The founder of a Brazilian group that claims to heal homosexuals has come out against them in an interview with the “Flying Teapot Project” blog.
The English and philosophy teacher, also a theologian, Sergio Viula, 42, born and resident in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the founders of the Movement for the Healthy Sexuality (MOSES), an evangelical NGO which helps people interested in quitting homosexuality.
He tells a tale familiar to that of John Smid, who recently came out against Exodus. Viula recounts how he got married and had children, only to admit that his attraction to men never went away. In fact, according to him, no gay person had ever succeeded in changing their orientation.
[Interviewer] Didn’t you ever get convinced that you had become ex-gay? Did you ever know that you were deceiving yourself?
[Viula] Today I know that I was deceiving myself. But back then, I thought that every sentiment or attraction was a mere case of ‘temptation’ and that it could be overcome with prayer and dedication to god. In the group, we used to think, basically speaking, that being gay was a sin, which should be confessed and abandoned and, therefore, we would proselytize, counsel, pray, preach, recommend certain books, read the Bible – things that believers usually do, but focusing on homosexuality itself … I worked 18 years totals with the church, MOSES started in 1997. In 2003 I was out. I spent about seven years within the group.
Viula is left with much anger toward the ex-gay industry, and tells of MOSES’ utterly abysmal success rate:
Nobody really quit being gay. There were relationships even within the group, between an activity and another, they would always find time for that. Can you figure out how much suffering to myself and to all of those who have already worked or been influenced by this kind of ‘ministry’? That’s enraging! And there are people repeating that stupid discourse until today.
After Smid and former Exodus Global Alliance counselor Paul Martin, Viula is the third ex-ex-gay leader to come out recently against the movement. The dominoes seem to be falling.
H/T commenter James
I would love to know how Pat Allen a.k.a. Pat Allen Lawrence, founder of Exodus Global Alliance feels about this. She managed to keep the dialogue between the church and gay people utterly polarized for decades
“After Smid and former Exodus Global Alliance counselor Paul Martin, Viula is the third ex-ex-gay to come out against the movement. The dominoes seem to be falling.”
Yes, they truly are falling. A bit of a correction though: Viula is the most recent one, but other ex-ex-gays have been coming out against Exodus for some time now (going back a number of years) including several from the USA, Britain and Australia.
https://www.beyondexgay.com/article/apology2
@Michael Bussee
I edited that last line to reflect that these are the most recent leaders to come out against the movement.