TIMESONLINE: At a Christian 'boot camp' in the US, those struggling to reconcile faith and sexuality are taught to overcome gayness
"How many of you are in need of some hope here tonight?” A murmur passes through the dark auditorium, pleasing the man with the microphone. Heads nod. “How many of you are at the end of your rope?” he continues. “How many are ready for an encounter with the Lord?” The man on stage, dressed in chinos and a crisp white shirt, is Alan Chambers. The clean-cut, married father of two is the leader of Exodus International, an organisation that believes it can help people to “find freedom from homosexuality through the love of Jesus Christ”.
Exodus is one of the ministries of the so-called “ex-gay” movement, a controversial fundamentalist Christian campaign that encourages gay people to renounce their sexuality. This, its annual conference, promises “an amazing week of breakthroughs, transformations and healings”. A Christian rock band begins to play and the 800 men and women who moments earlier seemed to have only awkwardness in common begin singing and clapping in unison. Eyes closed, they raise their hands above their heads, uplifted by the hope of being reborn.
Chambers later returns to the stage and stands before them, triumphantly heterosexual. He tells the crowd that he won't judge homosexuals, even if their own churches have, because he used to be one himself. In the hushed auditorium, he describes his first experience of a gay bar. “It was almost as if I'd grown up handicapped and everyone else was handicapped, too. But it was a counterfeit. I was fooled.”
“Am I in denial?” he asks. “Absolutely. I live a life of denial and I love it. I didn't choose my same-sex feelings but I do choose how I'm going to steward them. Freedom is possible.” At Exodus people are not gay; they “struggle with same-sex attraction” (SSA).
“The opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality,” says Chambers, sagely. “It's holiness.” Speech over, he asks people to come forward to be prayed for. A boy of no more than 16 steps up, hanging his head. When he returns from the stage to the sound of applause, his stony-faced father nods in approval. His mother weeps.
Welcome to ex-gay boot camp. The Camp that 'Cures' Homosexuality >>> Lucy Bannerman | October 7, 2008
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