Updated: Exodus President Alan Chambers responds.
Amid recent warnings about the integrity of data used by antigay activists, Exodus International continues to air the distorted statistics and false health claims of antigay activists Paul and Kirk Cameron — laundered through third parties.
On its recently redesigned web site, Exodus continues to host at least four articles, written by two longtime Exodus activists, that rely upon Cameron’s false claims about the health and longevity of same-sex-attracted persons.
The Exodus FAQ “Is there a connection between life expectancy and homosexuality?,” written by Exodus blogger and member-activist Nancy Brown, is blatant in its re-use of classic Cameron propaganda. And Exodus is apparently aware that the information in this FAQ is false: The document is riddled with internal staff annotations requesting “more information on citation” — something that isn’t possible to achieve, given that Cameron’s claims are scientifically unsupportable.
Instead of removing false information from the FAQ, though, Exodus clings to the FAQ’s antigay health claims as a matter of faith.
Among those claims:
— The median age of death of a lesbian is 457 Note: Provide more information on citation. (sic)
— The median age of death of a homosexual man without AIDS is 42, with AIDS is 398. Note: Provide more information on citation. (sic)
These factoids’ footnotes launder such claims by Cameron through an antigay tract printed in Marietta, Ga., in order to disguise the data’s origin. The tract, in turn, is presented as a reputable source of information.
The FAQ also resorts to blank footnotes for substantiation of its leading claims. (See at left.)
Among the only true statements in the article, it seems, is an inadvertent admission by Exodus that while gay people may account for only 3 to 5 percent of the population, in 2003 they accounted for 16.6 percent of the victims of violent (felony) hate crimes reported to the FBI.
On the Exodus web site, at least two more articles — written in the 1980s but presented as current commentaries on homosexuality — repeat Exodus’ practice of laundering outdated and discredited information.
Homosexuality and the Truth: Is it Just Another Lifestyle?
and
Homosexuality and the Truth: Male Homosexuality and Compulsive Behavior
by Alan Medinger, the first director of Exodus North America
These articles repeat the FAQ’s false claims by Cameron, laundered through uncredited antigay tracts, 1980s studies of a then-barely understood disease called AIDS, and cherry-picked 30-year-old surveys of mental-health opinions and of promiscuity among San Francisco men who visited STD clinics in the sexually libertine 1970s. These decades-old artifacts — classic and central elements of Paul Cameron’s work — are presented to Exodus readership as though the information were current proof of runaway homosexual male promiscuity.
On occasion, the Exodus web site will admit its use of Paul Cameron’s data directly. In Great Myths about Homosexuality, Medinger unapologetically credits Cameron’s Family Research Institute for some of the document’s claims. Whether the document’s other footnoted sources also borrowed from Cameron is unclear.
Some weeks ago, despite a quick heads-up by one of his blog’s commenters, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas declined to correct or denounce misinformation fed to Armstrong Williams by Paul Cameron. When his parroting of Cameron was subsequently discovered and publicized by Ex-Gay Watch, Thomas expressed a partial retraction but rejected responsibility for own his failure to check dubious and malicious claims before repeating them.
Thomas’ lack of ownership of his writing is mirrored at Exodus HQ. As with Thomas-parroting-Williams-parroting-Cameron, the excuse for Exodus-parroting-Medinger-parroting-Cameron is worthy of a indignant child who has uttered a naughty profanity:
“He said it first.”
Re: “He said it first.”
(memories)
—
seriously though, this is precisely the information that needs to be exposed on the news networks when pro-gay advocates are debating the “other side.”
These are LIES. The INTENTION is to deceive. Exodus lies, and by default, Alan Chambers lies.
And until Alan Chambers recognizes that he is emotionally synonymous with the moral-debauchery of Paul Cameron, he not only fails at the attempt to reach out to we “least of these,” but also prevents us from God and the idea of God’s Love itself.
Forget the political anti-gay bend to it. If he’s on par with a liar, why would I trust him about Jesus?
There’s no break on that front even.
