It took about six months to provoke Exodus International into responding to allegations that its organization’s words and actions had been fueling homophobia in Uganda.
After witnessing Exodus’s inexcusable inaction on the anti-gay bill that would effectively see all Uganda’s “practicing” homosexuals and their supporters executed, Ex-Gay Watch (justifiably) wondered what exactly it would take to spur Exodus into immediate, urgent action.
We found our answer. Number of days it takes Exodus to respond to the threat to tens of thousands of homosexual and heterosexual lives? 180. Number of days it takes Exodus to respond to a radio show dropping its services? Approximately seven – and there was outrage.
Earlier this month, Christian radio host Dawson McAllister received disapproval from the LGBT community after a gay blogger went undercover and discovered that Hopeline, the teenage advice line operated in conjunction with McAllister’s weekly radio show, was referring young gay people to Exodus International.
McAllister responded to the outcry by severing his links with Exodus. After all, recommending an ex-gay, anti-gay organization was even against the policy of McAllister’s own network, Clear Channel.
But Exodus President Alan Chambers was so grieved, he did something he admits he hardly ever does – he publicly denounced McAllister’s actions in an official statement:
While Exodus is no stranger to controversy, we are usually reluctant to make public statements critical of other organizations or leaders, particularly those for whom we have high personal regard. But the very public nature of this situation leaves us no choice but to clarify our feelings and position on the matter.
It is clear that Chambers is personally embittered by the situation. McAllister was the catalyst for his own “ex-gay” conversion:
In 1991 we met in Lakeland, Florida. I was 19 at the time, and it was through his personal referral that I found Exodus International. Dawson McAllister was the catalyst for my journey, which eventually led me to direct the organization he’s now unwilling to officially associate with. (Could the irony be any more bitter?)
This personal upset that Chambers feels at having himself and his organization slighted leads to him painting the situation as an all-out assault on free speech, freedom of religion and biblical truth:
While Exodus is the group being marginalized in this case, it’s the freedom to express a traditional viewpoint of sexuality that’s really at stake, raising the obvious question: Who’s Next? Should all on-air ministries who teach that homosexuality falls short of God’s will expect a knock on the door, demanding they either water it down or close shop? … [We] wonder what other Biblical truths are up for negotiation when on-air visibility is at stake.
Chambers goes on to question McAllister’s integrity, seemingly believing that severing a link to Exodus International is the equivalent of rejecting Christian principles in favor of success:
But when someone publicly dumps you then privately whispers “We still believe in what you’re doing”, isn’t some kind of double-mindedness at play? Both of them also stressed to me their desire to stay on Clear Channel, which is understandable. But at what cost? When a Christian leader is forced to choose between truth and market numbers, should market numbers really be the deciding factor?
He even questions whether McAllister is truly serving Christ:
But if he serves the One who warned “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you”, and follows in the steps of the Apostle who said, “If I seek the favor of men, I should not be a servant of Jesus Christ”, then his response to pressure from gay activists and Clear Channel is distressing.
I’m not about to defend McAllister’s character. The Exodus spat is, frankly, neither here nor there – McAllister retains associations with anti-gay, right-wing Christian organizations such as Focus on the Family and Aglow International. And even with Exodus gone, will McAllister’s team continue to give out the same advice? The audio of blogger Greg Kimball’s conversation with a Hopeline counselor reveals the extent of the appalling advice offered to a gay 16-year old (audio courtesy KnowThyNeighbor.org):
(Alan Chambers and radio host Pat Campbell (audio here) made much of 22-year-old Greg Kimball’s “deception” in pretending to be 16, but this pales next to the poor guidance given to someone McAllister’s Hopeline counselors believed was a gay teen – and the questionable means used by Kimball do not negate his findings.)
So while I don’t much care to defend McAllister, I do find Alan’s response very revealing. Months of silence on gay genocide in Uganda, and yet barely a week goes by on this issue and he is seething publicly. At least now we know what it takes to kick Exodus into action.
I bet Alan felt personally slighted and that has a large part to do with the quick and sure response.
