Source: wthrockmorton.com
According to an email reproduced on Warren Throckmorton’s blog, Exodus has dropped it’s membership in PATH, a coalition of ex-gay organizations, effective today.
Just recently, Exodus president Alan Chambers was asked by longtime XGW commenter grantdale if he might consider taking Exodus out of PATH. At that time, Chambers had just announced his resignation from the board of PFOX, at least in part due to their continuing association with the unlicensed, self described “psychotherapist and educator,” Richard Cohen.
According to his web site, Cohen co-founded PATH and remains a member. Exodus is not the only ex-gay organization to disassociate themselves from Cohen of late. Since his recent bizarre appearance on the Daily Show, Exodus, PFOX and NARTH have all put distance between themselves and the embarrassing ex-gay guru.
It’s worth noting that the webmaster for PATH, Gabriel Espinosa of Furryllama Web Consulting, appears to be the same PFOX webmaster who posted disgusting, disparaging remarks to a YouTube video of the Montel Williams episode concerning ex-gays.
It’s understandable why Exodus might want to be removed from such an organization, though one might ask what took so long.
More déjà vu all over again. Dealing with Alan Chamber’s is like a lifetime of Ground Hog Days!
I think it would be more accurate to say “again asked”… 🙂
This was bought to Alan Chamber’s attention in August 2006. He made the same denials at that time that he did in the recent exchange in March. And he did nothing. Didn’t even bother to check the facts.
Alan Chambers did nothing until even his turbo-charged fan couldn’t deal with the shear volume of excrement.
One day he’ll be standing in front of that fan instead of pointing it at other people… and the next week he’ll be gone. I wonder if John Paulk needs a kitchen hand? What else could a washed up Exodus leader do???
(And good to see that old show girl hasn’t changed at all — checked out the bedazzled teeth in the new photo!)
Apostrophe horrors. Sorry. Must turn off our autocorrect “feature”.
Well, the webmaster at PATH still hasn’t caught up as yet, if the news is accurate from Dr. Throckmorton (as I expect it is).
Exodus is still listed as a member of PATH on the website as of 23:40 09APR2007.
Internal scandals aside, the principles of PATH were self-serving and tinged with victimology. BUT… they were an improvement over the member organizations’ actual real-world activities.
The member organizations never equitably supported PATH’s stated goals of personal choice, self-determination, a right to know, compassion, or equal access. In practice, the ex-gay groups favored these “special rights” for themselves — but not for others.
When special-interest groups demand special rights for themselves, politics win and people lose.
Now, perhaps, Exodus can continue its campaigns for special rights without the hindrance of PATH’s statement of goals. Or, it could do what PATH failed to do — but that might be hoping for a bit much.
Mike,
If it isn’t going to take to much time/grief — would it be possible for your brief take on “what” altered between the time of BA and the current time of refusal to even talk with gay-positive people/organisations?
We’re aware many of the currently familiar names were around with BA, but what sort of went pear shaped and all that from the late 90’s?… there are comments/articles from that time that seem implausible today.
Instead, “they” evolved into PATH etc.
Pure personality? Injection of funds/influence from outside?
(Sorry, and you’ll probably have to explain “original BA” to our fresh-faced readers!)
Bridges Across the Divide (BA, bridges-across.org) formed in 1997 and was originally envisioned as a place for civil discussion and bridge-building among gay-tolerant and antigay people who were opposed to cultural warfare.
During the formative months, some ex-gays appeared and joined BA. I had not really heard much of ex-gays before.
It was only a matter of months until the 1998 ex-gay ad campaign which made the public aware of ex-gays for the first time. Some BA ex-gays participated in the campaign and thought their testimonies were helping to build positive bridges, but in the opinion of some others — both gay-tolerant and antigay — their evangelical messages came across as “I’m saved and you’re not, I’m happy and you’re not, I’m moral and you’re promiscuous” — insulting, presumptuous and smug.
Because of that timing — becoming aware of ex-gays so soon before the ad campaign — I was unable to develop a solid “before” perspective to compare to the “after” perspective on Exodus’ political corruption.
Articles written by some of us at the time were based upon the unwise assumption that nonpartisan and open-minded ex-gay support-group leaders, a few of whom were active BA participants, were more prevalent in Exodus than they really were.
Exodus was a financial failure in the late 1990s despite the ex-gay ad campaign. Since Exodus already consisted of various local amateur political activists with partisan grudges — rather than trained counselors or ordained ministers — I suppose it made logical sense for the Exodus national office to follow the membership and share resources with well-endowed political groups that, like Exodus, employed a superficial, ethnocentric, sexist, and politically partisan interpretation of the Bible and Christianity.
I used to view Alan Chambers as a conservative partisan who needlessly politicized Exodus. That’s still true — but without minimizing his anti-democratic and Christian Nationalist views, I currently consider him to be somewhat to the left of, and a bit more compassionate than, Exodus’ more livid, abusive, and influential culture-warriors.