<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Thanks Wayne. Interesting article. In the case of theft it seems enough to get the person to stop stealing. No one seems to care if the person still wants to steal. What is different about this "sin" that makes not just the act but the underlying desire something that needs to be "fixed"? As I read this I couldn't help but think how much time, how much of their lives some Christians waste thinking about "homosexuality." My advice is that they get a real life, and focus on some real problems that are really solvable -- like poverty.<br><br><br></div><div><br>On Jul 7, 2012, at 7:53 AM, Art Deco <<a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<div class="timestamp">July 6, 2012</div>
<h1>Rift Forms in Movement as Belief in Gay ‘Cure’ Is Renounced</h1>
<span><h6 class="byline">By <a rel="author" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/erik_eckholm/index.html" title="More Articles by ERIK ECKHOLM" class="meta-per">ERIK ECKHOLM</a></h6></span>
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<p>
For more than three decades, <a title="group’s Web site." href="http://exodusinternational.org/">Exodus International</a>
has been the leading force in the so-called ex-gay movement, which
holds that homosexuals can be “cured” through Christian prayer and
psychotherapy. </p>
<p>
Exodus leaders claimed its network of ministries had helped tens of
thousands rid themselves of unwanted homosexual urges. The notion that
homosexuality is not inborn but a choice was seized on by conservative
Christian groups who oppose legal protections for gay men and lesbians
and <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships." class="meta-classifier">same-sex marriage</a>. </p>
<p>
But the ex-gay movement has been convulsed as the leader of Exodus, in a
series of public statements and a speech to the group’s annual meeting
last week, renounced some of the movement’s core beliefs. Alan Chambers,
40, the president, declared that there was no cure for homosexuality
and that “reparative therapy” offered false hopes to gays and could even
be harmful. His statements have led to charges of heresy and a growing
schism within the network. </p>
<p>
“For the last 37 years, Exodus has been a bright light, arguably the
brightest one for those with same-sex attraction seeking an
authentically Christian hope,” said Andrew Comiskey, founder and
director of <a title="group’s Web site." href="http://www.desertstream.org/">Desert Stream Ministries</a>,
based in Kansas City, Mo., one of 11 ministries that defected. His
group left Exodus in May, Mr. Comiskey said in an e-mail, “due to leader
Alan Chambers’s appeasement of practicing homosexuals who claim to be
Christian” as well as his questioning of the reality of “sexual
orientation change.” </p>
<p>
In a phone interview Thursday from Orlando, Fla., where Exodus has its
headquarters, Mr. Chambers amplified on the views that have stirred so
much controversy. He said that virtually every “ex-gay” he has ever met
still harbors homosexual cravings, himself included. Mr. Chambers, who
left the gay life to marry and have two children, said that gay
Christians like himself faced a lifelong spiritual struggle to avoid sin
and should not be afraid to admit it. </p>
<p>
He said Exodus could no longer condone reparative therapy, which blames
homosexuality on emotional scars in childhood and claims to reshape the
psyche. And in a theological departure that has caused the sharpest
reaction from conservative pastors, Mr. Chambers said he believed that
those who persist in homosexual behavior could still be saved by Christ
and go to heaven. </p>
<p>
Only a few years ago, Mr. Chambers was featured in advertisements along
with his wife, Leslie, saying, “Change is possible.” But now, he said in
the interview, “Exodus needs to move beyond that slogan.” </p>
<p>
“I believe that any sexual expression outside of heterosexual, monogamous marriage is sinful according to <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/bible/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about the Bible." class="meta-classifier">the Bible</a>,”
Mr. Chambers emphasized. “But we’ve been asking people with same-sex
attractions to overcome something in a way that we don’t ask of anyone
else,” he said, noting that Christians with other sins, whether
heterosexual lust, pornography, pride or gluttony, do not receive the
same blanket condemnations. </p>
<p>
Mr. Chambers’s comments come at a time of widening acceptance of
homosexuality and denunciation of reparative therapy by professional
societies that say it is based on faulty science and potentially
harmful. </p>
<p>
A bill to outlaw “conversion therapy” for minors has passed the
California Senate and is now before the State Assembly. Earlier this
year, a prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, apologized for
publishing what he now calls an invalid study, which said many patients
had largely or totally switched their sexual orientation. </p>
<p>
Defenders of the therapy say that it can bring deep changes in sexual
orientation and that the attacks are politically motivated. </p>
<p>
David H. Pickup, a therapist in Glendale, Calif., who specializes in the
treatment, said restricting it would harm people who are unhappy with
their homosexuality by “making them feel that no change is possible at
all.” </p>
<p>
Mr. Pickup, an officer of the National Association for Research and
Therapy of Homosexuality, composed of like-minded therapists, said
reparative therapy had achieved profound changes for thousands of
people, including himself. The therapy, he said, had helped him confront
emotional wounds and “my homosexual feelings began to dissipate and
attractions for women grew.” </p>
<p>
Some in the ex-gay world are more scathing about Mr. Chambers. </p>
<p>
“I think Mr. Chambers is tired of his own personal struggles, so he’s
making excuses for them by making sweeping generalizations about
others,” said Gregg Quinlan, a conservative lobbyist in New Jersey and
president of a support group called Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays &
Gays. </p>
<p>
Exodus International, with a budget of $1.5 million provided by donors
and member churches, is on a stable footing, Mr. Chambers said. He said
the shifts in theology had the support of the Exodus board and had been
welcomed by many of the 150 churches that are members in North America,
which increasingly have homosexuals in their congregations. More
opposition has come from affiliated ministries specifically devoted to
sex-related therapies, with 11 quitting Exodus so far while about 70
remain. </p>
<p>
In another sign of change, the vice chairman of the Exodus board, Dennis
Jernigan, was forced to resign in June after he supported anti-sodomy
laws in Jamaica. The board pledged to fight efforts anywhere to
criminalize sexual acts between consenting adults. </p>
<p>
Robert Gagnon, an associate professor at the Pittsburgh Theological
Seminary and author of books on homosexuality and the Bible, last week
issued a public call for Mr. Chambers to resign. “My greatest concern
has to do with Alan’s repeated assurances to homosexually active ‘gay
Christians’ that they will be with him in heaven,” he said in an e-mail.
</p>
<p>
Gay rights advocates said they were encouraged by Mr. Chambers’s recent
turn but remained wary of Exodus, which they feel has caused enormous
harm. </p>
<p>
“Exodus International played the key role in planting the message that
people can go from gay to straight through religion and therapy,” said
Wayne Besen, director of <a title="group’s Web site." href="http://www.truthwinsout.org/">Truth Wins Out</a>,
a group that refutes what it considers misinformation about gays and
lesbians. “And the notion that one can change is the centerpiece of the
religious right’s argument for denying us rights.” </p>
<p>
Many of the local ministries in Exodus continue to attack gays and lesbians, said David Roberts, editor of the Web site <a title="the Web site." href="http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/">Ex-Gay Watch</a>,
and they often have close ties with reparative therapists. He
speculated that Mr. Chambers was trying to steer the group in a moderate
direction because “they were becoming pariahs” in a society that is
more accepting of gay people. </p>
<p>
Mr. Chambers said he was simply trying to restore Exodus to its original
purpose when it was founded in 1976: providing spiritual support for
Christians who are struggling with homosexual attraction. </p>
<p>
He said that he was happy in his marriage, with a “love and devotion
much deeper than anything I experienced in gay life,” but that he knew
this was not feasible for everyone. Many Christians with homosexual
urges may have to strive for lives of celibacy. </p>
<p>
But those who fail should not be severely judged, he said, adding, “We all struggle or fall in some way.” </p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>
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