marginalized and \u201cin need.\u201d<\/p>\n But (as opposed to them being \u201cin need\u201d) I never heard you say that it\u2019s okay for people to be gay. You didn\u2019t come close to saying\u00a0anything<\/em>\u00a0like it.\u00a0What you said\u2014though one must resolutely gaze into the haze of the great many other things you said before this critical message of yours clearly emerges\u2014is that your new house, Reducing Fear, will be built upon the same dark foundation upon which the ruins of Exodus now sit.<\/p>\n Throughout your talk, you were definitely feeling unabashedly enthused and proud about Reducing Fear becoming, as you put it any number of times, the \u201cfather\u201d of the church. (\u201c[Exodus] is the older brother [of the church]. And it\u2019s time we became the father.\u201d)<\/p>\n I assume you\u2019re aware of this, but just in case: acute remorse usually engenders a sense of profound humility. A lot of people find heart-wrenching regret incompatible with pride and ambition. I must admit that I am one such person. When I feel the full weight of something egregiously immoral that I have done, the last thing I want to do is go wading amongst the very people whom I\u2019ve damaged, and start telling them about all my new plans for championing their best interests. But maybe that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n You, Mr. Chambers, are a master communicator. So I am certain that in short order you will make clear that you do, in fact, feel truly remorseful, and that the closing of Exodus International, and the launching in its place of Reducing Fear, is something more than what just now I\u2019m afraid it can only\u00a0appear\u00a0to be, which is an appallingly arrogant, cruelly exploitative, and shamelessly self-serving expression of a cynicism so absolute it borders on the sublime.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Not altogether unrelated:\u00a0As Alan \u201cPray Away the Gay\u201d Chambers ties his tongue in a knot<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and \u00a0What today\u2019s evangelicals are telling gay people.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Mr. Chambers: I am writing in regard to your apology yesterday for all the devastating things that your \u201cex-gay\u201d organization, Exodus International, has done to LGBTQ people and their families over the past thirty-seven years. It\u2019s so heartening when a person apologizes for how wrong they\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1528,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbt"],"yoast_head":"\n