It’s not only a lie, it’s the approval of a lie.
Alan Chambers = Paul Cameron
When I wrote about this FAQ back in November, Exodus did nothing.
https://exgaywatch.com/2006/11/exodus%e2%80%99/
I sincerely doubt they will this time either.
Exodus really doesn’t consider itself ethically responsible for what it broadcasts to the world. And Alan Chambers doesn’t think he has any moral obligation to remove lies (even obvious and evil lies) from the website of the organization he heads.
I suspect, however, if the lies were critical of anyone other than gay people he’d have that fixed by tomorrow. But apparantly Alan doesn’t believe it’s a sin to lie about gays.
You could do a similar check on Focus and Dobson’s writings (monthly newsletters, books on protecting marriage, etc.) as well as at LaBarbara’s AFT, AFA, TVC, CWfA… in fact at the Websites and writings of all the major hate mongers. I know for a fact that they have cited Cameron’s “Studies” as the basis for their wild claims (a CWfA brochure I received in the 1990s).
Anytime you hear a RR figure proclaim the words “death-style” or raise the “health implications of homosexual behavior,” or attempt to curtail and restrict GLBT civil rights on the basis of dissuading an unhealthy life-style, Cameron is there in their footnotes.
He is just too useful to them for them to pass-up. AND, besides him, they basically got nuthin!
Thanks, Timothy — I thought this news seemed familiar! (blush)
The reason that “Alan Chambers doesn’t think he has any moral obligation to remove lies” is that he is a liar himself.
Montel Williams proved to Chambers last month that Chambers does not even know the existence of some things on Exodus’ web pages.
And Chambers claims that while he is now completely heterosexual in his sexual orientation, he still experiences sexual attractions towards guys.
Folks, I sure do share your frustration and anger. Even if the reports were true, that doesn’t give license to the political axis to never consider equal access and protection under the law.
Otherwise, it could be argued that the shorter lifespans and violent death statistics regarding the inner city lives of blacks, or the lives of Africans….disqualify them from human rights altogether.
That certainly is the message that the Camerons are sending. Gays and lesbians don’t care enough about themselves, so why should we?
Segregationists tried that too.
Pointing out the failures of human rights AS A CONTRIBUTOR to shorter life spans for gay folks and black folks, could be easily ignored by Cameron and his ilk.
The fact that they also believe not only in shorter life spans, but that they are inevitable, is patently prejudiced. It’s a write off of gays and lesbians as utterly hopeless to assimilate in healthy ways, and purports that heterosexuality alone is a guarantee of longer life.
Well, black folks have been written off too in similar fashion, and one would think a compassionate researcher would AVOID history repeating itself onto another group, rather than eagerly embracing the tactics of those known for radical hatred, rather than reliable social study.
Cameron’s bogus research is so very narrow to begin with and has so little context, I have to wonder what kind of lame brains would believe it all so easily?
Cameron must REALLY be counting on no one really caring enough to delve deeper and ask more questions or challenge him.
Which is VERY telling on it’s face.
What DOES it say about someone who MUST make a career out of little more than work like this?
What’s he saving really? His own ass, doesn’t count.
And it’s not gay folks that asked him to do his ‘research’, paid for him to, nor asked him for the results he came up with. He must be VERY confident in the consequences of his actions not coming back to bite his ass.
And if it did….
What you bet he’d blame the ‘aggressive homosexual agenda’, instead of his own lack of moral veracity?
I’m seeing a lot of cowardice here on his part, and his ilk. A serious cowardice.
And if Throckmorton is bailing on Cameron now, he better be prepared to understand that the damage he’s already done in accepting and promoting Cameron’s work, might take a long time to make up and atone for.
Funny though. They say that God is the only thing they’d have to atone TO.
Yet, not fully believing or behaving as though that’s also true of gay folks.
Human rights, respect, truth and dignity can’t wait…no matter how long or short someone’s life span is.
Regan – Where have I supported and/or accepted the work of Paul or Kirk Cameron?
