Exodus International announced today via its Facebook page:
Dear friends, please pray for us at Exodus. We have experienced an unexpectedly low giving season this summer coupled with much higher expenses (insurance, utilities, etc). Sadly, we have had to let several staff go. Your prayers are appreciated. For those who are also having to endure this unfriendly economy, our prayers are with you! Alan Manning Chambers
Perhaps Exodus wouldn’t be in quite this position if it had not spent the past decade supporting the borrow-and-spend economic policies and laissez-faire lending policies of the corporatist U.S. Christian Right. As a result of that economic program, the United States faces a prolonged recession, with no federal surplus to devote to economic reconstruction, no consumer savings to spend, near-record unemployment and homelessness, record levels of household debt, and no reasonable hope of a significant recovery until late in the decade. Had the Christian Right focused on real issues of national concern, instead of waging social warfare against fellow Americans, the ongoing fiscal catastrophe might have been avoided.
The financial prospects for Exodus are not encouraging. In a fatuous and inexcusably incompetent move, Exodus leaders bought an overpriced headquarters building in central Florida just as the real estate bubble was bursting. Florida was hit especially hard by the crash. Exodus also expanded its staff on “faith” that God had anointed them to unite antigay churches in political warfare against LGBT Americans, their families, and equality-affirming churches. Such self-adulation has come back to haunt Exodus before through sexual and political scandal; this time, self-adulation has sent Exodus crashing into a financial brick wall. Exodus must face the reality that its god — mammon — has fallen on hard times.
Exodus is holding clearance sales to get rid of its quack-therapy books. Its pseudo-Jewish ally JONAH is begging for donations of old clothing. Neither organization’s donor churches are quite so willing, for the time being, to pamper the superficial blatherings of leaders such as Randy Thomas when the churches’ own members — evicted from their homes — are living in their cars [update: and officially sanctioned homeless camps are forming in many major cities].
It will be interesting to see which programs Exodus sacrifices in order to preserve its delusion of service to God.
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Awwwww.
Maybe they can start up a new program to help people become Ex-Christians. I imagine that would be much more successful (and definitely more honest) than their previous one.
Comment by Buffy — August 23, 2010 @ 2:05 pm
Maybe the Mormon Church’s cure the gays “Evergreen Foundation” will allow Exodus to bunk with them in Evergreen’s building in SL UT?
Comment by leon — August 23, 2010 @ 2:22 pm
Well, this is auspicious news. Could the demise of Exodus be on the horizon?
Comment by William — August 23, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
Leon, that is a sensational suggestion.
If Exodus cares more about its finances than about having offices in sunny Florida, it should seriously consider relocating to Salt Lake.
Comment by Michael Airhart — August 23, 2010 @ 2:32 pm
[...] to our story earlier today about a financial crisis at Exodus International headquarters [...]
Pingback by Truth Wins Out - Exodus Affiliate and Prosperity Preacher Faces Foreclosure — August 23, 2010 @ 2:55 pm
Leon / Buffy’s ideas are brilliant, of course.
The bullying of vulnerable teenagers in that lockdown centre i Tennessee must never be forgotton and for their sake I am ecstatic about the prospect of this horrible, fanatical cult sinking into oblivion.
Comment by Darwin's Bulldog — August 23, 2010 @ 2:57 pm
Alan Chambers forgot the old saying: “God helps those who help themselves.”
If the price gets low enough, we may buy a few of the books for the sake of research. :)
Comment by Wayne Besen — August 23, 2010 @ 3:58 pm
[...] ex-gay HQ that Exodus is "holding clearance sales to get rid of its quack-therapy books," notes TWO. "Its pseudo-Jewish ally JONAH is begging for donations of old clothing."Though any [...]
Pingback by Does God Want Exodus International to Fail? / Queerty — August 23, 2010 @ 4:39 pm
Since Exodus claims to know the will of God, that God hates gay people and its mission is to help them “evil” of their “lifestyle”, perhaps the rest of us can claim to know God’s will now, by pointing out that God has brought them to a financial crossroads as a way of pointing out the “evil” of their “lifestyle.
Comment by Steve Delaney — August 23, 2010 @ 5:36 pm
Although it’s true that hard times will reveal the flaws in failed financial strategies more than anything else, it is also true that unscientific Lies, illogical Discrimination and pompously-hypocritical Hatred cloaked in the sanctimonious garb of Dominionist pseudo-Christianity have finally been shown to be a bad investment.
Good-hearted people are finding out that it is more important to take care of their families, than it is to bankroll yet another fear-mongering facet of the so-called Culture War.
Not even a year ago, Focus on the Family off-loaded it’s “Love Won Out” ex-Gay program to Exodus International. They said it was because such an arrangement was a “better fit” but in reality, they weren’t getting the best “Bang for their Bucks” out of that Ministry anymore.
Focus itself has gone from 1400 employees in the early years of its Colorado Springs existence to somewhere near 750 employees right now… So I’m not surprised that Exodus is headed in the same direction, too.
What’s the moral to the story?
1. “Don’t try to fix what ain’t broke”.
2. Bigotry is getting WAY too expensive for Main Street America to afford.
3. “God don’t bless no mess!” – in other words, real Truth Wins Out always in the end.
Nancy-Jo Morris
Colorado Springs
Comment by Nancy-Jo Morris — August 23, 2010 @ 5:53 pm
[...] Chambers fails to mention that he had just fired several staff. [...]
Pingback by Truth Wins Out - Exodus Has Yet to Wean Itself from the Prosperity ‘Gospel’ — August 23, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
[...] more about it here [...]
Pingback by Ex-Gay Group Going Broke…. « The Gay Supporter Daily Post — August 23, 2010 @ 9:23 pm
To quote Linda Barry, “they tried to singe us but the singe was on them.” Great article. I especially enjoy the way fundies use the words “just” and “anoint”–”OHHHHHH Gawwwwwd, we “just” claim your “anointing” to rebuke these secular humanist homosexoids and we come against them (but not in a biblical way).”
Are they really living in cars now? It’s that bad? I’d like to think it’s not just the recession pushing those clowns to destitution but the fact that people have wised up to the gargantuan load of bullshit they are peddling with their smug condemnations.
Comment by Neal — August 24, 2010 @ 12:35 am
About the folks being allowed to live in their cars or camps due to relaxed local law enforcement:
The Erosion of America’s Middle Class
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,712496,00.html
Cities tolerate homeless camps:
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB124994409537920819.html
Comment by Michael Airhart — August 24, 2010 @ 1:06 am
[...] is unclear if Exodus’ woes are a result of an internal shake-up, or if financial setbacks have hobbled the organization. Perhaps, they are not working as closely with Focus on the Family, [...]
Pingback by Truth Wins Out - A Sluggish Exodus International Had Little Impact In 2010; PCC Aims To Fill Void — November 19, 2010 @ 10:58 am