All religious leaders (con men that they are) and their religious fledglings (ignorant that they are) are obsessed with sex; any and all forms of sex. However, they are especially obsessed with homosexuality. By far the biggest culprit of hypocrisy in this area is the Catholic Church, where even though sex in general and more specifically homosexual sex is vehemently criticized, tens of thousands of Catholic priests are homosexuals and as most of you know by now, many of them are quite fond of young boys; but that’s a whole other matter altogether.
To his credit, the man pictured below, Alan Chambers, about whom this article is about, admits to having same-sex attractions as he calls it. And according to the article, he is retracting his prior stance that homosexuality can be cured through counseling and prayer. A wise move, as no doubt the brain-dead, idiotic masses that would believe such stupidities are dwindling in numbers, and numbers is what religion is all about; especially when preceded by a dollar sign! TGO
Refer to story below. Source: Associated Press
By PATRICK CONDON | Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The president of the country’s best-known Christian ministry dedicated to helping people repress same-sex attraction through prayer is trying to distance the group from the idea that gay people’s sexual orientation can be permanently changed or “cured.”
That’s a significant shift for Exodus International, the 36-year-old Orlando-based group that boasts 260 member ministries around the U.S. and world. For decades, it has offered to help conflicted Christians rid themselves of unwanted homosexual inclinations through counseling and prayer, infuriating gay rights activists in the process.
This week, 600 Exodus ministers and followers are gathering for the group’s annual conference, held this year in a Minneapolis suburb. The group’s president, Alan Chambers, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the conference would highlight his efforts to dissociate the group from the controversial practice usually called ex-gay, reparative or conversion therapy.
“I do not believe that cure is a word that is applicable to really any struggle, homosexuality included,” said Chambers, who is married to a woman and has children, but speaks openly about his own sexual attraction to men. “For someone to put out a shingle and say, ‘I can cure homosexuality’ — that to me is as bizarre as someone saying they can cure any other common temptation or struggle that anyone faces on Planet Earth.”
Chambers has cleared books endorsing ex-gay therapy from the Exodus online bookstore in recent months. He said he’s also worked to stop member ministries from espousing it.
Chambers said the ministry’s emphasis should be simply helping Christians who want to reconcile their own particular religious beliefs with sexual feelings they consider an affront to scripture. For some that might mean celibacy; for others, like Chambers, it meant finding an understanding opposite-sex partner.
“I consider myself fortunate to be in the best marriage I know,” Chambers said. “It’s an amazing thing, yet I do have same-sex attractions. Those things don’t overwhelm me or my marriage; they are something that informs me like any other struggle I might bring to the table.”
Exodus has seen its influence wane in recent decades, as mainstream associations representing psychiatrists and psychologists have relegated reparative therapy to crackpot status. But Exodus and groups like it continue to influence many evangelicals and fundamentalists, and gay rights activists said the damage they inflict on individuals can be deep and lasting.
“We appreciate any step toward open, transparent honesty that will do less harm to people,” said Wayne Besen, a Vermont-based activist who has worked to discredit ex-gay therapy. “But the underlying belief is still that homosexuals are sexually broken, that something underlying is broken and needs to be fixed. That’s incredibly harmful, it scars people.”
The cultural battle over ex-gay therapy drew national attention last year, after an activist with Besen’s group, “Truth Wins Out,” went undercover in a counseling clinic co-owned by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, at the time a GOP presidential contender, and run by her husband, Marcus. The activist, John Becker, released footage seeming to show a counselor at the Minnesota clinic offering to help him overcome homosexual urges.
In earlier interviews, Marcus Bachmann had denied his practice seeks to “cure” gay people but said it was open to patients who wanted to talk about their homosexuality.
Besen said Truth Wins Out is unveiling a campaign this week to encourage lawmakers in all 50 states to ban reparative therapy from being performed on minors. The California state Senate passed a bill to do that last month, and Besen said similar legislation is likely to be introduced soon in at least three other states.
