After 12 days of silence about the subject, Exodus president Alan Chambers on Sept. 24 criticized Jimmy Swaggart’s Sept. 12 death threat against gay people.
The emphatically antifeminist Chambers borrows (strangely enough) from the same line of thought as profeminist Christian blogger Hugo Schwyzer, questioning Swaggart’s masculinity:
It never ceases to amaze me how insecure some men are with their own manhood and masculinity that being the object of same sex attraction threatens and frightens them to the point that they would consider murder. Unnatural as same-sex attraction is, it is as repulsive to God as every other sin and just as forgivable.
As the President of the world’s leading outreach to those affected by unwanted homosexuality and a key educational resource for the church at large, I am thankful that Rev. Swaggart’s message of hate is now more the exception than the rule in Christendom. I believe that the years of irrational anger and hatred for the same-sex attracted is coming to an end within the Body of Christ. I am proud that ministries like Focus on the Family through their Love Won Out Conference and Exodus International have helped make a life changing difference in the Church.
One antigay evangelist’s death threat and non-apology becomes fodder for two religious-right groups’ self-promotion.
Lemonade from lemons?
“I believe that the years of irrational anger and hatred for the same-sex attracted is coming to an end within the Body of Christ. I am proud that ministries like Focus on the Family through their Love Won Out Conference and Exodus International have helped make a life changing difference in the Church.”
You’ve got to be kidding me! Wow, is this really how they see themselves — as helping vast numbers of people within the Church? Is there absolutely no recognition of the overwhelming percentage of people who fail these conversion programs, let alone the damage caused?
And he feels that his conferences have brought about love, compassion, and understanding? When in fact they’ve sown falsehoods and failure?
But he has “a fluffy cat”. He can’t be all bad!
“I believe that the years of irrational anger and hatred for the same-sex attracted is coming to an end within the Body of Christ.”
Is it, now? Fat chance.
True, perhaps Christians do not “hate” gays, per se, but a lot (not all) of conservative Christians still maintain that being gay is a disorder, that it is a undesirable and should be changed. Some of you may define this as “hate,” and that’s fine.
A reorientation therapy that relies on the premise that homosexuality is an abnormal, inferior state has increased chances of causing harm to the patient. Alan Chambers may feel that his premise for therapy is benign, but just by stating that it is “unnatural” reinforces any self hatred a person may already have for his homosexual condition (obvious)