For the record, I’m not aware of any instances where Dr. Throckmorton has endorsed Paul or Kirk Cameron’s work. Regan, if you have information to the contrary please do share it, otherwise please stand corrected on that point. Thanks.
Okay, perhaps I did misstep there and you aren’t supporting the Camerons Dr. Throckmorton. My bad…
Wow….I finally got your attention and after all this time this is the only reason why?
YOUR bad.
I’d be fairly critical of anything that came out of Marieetta, GA, also. Then there is the TVC newsletter they use.
*sigh*
This is similar to the right wing attempt to link breast cancer to abortion. It has been discredited once, but they keep bringing it up as if it were fact, and now it has been discredited again.
Qualified medical professionals can dispense medical information. We should insist on that standard and if morality groups continue to dispense medical information, it should be like practicing without a license: there should be fines, censoring and censuring.
I find it mindboggling that Focus on the Family, Exodus and other anti-gay religious political groups tell one lie after another without thinking twice. They try to wrap their politics of hate and discrimination in the mantel of religion, but undermine themselves at every turn with one lie after another. Exodus and it’s officers can’t seem to open their mouths or write one paragraph on their website without falling into at least one lie. The Camerons are just one example of how these groups pay people to produce the lies that FOTF and Exodus plan to peddle in the next newscycle.
It used to be that groups that held themselves out to be moral were far more concerned about their reputation. I guess that FOTF and Exodus just think that if they keep saying “truth” “moral” “Jesus” “God” and “values” that people won’t notice that it is a non-stop stream of lies coming out of their mouth. I am not sure that they would be correct in their assumptions. Even right wing Republican politicians are getting sick of them.
Well that’s interesting.
The Exodus FAQ you guys link to has been removed.
Alan Chambers responded via e-mail, for public release:
I appreciate EGW’s tremendous research skills. I saw your post on Exodus using Paul Cameron’s research and was embarrassed. We do not support the work of Paul Cameron nor desire to use flawed research. A member of my staff will remove these articles today and post a retraction. In the coming months we will be doing a survey of the content on our site to determine what if there are other articles or links that need to be removed.
Again, many thanks. While we will always find much to debate and disagree on, I do appreciate critical review.
Best,
Alan
Exodus hasn’t cared much about the truthfulness of the statements on its website or the statements from its leaders. I find it curious that they have decided to address Cameron lies now. Did Cameron somehow step afoul of Dobson and FOTF? Is FOTF turning their back on their favorite “researcher”?
If Alan Chambers wants to remove false and flawed research and statements from the Exodus website, I would suggest shutting the whole thing down and starting from scratch. He could also stop the constant stream of falsehoods about the pending Hate Crimes legislation in the House. It would at least be a start.
Mike, I’m still a bit upset.
This is the latest in Exodus’ “Oh, geez. We didn’t know.” How many times has XGW pointed stuff like this out to them? How many times have other bloggers pointed to stuff like this? Even the “Montell Williams” show has pointed incidents like this out to them.
Every time the answer is a variation on “Oh, geez. We didn’t know.”
If their website is that bad, so bad that for over a year now people have been pointing out how wrong their stated claims are, perhaps they should take the whole thing down until they can get their facts straight?
Flame off.
Mike, they won’t have much left will they? Take a side step and finding any thing different from all the OTHER researchers and statistics they have cited regularly with assurance of their results, will be a hard thing to do.
This is what they get for riding such a pile for so long without much challenge.
Eventually, they’ll have to try something else to bring the butts to their side….any bets what THAT is going to be?
“Oh, geez. We didn’t know,” is the same response I got from EXODUS when I pointed out that EXIT (Jim Kaspar, Gary Cooper and I) planned, organized and hosted the first EXODUS conference at our ministry in 1976 — NOT Frank Worthen, as the EXODUS Global Alliance webpage boldly re-wrote history. It took them weeks to post a “correction” that is STILL not correct.
When I brought this to Alan Chamber’s attention, I also got the “oh, geez” response. Quoting Alan: “We didn’t MEAN to lie, we just didn’t know what the TRUTH was…” The truth was they knew a number of people (including Frank Worthen) who knew what the truth was, but the truth was too embarrassing.
