Ladies and gentlemen, we always ask “ex-gay” leaders and their supporting cast of wingnuts to provide numbers, and dangit, Alan Chambers did it this past weekend on a panel discussion at the Gay Christian Network conference! Warren Throckmorton’s blog:
Alan Chambers is asked, I think by GCN Executive Director Justin Lee, about the way Exodus and member ministries describe the work they do. Specifically, Lee asked about the slogan “change is possible.” Chambers responds by discussing his views of sexual orientation change, saying
The majority of people that I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9% of them have not experienced a change in their orientation or have gotten to a place where they could say that they could never be tempted or are not tempted in some way or experience some level of same-sex attraction. I think there is a gender issue there, there are some women who have challenged me and said that my orientation or my attractions have changed completely. Those have been few and far between. The vast majority of people that I know will experience some level of same-sex attraction.
For those who are not familiar with Math, 100% minus 99.9% equals 0.1%. For every one thousand gays who enter “ex-gay” reparative therapy, one of you might be successful, and really you were probably bisexual anyway, so meh.
So speaketh the guru, who, we gently remind readers, has admitted that he is still into guys.
Shocking!
I don’t think the reporting here is quite accurate… ex-gay wackos know most of them can’t ever entirely get rid of same-sex attraction, they think of it as some bizarre struggle between sin and purity. So of course 99.9% of them still have same-sex attraction.
What matters to them is whether or not they can maintain enough attraction to women to commit only to relationships with them, not whether the attraction to men is still there.
Still wackos.
As I said this was a huge blunder on the GCN’s part. Who wants to wager Exodus uses this as proof of their success on reaching out to gay sinners and a call for money. Shame on Justin Lee and GCN for giving this man legitimatcy in the right wing world.
“Change is possible” is one of Exodus’ marketing slogans, isn’t it? If Exodus wasn’t protected by the umbrella of special rights and benefits accorded to religion, wouldn’t they be prosecuted for false advertising and fraud if it were revealed that their success rate was only one in a thousand, and even that one was suspect?
And even though, technically, the slogan is “change is possible,” I think their overall messaging is designed to create the belief that “change is probable.” When people have already been beaten down with the message that being gay is a stench in God’s nostrils, an inane rote saying such as “all things are possible through Jesus Christ,” may be the only hope for a vulnerable person to cling to.
Richard Rush wrote:
“Change is possible” is one of Exodus’ marketing slogans, isn’t it?
Perhaps they should have an adendum or footnote:
CHANGE IS POSSIBLE*
*(but only for 0.1% of you… And even this is an over-estimation)
Actually Richard he did address this in his time on the panel. He says the slogan doesn’t mean your orientation changes it just means that they can make you more holy or something like that. He likes to talk out of both sides of his mouth. I posted on a thread about Alan on the GCN Facebook page and Alan actually responded to my post. Some crap that he considers those in GCN his brothers and sisters in Christ.
His explanation of the “Change Is Possible” slogan is disingenuous at the least and an outright deception at worst. These are basically con artist organizations built around making money to rid the world of a great sin and it’s sinners. IT MAKES MONEY! And when you can use God to do it, all the better in the minds of the gullible. It’s a tried and true method.
For those not familiar with obscure math, 99.9% is an abbreviation of infinite nines to the right of the decimal point, which is equal to one. So mathematically, there is no difference between 100% and 99.9%.
This was Alan Chambers response to my posts on GCN’s Facebook page: “Tim, I realize there is work to be done on our messaging. It’s a task that we are engaged in and will be reflected in how we talk about this complex issue. Trust me, my supporters aren’t viewing my appearance at GCN quite like they would me going to feed the orphans in Africa. I didn’t go to GCN for a publicity or donation stunt. But, I understand your unwillingness to trust me. Thanks for being honest.”
Imagine that Exodus already backing off. Here’s what Randy Thomas has to say about it: “Listen to the audio because that isn’t exactly what he said. He could have been clear-er but he was basically saying that 99.9% of people still experience some level of attractions. He even mentioned how women seem to be more likely to experience complete change … just listen to it.”
They are not making “ex-gays” — whatever their lousy percentage of “success” is, or their astounding rate of failure — for they perceive and claim we are all hetero at birth — and become gay by some mechanism they are unable to explain, other than our dads, or moms, or the stranger down the street, or our very selves did or did not do something which they know not and can explicate no more than “it’s wrong, and we don’t like it.” Other than that, they are “sure” of what they say.
Indeed, they are so vague on this that the Archbishop of the Armed Forces clearly said “it’s for unexplained reasons” — and nothing is more clear than that, eh?
But, hence — we are “ex-ex-heteros” — that is, we start out hetero, become gay, and go back again. Logically, if one is “ex-gay” — one started out gay. But that’s not what they envision (or delude,) themselves into believing and thinking — no, we are “hetero” then “gay” then “ex-gay”, ergo: ex-ex-hetero. This is logic that the Ancient Greeks were well versed with some 2500 years ago. And these creeps should be more forthright about their logic and their reasoning or shut up — I vote the later, but I am, of course, as we all are — “radicals” and “militants” for insisting that not only are we born gay — but that it is by God’s grace that this is so.
[fortuitously, this very week I found pictures of one of my first boyfriends, Tim, in one of my large "pro-" family gatherings -- his face shows a bit of perplexity that my family would welcome him -- but he is clearly considered part of myself and my family, as the pictures show -- so much for the friggin' "Anti-family" nonsense of these morons from the deep. Sorry, I'm on a family kick these past few months - and it infuriates me to listen to the "ex" and "anti" forces regaled against me and mine (aka, you fine folks.]