Two ex-gay ministries from mainline US denominations announced this week that they will be merging with Exodus International.
One by One, representing Presbyterian and Reformed Christians, and Transforming Congregations, from the United Methodist Church, will join together to “break the polarizing debate over homosexuality through an approach that is both biblically orthodox and truly compassionate,” according to Exodus.
The two ministries will continue to have their own identity as “departments” within Exodus.
It appears the main reason for the merger is the isolation of conservatives in mainline churches, increasingly accepting of LGBT Christians. Exodus Vice-President Randy Thomas says the intention is to “reduce the culture-war dichotomy” by “speaking into it redemptively. … [We’re] saying we can hold on to truth but at the same time have compassion, have grace, have mercy.”
Alas, the claim to be forging a middle way beyond the culture war rings rather hollow. The “non-politically involved” Exodus has continuously brushed aside gay rights, denying marriage equality and diminishing the victims of hate crime, in its attempts to protect prejudice and discrimination. Forgive me if this looks like suspiciously like preparation for just another salvo in the culture war.
More tiresome, empty rhetoric from Exodus International. No matter how hard they try to “reduce the culture-war dichotomy” with their brand of compassion, their basic message (being gay is wrong)will always be offensive.
Tiresome, empty rhetoric indeed.
As soon as I hear that sort of language my reaction is the same as it was when Maggie Thatcher’s ministers used to announce that we were going to have a “world class” health service or education system in the UK, or that they were going to come up with an “exciting possibility”. Cobblers!
By the way, I see from the amazon.com web-site that Alan Chambers’s new book, Leaving Homosexuality: A Practical Guide for Men and Women Looking for a Way Out, was released on 1st July. Anyone on here read it?
I read it. I rarely say this because I think people should remain informed about these things, but I wouldn’t even bother. It’s barely more than a booklet and two chapters weren’t even written by Alan. It’s really pathetic and disappointing, even for what one might expect from him. I believe we have a review coming up with more detail, but I suspect this was a quick book to generate some sales at conferences and the like.
As for the merging of these groups, does anyone not think lack of funds is behind a large part of this? These are marginal ministries at best, even Exodus, outside the “ex-gay world” is a tiny concern. With the current state of the economy, I doubt there is enough to sustain the other two and they both contributed to Exodus anyway.
Thank you for that info about Alan Chambers’s book, David.
Conservatives are not isolated in the Methodist church, they’ve long since taken over and marginalized the liberals. I have a number of friends who are liberal methodist ministers, and they feel very isolated and excluded from the mainstream of their denomination.
Sound like the same tired, old rhetoric to me, just repackaged and reformatted to look like they’re actually doing something to justify their salaries. And btw… Christians bandy about the word ‘truth’ so much so that it almost becomes a worthless term in their vocabulary.
Lynn David wrote:
My observation is that there is an inverse relationship between the frequency of using the word ‘truth’, and the actual truth. When there is no credible evidence for a belief, all that’s left is to repeatedly insist it is true. The continual insistence and repetition can turn any nonsense into something I call Magic Truth.
I’ve also noticed that when an organization’s name includes the word ‘truth’, it is usually a good indicator that truth is the one thing they are not about. That’s why I winced a little bit when Wayne Besen named his organization Truth Wins Out (although I think that choice was probably a response to the dishonesty of anti-gay groups using the word).
Richard Rush:
I couldn’t agree more. While I was living in Long Beach, a friend of mine moved there as well. He became involved in a church that indoctrinated him on “The Truth.” It was like a catch phrase for him.
The problem I have with Christians using that word is that “the truth” is not on the surface of Scripture or Tradition, but rather deep inside of them. My friend would use the typical passages to condemn my “lifestyle” and “choice” without digging deeper into “the Truth.” And when I would have a valid argument of which he could not reply, he would just reply that I need to know “The Truth.” Therefore, I equate “The Truth” with “because I say so.”
It’s sad that the majority of Christians no longer question their faith. In the history of Christianity, for example, in order to canonize a saint, there was a devil’s advocate whose job was to doubt and question the validity of a potential candidate’s canonization. Doubt, investigation, finding new insights has been as much a part of Christianity as dogmatic pronoucements that are not to be questioned. Even the great theologians of all streams of Christianity have doubted, debated, and questioned Scripture, interpretations of Scripture, Tradition, traditions and customs, etc.
The merger of these various ex-gay ministries is a sign that their days are numbered, even for Exodus. I am sure there will be ex-gay ministries out their, but as the fruit of their labors becomes more apparant to the Christian community, many will see them for what they are and have a change of heart. At least that is my hope.
What Exodus means by “reduce the culture-war dichotomy” is beyond me. I give Exodus some credit because in the 70s when the started, the Church’s response to Christian LGBs was to ignore them or simply say they were destined for hell. But the Church has grown a lot since then and Exodus’ response is now the standard response, not an improvement, and keeps us from making more progress.
Also, what Christians like Chambers mean by Exodus not “condemning the sin” is also beyond me. I think everyone ought to look of “condemn” in a dictionary. “to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil usually after weighing evidence and without reservation 2 a: to pronounce guilty 3: to adjudge unfit for use or consumption.” Exodus condemns homosexuality wrong in every sense of the word.
I absolutely agree with you concerning these groups’ misuse of the word “truth”. What gets me even more, however, is their misuse of the words “compassion” and “compassionate”, which appear in so many ex-gay publications.
The words derive from the Latin words cum (with) and pati (to suffer), so the root meaning of “compassion” is “suffering with”. Now some gay people are undoubtedly suffering, but not from being gay. As the late Dominican Gareth Moore wrote:
But these ex-gay enthusiasts don’t want to “suffer with” those who are suffering from such inhumanity, and, so far from trying to remove the suffering, they want it to continue. In fact, some of them, e.g. Scott Lively, would like to increase it as much as possible. So they can take their “compassion” and they can shove it…
Richard Rush is correct: Truth Wins Out chose its name partly as a response to the runaway abuse of the words “truth” and “love” by religious rightists.
I believe it is important to reclaim the words truth and love from Orwellian Ministries of Truth (Misinformation) and Ministries of Love (Self-Love and Hatred of Diversity).
For the record: I can’t speak about the other organizations, but “Transforming Congregations” isn’t an official body of the United Methodist Church, but an independent organization working for change within the UMC- like “Reconciling Ministries Network,” the GLBT-affirming group. Neither group gets UMC funding.