Arkansas ex-gay advocate Victor J. Adamson advises people to adopt his ex-gay lifestyle which — according to those whom he has counseled — consists of pretending to be heterosexual. (Source: XGW)

Another ex-gay ministry, Mastering Life Ministries, has severed ties with Exodus — the second prominent, achhem, “exodus” this year. The leader of the ministry, David Kyle Foster, reportedly has long-standing issues with control, self-righteousness, and fraudulent misrepresentation of science and demographics — but those traits are by no means frowned-upon by Exodus or its membership guidelines. It is possible that Foster became fed up with what he perceived to be the “campy, gossipy, lispy” behavior of the U.S. ex-gay leadership. Foster’s board of advisers includes Neil T. Anderson, an advocate of the belief that gay Americans and the mentally ill are controlled by demons. Anderson’s “theophostic” therapy utilizes amateur “counselors” to coerce patients into recovering false memories. The theophostic counseling industry, it seems, has been established as a profit center by dominionists who have bypassed accountability to the professional mental-health community. Critics say this form of unlicensed counseling has also been used by conservative ideologues such as Chuck Colson to conduct “faith-based coercion” — at taxpayer expense — against captive audiences of prisoners. MLM was a long-standing member of Exodus, so a very big question demands an answer: Why does Exodus tolerate such abuses of mental health among its membership, and what other member organizations remain similarly obsessed with conjuring and then exorcising non-existent demons out of impressionable individuals? (Source: XGW)

Despite recent departures, Exodus claims to have more than 200 member organizations. But a quick count by TruthWinsOut.org of the ministries listed on Exodus’ referral list finds only 98 referral ministries in the United States (give or take a few) — and only two referral ministries in Canada. Many of the Exodus web site’s referrals are not ex-gay ministries, but rather for-profit conversion therapists and members of Exodus’ political mobilization network of antigay churches. Exodus’ network of ex-gay ministries seems to be shrinking, even as it grows its political network of antigay churches.

Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas redefines transparency and accountability to mean truthiness — in other words, whatever a morally compromised ideologue wants them to mean.

Northern Irish lawmaker and ex-gay proponent Iris Robinson says gay people are worse than child molesters. Despite her later denials, her remarks were confirmed. Robinson’s defense? She proudly asserts that anything she says “is what Christ teaches us” and “is out of love.” Robinson claims to have Christian values — after redefining “Christian” to mean “intentionally untruthful” and “malicious.” And she claims to defend the word of God — but none of her particular words seem to be found in the Bible nor any other holy book. Nevertheless, British ex-gay activist Peter Ould supports Robinson’s antigay tirades and claims that the real problem is that “the world hates Jesus.” (Source: XGW)

Sporting a fog machine for its smoke and mirrors routine and an extravagant stage that would make The Rolling Stones blush, the “ex-gay” group Exodus International held its glitzy annual conference in Asheville, North Carolina. I was in town all week to partner with regional and state organizations to oppose the meeting and its dizzying array of distortions.

A dark cloud hovered over the Exodus event, with violent hate crimes unsettling the local GLBT community. At the very moment ex-gay televangelists were railing against homosexuals in the foothills, news broke of an 18-year old boy in Anderson, South Carolina whose father, “yelled, cursed, swung a baseball bat, prayed and tried to cast the demon of homosexuality out of him.”

In nearby Greenville, South Carolina, Stephen Moller, an anti-gay thug who murdered 20-year-old Sean William Kennedy outside a gay bar, just learned that he would spend approximately 10 months in jail for his ferocious crime. In this gross miscarriage of justice, the message was sent that murdering gay people was tacitly acceptable, if not encouraged. While in town, I spoke to Sean’s grieving mother, Elke Kennedy, who rightfully called the sentence, “a joke and a slap on the wrist.”

Meanwhile, on the opening day of the Exodus conference, an anti-bullying bill was stalled in the North Carolina legislature. Into this backdrop of brutality stepped the ex-gay activists Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas, who were determined to show the progressive residents of Asheville that Exodus did not stigmatize gay and lesbian people. Unfortunately, they kept tripping over reality and revealing the true nature of their duplicitous, deceptive and depraved ministry.

For a week, western North Carolinians were dazzled with disingenuousness. The audacity of the lies was breathtaking and the sheer nerve was mind numbing. By the end of the conference, everyone who had paid attention learned that Exodus leaders are shameless charlatans who lack even a modicum of morality. (Read More)