While Exodus has officially shied away from reparative therapy, the practice still has adherents.
“To hold out the idea that one’s homosexual attractions can diminish, that the possibility of heterosexual attractions coming forth over a period of time — those things are possible,” said David Pruden, chief operating officer with the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, a professional association made up of about 2,000 therapists and others who still espouse such treatments.
Chambers acknowledged some Exodus affiliates might still offer reparative therapy. But he said “99.9 percent” of people he’s encountered in two decades with Exodus were not able to completely rid themselves of same-sex attraction. He believes the organization must be honest about that when people come looking for help.
“I guess I’d like to see some sort of apology from leaders of Exodus for all the people they misled,” said Jeffry Ford, a St. Paul psychologist who worked for an Exodus-linked group in the 1970s and ’80s before splitting with his wife, coming out and strongly disavowing his past work.
Ford and other gay activists have planned a Thursday news conference to criticize Exodus for holding its conference in Minnesota just months before a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.
“These kinds of conferences help put fears in the world about what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,” said Monica Meyer, executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state’s chief gay rights group. “For people who are questioning or LGBT, it sends them a message that there’s something wrong with them.”
Chambers said the timing is coincidental and Exodus isn’t looking to influence Minnesota voters. While the group holds that any sexual activity outside a heterosexual marriage is sinful, he said he wants Exodus to disengage from politics.
“For those that don’t hold to the same Biblical ethic that I do, I think there’s room for further discussion without a culture war that has really served no one,” Chambers said. “I think it’s time for us in the church to move on from that fight.”
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Patrick Condon can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pcondonap
It is sad this young man does not know what he says, yet trying to lead and teach! Such as This so called legislation { saying parents are knowone can stop a child from being gay, which is literally old gays wanting pubic boys and girls, as the muslims! Demanding the right to approach and know our children } which literally dictates homosexuality on the public, saying you better not try to stop our perversion, is brought on partly by obama! This young man is amazing, and has all our respect! { love your hottie of the day, pic’s, you are a strange gayone }
What few understand is they do not want to be allowed to be gay, they want all infected with the same symptoms they have, and want it to be as in Sodom the judges setting laws to where anyone not gay must be raped, and allow the gays to known them, and is why our Lord is prerparing His retaking of earth, with proof below, first obama, who is helping end many destiny’s..
He obama approves/affirms same sex marriage, yet has no right to do so, as oprah proved on her talk show years back, the majority of black men see gay/same sex relations as b
eing normal, and say you can do so and not be gay, shocking black house wives and America! So obamas view does not count, due to him hiself apparently having some time in his life met men in downtown areas, and had normal sex with them!
To view what causes gayness/homosexuality now found by science, yet has been know for many years, go to the about us page on the website at Adam and Eve seed gathering Ministry near the bottom of the page are many discussions and images of the unclean bacterial spirits that cause all unnatural acts of mankind/womankind from drunkenness to drug use, to harlotism to yes homosexuality!
Also go for evidence our Lord the Great Physician who came long ago and told us we all had a disease called sin, go to the Prophecy and the signs page, and therein are the prewritten news events of this day, such as the Japan quake and tidal wave, and the DC/Virginia Beach Virginia quake our Lord Jesus brought on the same day martin luther kings statue was unveiled, as for many more signs that have come and are coming, the listed signs posted more than three years ago and more…. Also go to the Adam and Eve in Action blog for undeniable links and videos… Respect to all of Adam’s/God’s seed … { both sites found at google search }
I hate to say it, but you’re not well; your obsession with the “Lord” is proof of that. Anyone whose brain has been taken over with thoughts of God – an unknowable, unknown entity never proven to exist who cannot be seen, heard, felt or touched cannot be all there. And you, my friend, are in la-la land…
As for your statement that I’m gay; nothing could be further from the truth. I’m just not obsessed with the homophobia (and hypocrisy) that religious people are known for, i.e. Catholic priests.
Glad you enjoy the photographs. Looking at beautiful women is always a pleasure.