Jose Luis Maccarone lived as an ex-gay for over 10 years. Peterson Toscano met him during his stay at Love in Action, an ex-gay residential program in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2000 Jose Luis moved from his home in Argentina to Madrid to serve as Exodus Interational’s first missionary. After a few years, he left Exodus and came out gay.
Peterson recently traveled to Madrid to meet with Jose Luis. In a series of YouTube videos, Peterson talked to Jose Luis about his experiences with the the ex-gay movement. It’s an enlightening and moving testimony.
Jose Luis shares some of the reasons why he became ex-gay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7AWZyypZcg
Jose Luis talks about life as an Exodus leader and missionary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFzFFB8pfaY
Jose Luis talks about the good and the harm from his ex-gay experience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqOsFEUhFiA
Jose Luis talks about his recovery from the ex-gay movement and speaks to the people who he had ministered to as a missionary and ex-gay leader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xdCfdLxvhM
[Hat tip: Peterson Toscano]
Thanks for posting that, Jim.
I went to Peterson’s blog and I saw the following quote he posted from Alan Chambers:
That’s like the revisionist historians of Exodus International who claim that Michael Bussee was merely at the founding of Exodus in 1976 and he was not the founder.
But, the complete history of “The Exodus Global Alliance” still includes Exodus International.
This reminds me of something that happened to me which had no connection with my sexual orientation. I was the founder and the president of the 1st Chi Alpha Fellowship Chapter at Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in the fall of 1963. Chi Alpha was and still is the organization for secular college/university students who are from the Assemblies of God.
I was the president for 3 semesters and turned it over to Charles who had been the vice-president for the 1st 3 semesters and someone filled in as the VP. Charles was the pres. for 4 semesters and like me he gave up the position to do his intern teaching off campus.
After doing intern teaching, I taught a year and then I was in the US Army 2 years. I was active as a member of the same chapter during the school year 1968-69 when I was back working on the MEd. More than a full year after I left the last time, someone started the rumor that while I was the 1st President of the chapter, I actually did very little to keep it going. Well, apparently the rumor mongers were not on campus when I was an active member in any of those years. I used my own funds to purchase supplies for the 3 semesters that I was the president. We did not take up offerings and we did not do fundraising either. We did meet at the local AG not far from the campus. Because the pastor, George McGee, told me that we were welcome to use the church any time they were not having services. The parsonage was next door and the building’s front door was left unlocked until around 10:00 p.m. on weeknights. We met on Thursday evenings. The church benefited because Chi Alpha members became volunteers and some even taught Sunday School classes during the time when college classes were in session. We also volunteered to do work on the church property in the afternoons and on weekends. (That was still going on when I went back the final year for the MEd. They had a traveling choir which helped raise funds which they had started when I was still in the Army. It was also good PR for the college, too.)
Brother McGee had called me “Little Man” when I was a freshman and a sophomore. But, when I told him about starting Chi Alpha, he called me “Joe.” Well, I was only 5′ 4″ tall and he was around 6′. He did not do that as a put down and I had not realized how much respect he had for me and trusted me. When I went back for summer school after teaching one year, he would ask me to go pick up Brother Page, a disabled man. I loved Bother Page and it was a pleasure to have real patience with him.
Remarkable: I don’t remember seeing any of this is an Exodus media release.
What gives?
Anyway… more importantly… a warm Hi and Welcome from us Jose Luis — those of us from south of the equator have got to stick together! 🙂
Thanks, and we will have a good look through what you have to say.
This reminds me of an unrelated story about when I went to Yosemite with my friend Gayle. My mother and Gayle’s mother, Christine, had been best friends in high school and were in each others’ weddings. So when I moved to San Jose to go to college, of course Gayle and I became good friends. Well, actually, I was friends with the whole family.
Well on the day that we went to Yosemite, Gayle drove. The car she was driving was a…
WAIT, TIMOTHY!!!
STOP.
No one wants to hear your irrelevant story about people they’ve never met and circumstances apropos to nothing. It contributes nothing to the thread and should be saved for another time and place. Otherwise you’ll just fill up space with irrelevant crap and annoy the heck out of everyone else.
Whew!! I almost forgot where I was. Glad I came to my senses before I told a long rambling personal story.
Joe, I’ve asked you several times to please be more concise with your comments, and try to remain somewhere near the topic, yet you have ignored me each and every time. I don’t mean to sound callous, but honestly everything in your comment above beyond this sentence was absolutely unrelated and extraneous.
If this were an occasional issue I would never mention it, but this is habitual in spite of my attempts both privately and publicly to convince you of the problem. XGW has an important job and comment threads that have nothing to do with the subject or are so tedious that they are unreadable, will prevent us from doing that job.
I honestly don’t have the time to keep repeating this request. Please modify your commenting habits if you wish to continue commenting here.
Welcome, Jose. It gives me joy when i see former ex gays – ex gay ministers and EXODUS workers, no less – tell their stories about how they accepted themselves and found a fulfilled life as they naturally exist. It helps dismantle, brick by brick, the fortress of the ex-gay industry. How slick of Chambers to quickly dissociate his organization from your involvement, despite the fact that your org. shared the exact same name. There is not a doubt in my mind it is the same EXODUS – and the public will also not be fooled. You take “living proof that change is possible” away from them, and Chambers has no choice (feeling so threatened) but to react so evasively. Kudos.
Timothy, your personal commenting style has become one of the highlights for me here. But maybe that’s because you complimented me in one of your previous comments, or something. 😉
oh, boo hoo, cry me a river, Jose! And Joe, there are meds to help the rambling…..
awww gee thanks
(blush)