Alan Chamber’s at ‘Gay Christian’ conference

 Recently in the ministry world, an unthinkable thing has happened: the leader of ‘ex-gay’ ministry Exodus International, Alan Chambers (pictured left), entered not merely a lion’s den but a pit replete with many of his most avid enemies.  It was the conference of the ‘Gay Christian’ Network.  This was akin to walking into a lion’s den with asps all over the floor and wasps in his mouth.  This is no mere embellishment of the facts: a number of these people, some of them people whom I have known for a number of years, have blamed Exodus for the unresolved sin issues in their lives and projected their most bitter attacks on the organisation and its leadership for what has been lacking in their ‘healing journeys’.  Chambers was, only a couple of months ago, given an award for being Daniel of the Year in 2011, and not without good reason.

 I want to proffer here my opinion about his appearance at the conference, and I wanted to do it here on this blog because what I express here is my own view and not as pastoral worker for Liberty Ministries.  However, I must also admit that I am also responsible for the ministry to a large extent, and I take my personal views with me to the coalface, so to speak, and am not in two minds about sharing my views.  I do understand that other people will see it differently to me and those are views that they are entitled to, but I do wish to put my views here in black and white because I am sure to be asked about it.

I want to preface my view by insisting that I am not here to judge Chamber’s heart or where he stands with God.  I am commenting on what he did, his theological statements, and whether or not the witness for Christ that day was a faithful one.  I say what King David said of Saul, “Let it not be that I would strike the Lord’s anointed”; if I do so, I apologise in advance.  I want to also admit that I only listened to the first 1:05 hours, and the last 5-6 minutes of it was Chambers talking.  That was all I really needed to hear (more on that later).  Here were my impressions:

Firstly, I agree that Chamber’s intentions, in part, were noble.  He was trying to reach out to an aggressive enemy with an offer of reconciliation, care, grace, and respect.  However, I could not help but detect something less helpful: the desire to set his detractor’s straight about his ministry and himself (as if he needed to give them answers).  Doing this is about giving them the power to set the agenda; not only that but the conference was done on hostile territory (more about that later).  I don’t think that was wise and it gave me the impression of someone on a backfoot with something to prove to an opposition which has been far from objective in its own attacks;

Secondly, the venue was hardly neutral, and although Chambers sounded calm and non-aggressive the hostility of the crowd posed risks for him.  Simply attending was one of them: it looked like he was trying to gain acceptance from a crowd which, quite frankly, is not well renowned for thinking with its head and being reasonable and calm.  However, being outnumbered on such a huge scale would have put psychological strain on him to obfuscate, weaken his position, say things which- in hindsight- he might regret.  In the first 5-6 minutes he did exactly that: his first comments were to joke about drinking martinis and smoking cigarettes at an Exodus conference and laughed at a joke by the ‘gay Christian’ conference convenor that tacitly mocked Exodus conference attendees.  I was shocked.  Not long after that, he then proceeded to affirm that all the people he was speaking at were fellow believers in Christ, despite the fact that much of the audience believe that it is possible to be a Christian and sexually active homosexuals (or, at least, can be Christian and a celibate gay person).  I was speechless…  I could not believe what I heard, and it flew in contradiction to all that I believe he had stood for.  It certainly defied all that I believe (see 2 Timothy 4:3, 1 John 2:3-4 , Galatians 1:6-10, Matthew 12:33, and Matthew 7:21).  I really felt let-down by what I heard; I honestly cannot picture a stalwart figure like Sy Rogers going to a place like that and saying, on public record, things like that which have so much potential to cause damage and be misconstrued.

 Thirdly, the ‘Gay Christians’ have what they call Side-A and Side-B, and they are meant to represent the two sides of the gay divide.  Side-As are meant to be those who ‘reconcile’ their homosexuality with their faith in Christ.  Either celibate or sexually active, they believe that they can be Christian and sexually express themselves as gay people.  Side-Bs supposedly hold the Biblical view that homosexuality is not a legitimate form of sexual expression.  That looks ok at the outset, but it assumes that the two camps are two sides of the same coin.  But how?!  Their positions are polar opposites, and the Bible is emphatic that among God’s people there is not to be even a HINT of sexual immorality.  Doing so provokes instantaneous death.  How, then, can someone call themself a gay Christian?  These sides have nothing to do with each other: they are irreconcilable, just as Christ cannot be reconciled with Belial.  For this compelling reason, I was shocked and horrified to hear Chambers be so quick to say his audience was all Christian.  They are not, because many of them are dead in sin, folly, rebellion, cowardice and wordliness, and will not inherit the kingdom of God (Revelation 21:8).

Fourthly, the conditions of the conference changed.  As I understand it, Chambers was to speak and only answer 5 questions or so.  Instead, he was inundated at the end by questions, and no doubt some would have used the ambush to browbeat and intimidate.  Having done the ‘Gay Christians’ a ‘favour’ by dropping in on their conference, the convenor now wants to return the favour and speak at an Exodus conference.  Personally, I shudder at the thought.  But what was done to Chambers was hardly fair: what they said they would do they didn’t do.

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I realise that people may very well get steamed up (angry) about what I have said.  They may very well saying that I am not one to judge and say that I shouldn’t judge.  They may also insist that God is extremely merciful, that I cannot say who will go to heaven or hell.  All that is true, I don’t shy away from that, and nor am I saying that I am better than those I have written here about.  In response to that, I say that God’s people are given spiritual discernment to say with a certain degree of certainty who is or is not a Christian (1 Cor. 2:16); there are a number of key signals that mark them out.  Many in ‘Gay Christian’ circles believe that sexual sin can be done in Jesus’ name.  But the wages of sin is death and anyone who calls sin blessed, healthy, godly, and spiritual is certainly not of Jesus or a brother.  That’s a lie of the Devil himself.  It is not all that surprising: the Bible foretold a great delusion which would lead many astray, and the ‘Gay Christian’ network is one manifestation of that.  I pray for those who are under delusion, that they may find release, but a delusion it is and they are still responsible for their submission to it.  I thank God that I did not succumb to that delusion when I was faced with the choice back in 2004 when I was still an active gay man.  But these people are not hapless victims: they have allowed their aggression to control them and blame those who speak the truth because they simply cannot abide it.

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God – Ephesians 5:5

When it comes to Exodus, many have attacked Chambers himself personally, which I must say I find bemusing for a group of people who identify as ‘Christians’.  (Again, this is another sign that they are not that which they claim to be, because it says in 1 John that if you say you’re a believer but hate a brother in the Lord, that person is not a genuine Christian.)  Given all these things, I do not believe that it was wise for Chambers to have gone to the conference.

Many of those I know who are in/have participated in GCN discussions have ended up in gay relationships, feeling more confused about their sexuality and God’s good will for them than before they entered it.  Recently I lead a support group for men coming out of homosexuality, and one of them used to be a ‘Gay Christian’.  He confirmed all of my suspicions about it and was desperate to seek healing.  

Perhaps Chambers really thought he could shine a light in a dark place.  I hope that he did.  But going about it by participating in such a place among such a crowd, I feel, overshadowed the purpose of the thing in the first place. I have nothing but deferential respect for Chambers: I have corresponded with him personally in the past and found him affable, and as a leader of a similar ministry, I consider it an honour to know him.  But even the most revered of giants are susceptible to failure.  Even I am vulnerable to that.

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Here is a very good take on the matter by African American ‘ex-gay’ leader, DL Foster.

Here too is my testimony of how I came out of homosexuality on Youtube.