After all, it’s like an ally that encouraged his “conversion” to heterosexuality has turned his back on him – possibly causing, if only in a very tiny way, one to second-guess their decision to “convert.”
So, the loss of potential referrals to his organization, along with the loss of “prestige” for being associated with this character has Chambers’ knickers in a twist, while the potential deaths of thousands of Ugandans due to the actions of his organization didn’t really register on his radar.
His criticism of Mr. McAllister would be appropriately directed toward himself. He only spoke out about his organization’s heinous actions in Uganda after the main stream media started to do stories about it. Kinda like McAllister dumping Exodus when the connection got out publicly and he didn’t want to answer any more uncomfortable questions.
And Alan’s current protests are far more about a loss of referrals and possible income than they are any religious issue. Poor Alan needs to figure out how to get that log out of his own eye.
I’ve yet to hear any complaint from Alan or his cohorts over the devastatingly poor advice a 16 year old asking about homosexuality is given by McAllister’s group. It’s obvious that Alan thinks that withholding Exodus is the equivalent of withholding the answer, but even he should be horrified over the bizarre nature of the advice given.
Yet instead we hear about how McAllister has sold out because, on a secular station, he won’t be sending kids as young as 13 to call a group that puts themselves above every major scientific community on the planet in favor of bogus causation narratives and, at best, useless treatment.
A real leader with proper priorities might have agreed that the advice was lousy, and denounce it. He might also express genuine outrage and concern that the same thing might be playing out all over the country. The frightening reality is that no one seems to be in a position to regulate these “ministries” and their interaction with the vulnerable.
Just another example of why I repeatedly assert that Alan Chambers is amoral with sociopathic tendencies. It’s all about him and his feelings. It always has been.
He can’t feel deep sorrow or concern for “those people over there” who live in constant terror and fear of death–even if his own organization helped create that environment–but oh boy… dump Alan and there’s hell to pay. Makes me wonder if his “ex-gay” path began with bitterness over some guy dumping him. It’s a thought.
It’s eerily coincidental that his “journey” started in Lakeland in 1991, since I was living there at that exact time, writing for two Christian publications and also struggling with my sexual identity. I’m grateful that my journey has led to complete self-acceptance and a deeper faith in Christ as a result. As much as I am harshly critical of Alan’s actions and choices, on another level I feel pity for him. I can’t imagine the depth of angst he must be carrying around every day.
Alan Chambers had no problem complaining in Charisma Magazine when New Directions (Canada) made the decision to disassociate from Exodus.
Didn’t take 180 days for him to grab that magazine platform.
Has a parent ever sued over this? I would be EXTREMELY upset if an adult from some network shoved my kid into a dangerous religious cult who’s goal and process goes against every western psychiatric orgonization.
Considering how Kevin Jennings has literally gone through libel, slander, this is a case of such double standards and gay teenager’s needs.
Over at Independent Gay Forum, someone stirred up Kevin Jennings and was extremely critical that Jennings didn’t address THAT situation properly.
At that time, there weren’t any resources or ways in which to know any differently, really.
Jennings has admitted he didn’t handle it as well as he wanted or should have. The now adult teen has said that he wasn’t really in that situation, AND Jennings has, in the decades since, created precisely the advocacy needed and that BEST addresses the needs of gay teens AND their straight peers.
Whereas, Chambers and co, aren’t operating in the interests of what young people really DO need, but what exacerbates their problems.
And Exodus, essentially self serving because of their refusal to acknowledge what legitimate psychiatric and medical experts agree on.
Jennings is more relevant than Chambers. We know that.
But it’s Chambers who deserves to be vilified, not Jennings.
That’s what I keep thinking. I’ve never seen that man express emotion, not even enough to figure out if he’s a sociopath. Sarah Palin on the other hand…
Which would be fine if he weren’t actively pursuing an agenda to ruin the lives of the rest of we 99%.
Apparently we can all just go to hell, literally.
Yes, and the 1% deserve good advice. The advice to contact an ex-gay ministry is bad advice.