Image: loveinaction.org
Love In Action, the flagship ex-gay ministry of Exodus International, has shut down its residential program. A statement on its website says:
Love In Action’s Residential program has been suspended indefinitely. Simply put, there is a significant need to bring all of LIA under one location for it to be more cost effective. We continue to counsel and grow through our 4-Day Intensives, Hourly Counseling, Conferences, Support Groups, and Church Assistance Program.
The Memphis-based ministry is the subject of a new documentary, This Is What Love in Action Looks Like. The feature-length film follows the 2007 controversy over gay teen Zach Stark, then 16, whose parents enrolled him in an intensive LIA program to “cure” him of his homosexuality.
Former LIA Executive Director John Smid has since apologized for his role in what happened, and he now runs a new Christian ministry that appears more inclusive and embracing of a variety of Christian approaches to sexuality.
Tip of the hat to Peterson Toscano, who says he is “thrilled that the sun has finally set on this part of the program — one that housed and harassed many of us these past 30 years.”
I am pleased that Exodus International have shut down this programme but I still do not breathe easy!
The quote above says they will “….continue to counsel and grow through our 4-Day Intensives, Hourly Counseling, Conferences, Support Groups, and Church Assistanc Program.”
Those offerings still raise my suspicions about their aims and the damage they can inflict on those questioning their sexuality.
I can understand those who were exposed to the Love in Action’s Residential program being relieved this has now been abandoned (i.e. Peterson Toscano) all the same.
As far as it goes, this is good news, nonetheless. First we have the staff cuts and other cutbacks at Exodus, and now this. Could it be the beginning of the end? Let us hope so.
@William
A lot of the ex-gay and anti-gay groups are certainly learning that things are changing, aren’t they? Many of them seem to me to be getting more reactionary (if that’s possible), a sure sign that the tide is turning against them and they know their days are numbered.