From Exodus News:

The Exodus subheadline reads, “Media spin reaches new pseudo-scientific heights.” But the spin isn’t coming from the media; it comes first from the scientists.

With this minor miscue, Exodus spokesman Randy Thomas and executive director Alan Chambers proceed to open a small crack in the position that homosexuality is purely a result of choice and childhood experiences.

Exodus begins:

Exodus has always held to the Biblical view that men and women are created differently to glorify God uniquely: …

But that view is not traditional or Biblical; it is feminist.

… it is about time science started catching up [with Exodus].

Did Exodus intend this remark as humor?

Inspirational author and respected speaker Joe Dallas founder of Genesis Counseling in Orange, California, states, “Any research increasing our understanding of human sexuality should be welcomed, so I’m eagerly awaiting further developments regarding this study. But so far, this doesn’t tell us much that we don’t already know. Gender identity issues do tend to be deeply ingrained and possibly spring from prenatal or genetic influences, and all of us in Exodus circles have been aware for years that orientation is not a choice, though our expression of orientation definitely is. But for many of us, the question is not so much what tendencies we were born with, but rather, how should we live our lives regardless of those tendencies. This applies to gender identity, homosexuality and any number of similar issues. Science may tell us what is; Scripture tells us how to live with ‘what is.'”

Mr. Dallas overstates his case a bit: Not everyone in Exodus agrees that homosexuality is unchosen. And he borrows from gay-rights activists the belief that what matters is not what we’re born with, but how we live our lives.

Executive Director Alan Chambers comments, “I agree with part of what the study found: men and women are different from one another. As far as sexual identity being hard wired into our genetic makeup, could be. Geneticists have also said that there is a genetic link to alcoholism and kleptomania; just because something is genetic doesn’t make it optimal.”

This comment may be worth remembering the next time an Exodus press release expresses confused inconsistency over “choice” and the ability to “change.”

But one needn’t have a long memory: Exodus resumes its policy of confusion, self-contradiction, and mixed metaphor in the very next paragraph:

Exodus represents over 28 years of proof that a person’s identity and sexuality, while not a choice for most with regard to environmental development, is definitely a choice when it comes to identity, expression and the self-determined pursuit of reorientation. Human free will to follow Christ transcends the sum of an imperfect genetic code much less to 50+ genes in a mouse.

If that paragraph makes any sense, it has escaped XGW at the moment.

Categorized in:

Tagged in: