Randy Thomas “wept” at finding out how many are being tortured and murdered abroad because they are attracted to the same sex.
I honestly don’t know what to do other than expose it here on the blog and pray for doors to open. Some have for Alan in Uganda (currently getting ramped up for a government crackdown ::: shaking my head in bewilderment :::) and for a couple of other people we know with other countries.
It might seem surprising that Randy would claim “bewilderment” at the actions of Ugandans, since a member of his own organization’s board went overseas to participate in the conference that sparked such “bewildering” actions against gays. But it shouldn’t be surprising, according to Randy, because:
Yes, [Don Schmierer] is a board member but Exodus, as an organization, had nothing to do with that conference.
Apparently, because he is a board member and not a staff person, he has no accountability to the organization of Exodus International. He said the following in response to a commenter taking him to task:
Do you know what *all* has and hasn’t been done? We don’t treat everything as blog fodder for public show. Just because we don’t have daily briefings with activists intent on “destroying” us, or bloggers seeking something to blog about, doesn’t mean some significant discussions and inroads have been made in the background.
Actually, Randy blogs every single day, often several times a day. He recently celebrated his 1800th post. A significant amount of his posts have to do with homosexuality or topics relating to “ex-gay” – sorry, “post-gay” – issues. And he is quick to provide publicity for other events, articles and blog posts created by Alan Chambers, Albert Mohler, Mike Ensley, and many allies of the ex-gay community. So a silence regarding a well-publicized conference featuring prominent ex-gay advocates, including a member of Exodus’ own board, is peculiar.
Alan Chambers made a statement on his blog that could be considered a great first step. But direct action is what is needed, not blog posts.
The ex-crowd seems to be clueless anymore.
Emily,
I rather disagree with the idea that Alan Chambers’ blog statement is a great first step. I think it was nothing more than an extremely poor, awkward and throughly dishonest attempt to wash his hands of this. Unfortunately the blood will not wash off that easily.
As toward Schmierer, Chambers and Thomas have now both disavowed any connection to his participation in the conference, and at the same time have praised his participation. They also both had opportunities to disavow any connection between Exodus and the conference before the conference took place. In Randy’s case, he specifically declined to do so with a snarky post about blogging on what he wanted and not on what “activists” wanted him to blog on. Both made conscious decisions not to distance themselves from Schmierer during the conference. They lent him their support.
Schmierer for his part chose to defer to other (Nazi revisionist Lively) participants when asked questions by the audience at the conference about the disordered nature of homosexuality. In doing so, he gave his support and endorsement to whatever answers his expert gave.
Also, this rewriting history to imply that Exodus is against throwing people in jail because they are gay is total bunk. Exodus and Chambers supported the Texas sodomy statute and lamented its’ being struck down by the Supreme Court. Exodus does favor sodomy laws and has made no official policy statements denouncing their previous support for this type of legislation.
I agree entirely. A couple of years ago I may have agreed with Emily, but time and experience have shown that his is the way Alan responds to things that won’t just go away. I’ve tried twice to address that blog post referenced, and I can’t get past the frustration.
Well, it says “could be considered” and I can’t remember if that was my original wording or if it was edited for me, but I can admit when I’ve screwed up.
I wouldn’t edit it unless there was an obvious grammatical error. I remember it worded as is. As I said, I probably would have written something similar a couple of years ago. I don’t think “screw up” is an appropriate description.
See what I mean about these guys straddling the fence, and so…all the circulation was cut off to their cojones!
The editors of BTB, TWO, and XGW have been in contact with Exodus honchos for many years and have a history of dealing and communicating with them. I learn more about them every day. It’s true that I don’t have the “benefit” of dealing with them directly (or rather, attempting to deal with them directly). This makes me much less informed and perhaps less “frustrated,” and both of those things have obvious flaws and benefits.
One thing is I’ve stopped being truly surprised by any of them. But i have to say, one thing I’m constantly bewildered by is the lying that is done, the pussy-footing, and the evasion and bearing of false-witness from men who blog regularly about how much “in love” they are with Jesus, going to lengths to sensitively and emphatically – almost “poetically,” of a sort – describe it on their blogs. They are not outrageously outspoken homo-bigots like Phelps and Janet Porter (nee Folger), which is why it’s a bit less.. expected. I quite possibly will never be able to understand how someone can shape their mind to behave in such a disturbing manner.
Does anyone really believe a word Alan Chambers or Randy Thomas have to say about anything? Both are habitual liars and I have to say that their sudden “compassion” for the plight of gays in Uganda sounds (and is) false.
Their only concern is that Exodus might get tainted, neither of them gives a frak about actually happens to gays in Uganda. Or anywhere in the world for that matter.