Respectfully Mr. Chambers, a mere retraction is not good enough. I think it’s time that Exodus and other ex-gay organizations apologize to everyone for ever aligning themselves with Dr. Cameron and others like him. I think it’s time that Exodus and other ex-gay organizations call on Focus and other religious right advocacy groups to disavow Dr. Cameron. I think it’s time that the entire ex-gay movement tell the political types of the religious right to back off and stop exploiting the movement for their agendas. And it’s time for the religious right and the ex-gay movement to apologize for warring on GLBT people. It’s time for the Christian principles of justice, mercy and humility (Micah 6:8) to be more than just words in an old book.
Alan,
Thank you. You’ve gained a pinch of credibility in my books.
Please, please, please do as you said and have your site reviewed for inaccuracies, falsities, and outright hateful nonsense. You can start with anything written by Nancy Brown.
Just one suggestion: when you do, please use the “Strict Accuracy” method rather than the “We Can Talk Around This and If You Reinterpret Words This Can Almost Kinda Be Argued Away” method.
My guess that Cameron has run afoul of FOTF was more right than I knew. In Feb 2006, Cameron acused Dobson of supporting gay marriage, because Dobson favored a bill in Colorado proposed by Sen. Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield). Cameron claimed this bill woiuld give marriage rights to gays. Cameron was also upset by something that Dobson said on his radio show about gays not being fired from their jobs just because they are gay. This comment was made during the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination. Dobson was angry and lashed out against Cameron on Dobson’s radio program.
So, it appears that there is bad blood between Cameron and Exodus International’s biggest patron, Focus on the Family. There are no hits on FOTF’s website search engine if you type in Paul Cameron.
Exodus not only removed the FAQ from their website, but left in its place a statement criticizing Cameron’s research. This struck me as odd, since I expected them to make any changes without comment.
Randy Thomas went out of his way after being called on his indirect citing of Cameron’s research to distance himself from Cameron.
I don’t think this has anything to do with honesty or reform at Exodus. I think that this purge is due to Cameron’s conflict and public criticsm of Dobson.
Only time will tell I guess, but my impression is that Chambers is making a genuine effort to become more responsible for what they say in public. We shall see.
Okay, granted. I’ve been accused of looking for a pony in smelly environs, but I’d like to point out and commend Exodus for replacing the FAQ with a statement that says, “This article has been removed due to the inaccuracies surrounding the research of Paul Cameron.”
That’s a rare and remarkable act of transparency. Normally embarrasing things like this just go “poof” in the night, sort of like old out-of-favor leaders from the Soviet Encyclopedia.
Jim, nothing at Exodus goes “poof” anymore, they all–hundreds of thousands of them–have been cured.
I’m curious, and I don’t have the book so if someone did have access to it I’d appreciate someone checking for me if they didn’t mind. I noticed on exodus’s page for the FAQ they mention 101 Frequently Asked Questions About Homosexuality written by Mike Haley who I certainly remember as another anti-gay member of the the Christian Right.
Anyway, the reason I mention it is because I got the impression that many of the questions and answers were provided from that book. I’m wondering if anyone knows whether or not Mr. Haley uses the Cameron’s research in his book. If he did it would certainly be interesting that Exodus is in turn promoting the book and by extension the faulty research.
I have the book. HAley doesn’t use Cameron’s research. However he does distort a number of studies, including the famous “Dutch study” which was purportedly about gay relationships (it wasn’t). He also cites Peter LaBarbara, which is arguably worse. But no, no Cameron.
Exodus’ FAQ page still refers to gays and lesbians as a threat to America. Even if they have removed the Paul Cameron science, they are still making a huge call to arms against gays and lesbians. You cannot call an entire group of people a threat, and not consider that a call to arms against said group.
Their FAQ’s says:
Homosexuality is dangerous to the well being of the family and America.
To be precise, they are calling same-gender attraction a threat, they are not calling homosexuals a threat.
