Christian writer J Lee Grady says that homosexuals can alter their sexual orientation, and points to Exodus President Alan Chambers as evidence of ex-gay change.
In a column published online last month, the Charisma magazine contributing editor urged Christians to “learn the argument” when it comes to homosexuality and gay rights. “Sorry, but timidity on this issue is not an option,” he wrote, before depicting sexual orientation as a sinful inclination that could be altered:
Many “gay Christian” advocates insist that some people are born homosexuals and therefore they have no hope of altering their orientation. But this is a lame argument since we all are born with a propensity toward certain sins. … Just because you are born with an inclination toward adultery, alcoholism, shoplifting or pride doesn’t mean you have to stay that way.
Grady speaks unmistakably of actual orientation change here, not merely acknowledging one’s orientation while resisting temptation. No surprise — Grady is a Pentecostal who no doubt would maintain the possibility of miraculous healing from homosexuality, even if he admitted the scientific possibility of change through, say, therapy were slim. What is surprising is that he holds up Alan Chambers as evidence of change:
The more strident voices in the gay community hate when Christians speak about homosexuals being healed or reformed. … They choose to ignore the fact that thousands of people have left homosexuality after coming to faith in Christ. … My friend Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, came out of the gay lifestyle many years ago and now has a great marriage with his wife, Leslie, plus two beautiful children.
Alan Chambers promoted the article on his Twitter feed without comment.
Yet this is the same Alan Chambers who says he still struggles daily with his attraction to men. His fundamental orientation is unchanged. This is what he said of his “same-sex attractions” in 2008:
And so every single morning — this is a ritual for me — I wake up and I say, “Dear Lord, I can’t make it today without You. I choose to deny what comes naturally to me. I choose to submit my will to the Lordship of your Son, Jesus Christ. And I choose better. I choose to follow You, I choose to allow Your Holy Spirit to walk before me, to guide me, to speak for me.”
Grady goes on to speak of self-denial, castigating Georgia Pentecostal pastor Jim Swilley for coming out gay to his congregation last year. He caricatures “gay Christians” (scare quotes his), saying “many … insist that if you are gay, it’s fine to go out and have all the sex you want.” Their message, he says, is simply to “go ahead and indulge.”
So once again we hear the familiar anti-gay, ex-gay narrative: Gays are just licentious hedonists, lacking in morality, while Alan Chambers is cured of his homosexuality, and his “great marriage … plus two beautiful children” is proof positive. And Chambers, the hero of Grady’s myth and so eager to show God’s grace to the “homosexual next door,” does nothing to correct Grady’s prejudiced perception.
When will it end? Not just holding Alan up as the top example of change..but equating homosexuals with an “act” not a personhood.? It’s not what we do…it’s who we are! We are not one of a long list of sins…We are created by God as His workmanship, and He is a master carpenter!
Charisma is so off base, it makes me hesitant to declare I am a pentecostal Christian…but I am what I am, because of God’s grace.
The new article they have on Janet Boynes Ministry is just as destructive. I’ve been there with the same declarations of Deliverance, only to Discover that you can’t be delivered from who you are! What I need to be delivered from, is the disgust I feel that after all this time, Christians like Grady don’t even care to know us…only what they have decided we are.!
great article, dave. as long as ties remain uncut and statements remain un-repudiated, the lies of “loving the homosexual” will not be believed.
“My friend Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, came out of the gay lifestyle many years ago and now has a great marriage with his wife, Leslie, plus two beautiful children.”
This drives me crazy.
Now I don’t think that Alan’s children being adopted makes them any less his kids. I find his decision to care for and love those kids admirable.
And I don’t think that “oooh, their really adopted” says anything whatsoever about Alan’s sex life, “ability to perform”, or anything else.
But it drives me friggin crazy that literally every single time that Alan is held up as an example, his kids are mentioned as evidence of his change. And Alan never ever corrects them. Once would be a mistake, twice would be worthy of notice, three times would be a problem, but considering that it’s every single solitary time without exception you have to know that it’s intentional.
And it’s a lie. Presenting adopted kids as evidence of procreative sex is a lie.
@Timothy Kincaid
I wouldn’t care if Alan managed to father the children himself. It still wouldn’t prove that he’s straight. Jim Swilley (and others like him) are proof of that. It’s quite easy for gay people to pretend to be straight (just ask George Rekers, Marcus Bachmann or any gay person that’s been in the closet). People like Alan Chambers should heed Rev. Swilley’s words, “There comes a point in your life where you say ‘How much time do we have left in our lives? Are we going to be authentic or not?”
Did Alan Chambers buy the white house with the white picket fence, or the shaggy dog to go with it? The All-American family. I guess to some people we’re barely christian just because we don’t fit the profile.
How sad.
i agree with David in Houston. I know and associate with men who have been married and even had kids but they are just as much a homosexual as I am.
Years ago I cringed when some people labeled Alan Chambers a liar. It was mostly because I felt pity for him. I based it on assumptions about Mr. Chambers and that he might have been in deep denial.
But, Mr. Chambers is a business. He is not going to jeopardize his livelihood and he will continue to omit details or bend the truth to keep his status quo. (It’s that pity thing again.)
Oh…drat…I can’t defend him any longer. He’s a liar.
Most people aren’t Christian. If every homosexual wanted to be “cured” they would have to convert? The big question is why do they even care?
Curt, you’re smart to ask the question. When I was trying to get educated about ex gays, I wondered about that. But the thing about ex gays, is that they are extremely difficult people to pin down when it comes to being honest. Or at the very least, willing to speak off the script.
Come to think of it, NONE of them I’ve spoken to have strayed from the SAME script whatsoever.
Then I wondered where their script ended, and THEY began. It’s even harder to distinguish one from the other, once you talk to enough of them, they are all pretty much alike and say the same things.
Boring as watching paint dry.
It’s true that most people aren’t Christian, and most people don’t care if you are or not.
But there is still a lot of hysteria around whether or not gay people change into straight people and only religious based groups can operate like this.
The reason why is, because being gay IS a biologically based situation, there isn’t a cure or way to change a person. Even the most barbaric medical procedures did nothing about that. Doctors have to be licensed and insured to practice.
People like Chambers do not. We’ve learned that Marcus Bachman can practice his ex gay counseling on a young person without licensing or peer review. However, these are people who don’t really reveal what they make people do or the requirements of the client. The only way anyone has found out, is by going undercover.
Richard Cohen revealed his techniques on television to Diane Sawyer, and it looked just like one might suspect.
Ludicrous, stupid and something that would embarrass any legitimate clinician.
The thing is, any other people who have undergone some kind of duress from bigotry and discrimination, when they go into therapy, it’s not to call THEIR identity bad, but they are given coping mechanisms to numb the hurt and redirect energy away from the negative and reinforcing positive messaging so they can function despite whatever conflicts might arise from encountering prejudice.
Ex gay ministry does just the opposite. It reinforces the negative energies that have invaded the person’s mental and emotional balance by attacking their orientation. And homosexuality is the only orientation that is distinguished by moral teaching. That is to say, it’s impossible in Chamber’s view, to be a really GOOD and moral person and still be gay. So one’s Christian identity has to supercede the gay one in order to be good.
However, the moral conflict would still be there because it IS possible to be a morally sound and good gay person, and it’s also possible to be a morally corrupted and bad Christian.
And to me, the worst kind of Christians are the ones who clearly and readily abandon the one directive from Christ that matters the most.
To treat another person the way you’d want to be treated.
As long as they aren’t doing that, I don’t consider them GOOD people, let alone good Christians.