Ministry apologizes for gay 'cure' program, closes
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Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, apologized this week for the ministry's program aimed at "curing" gays through prayer and psychotherapy.
Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY
Head of Exodus International says its worldview neither honors fellow humans nor is biblical.
Exodus International, a 37-year-old Christian ministry focused on faith and homosexuality, closed its doors Thursday, one day after its president apologized for causing "undue suffering and judgment" with its programs aimed at "curing" gay people through prayer and therapy.
"Exodus is an institution in the conservative Christian world, but we've ceased to be a living, breathing organism," said Alan Chambers, president of Exodus. "For quite some time we've been imprisoned in a worldview that's neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical."
Chambers, who left the gay life as a teenager, said in a blunt statement on the group's website Wednesday that he wanted to apologize "to the gay community for years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole."
He said the group would create a new ministry that would would work with other churches to create "safe, welcoming and mutually transforming communities."
Tom Moore, a member of the board of directors that voted on Thursday to shut down the Orlando-based ministry, said, "We're not negating the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people, but a new generation of Christians is looking for change – and they want to be heard."
The organization, founded in 1976, claims 270 local ministries worldwide with a stated mission: "Mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality."
In 2011, it drew sharp criticism for an app billed as a "useful resource" in its ministry that promoted the idea that homosexuality can be cured. Apple later removed the app from the Apple Store.
Chambers said the local affiliated ministries have always been autonomous and will continue, but that Exodus International will shut down.
Chambers, who is married and has two adopted children, indicated that the apology was particularly personal because "I conveniently omitted my ongoing same-sex attractions."
"I was afraid to share them as readily and easily as I do today," he wrote. "They brought me tremendous shame and I hid them in the hopes they would go away. Looking back, it seems so odd that I thought I could do something to make them stop. Today, however, I accept these feelings as parts of my life that will likely always be there. The days of feeling shame over being human in that way are long over, and I feel free simply accepting myself as my wife and family does. As my friends do. As God does."
Chambers said he began to change his views three years ago after he and his wife Leslie discussed their deeply held views with Lisa Ling on Our America, which is broadcast by the Oprah Winfrey Network.
In 2012, Chambers opened a rift in the religious community by telling The New York Times that there was no cure for homosexuality and that "reparative therapy" offered false hopes to gays and could even be harmful.
He said he called Ling a few months ago asking if he could appear on the program against to offer his public apology. It will be broadcast as part of a program God & Gays Thursday night broadcast on OWN.