But I agree that calling same-gender attraction a threat to America is a call to open political and physical warfare — including harassment, discrimination, and sometimes violence — against anyone who experiences or tolerates same-gender attraction. If something threatens an entire nation, you don’t just respond with kind Christian words. You do whatever it takes to “defend” that nation. Same-gender attraction is in most cases not a dysfunction by itself, and in such cases is rarely changeable to any significant degree. Demonizing it, lying about the lifestyles of those who experience it, exaggerating the prospects for change — all of these serve to justify warfare against the persons behind the attraction.
Threat to America? Here we have another example of Exodus bowing before Caesar — America — instead of worshiping God and promoting spiritual brotherhood.
Jim:
I’ve been back up and down this thing now, and as loathe as I am to admit it, I have to concur. The fact that they openly acknowledge the mistake of Cameron by name strikes me as — at the very least — noteworthy.
As truth is revealed, those who love truth must respond.
Sorry, but I am not sold on what Exodus International did. The Traditional Values Coalition told the Boston Globe that it took all references to Paul Cameron from its webpage but Lou Sheldon continues to sell his book, The Agenda, that cites Cameron data.
Will Exodus encourage all religious right groups to repudiate Cameron’s work?
Also, even though the group repudiates Cameron’s work, will it look for new studies to distort in order to quantify Cameron’s lies (i.e. gay men have a short life span, gay men molest boys at a high rate).
This is indeed true: “As truth is revealed, those who love truth must respond.”
I also like, “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” Maybe EXODUS will finally get tired of beating itself up with a string of bad judgements — and face the truth. Maybe EXODUS will stop shooting itself in the foot — and really aologize for all these emabarassments, mistakes and misjudgements.
Maybe they will think long and hard about unwise affiliations and misguided mixing of politics and ministry. Maybe EXODUS will catch a real glimpe of the vision of its founders — and stick to its original purpose, namely, to communicate God’s amazing love and justice to ALL his children. We can pray, can’t we?
Are you referring to your original vision and purpose of Exodus, Michael?
I am not speaking negatively here, my friend. My vision for anyone who suffers from demonic-oriented internalized-homophobic guilt is that God the Father UNCONDITIONALLY loves all of his children just as they are since He created them that way as far their sexual orientation is concerned.
Some have that divine revelation as something they just know in their heart of hearts; but, others, like me, have to have God the Father tell them by the power of the Holy Spirit so they will hear the Father’s voice with their natural ears.
I accepted my homosexual orientation after my Heavenly Father said to my hearing, “Joe, I made you that way and I love you just as you are.”
I don’t trust Alan Chambers at all – the guy advocates for violence against gay high school students, and those who “appear” gay!
BTW, is it just me, or does Chambers wear fake-color contacts? If so, that’s one “gay” thing he hasn’t left behind!
Kirk Cameron and some guy with the last name of Comfort…have done a video demonstrating the natural virtues of bananas and how they easily fit in the hand or mouth.
This film clip can be seen over at
http://www.pamshouseblend.com
It’s hysterical….and a grinnng Kirk Cameron watching Comfort during his demonstration makes you wonder what is UP with that guy?
Take from it what you will, people…but please don’t miss it.
Are you referring to your original vision and purpose of Exodus, Michael? Yes. Clouded now in anti-gay politics, ill-advised affiliations and junk science.
LOL Regan. Is this video meant to be watched stoned or something?
Well, at least he IS tracking back and teaching “christians” the basics of being human, which they all seem to have forgotten.
More and more, the “science” behind the ex gay movement (NARTH, etc.) is being exposed to the public as the fraud that it is, on mainstream media (e.g., CNN) that the world can pay attention to. As people outside of the gay/ex-gay/ex-ex-gay community become exposed to the outrageousness of the claims made in the name of “science,” ministires and orgs. who use the “facts” determined by this pseudo-science will be forced to back off, regroup, or just disappear for good. Ironically, the more publicity the ex gay groups get, the worse for wear things seem to go for them.