Updated at 7 p.m.
Ex-Gay Watch reports that Orlando, Fla.-based Exodus International has laid off two of its ex-gay outreach workers: Exodus Youth “analyst” Mike Ensley and bookstore manager Chris Stump.

Stump had only recently replaced the outgoing Kevin White in that position. It appears the move came just days ago, made necessary due to a serious reduction of donations being received by the ex-gay referral organization.

It comes as no surprise that Exodus is having budget concerns. The current world-wide economic crisis has hurt even large, well managed non-profits like Focus on the Family. Exodus may have made things worse for themselves, however, with the addition of a million-dollar mortgage for the new building they purchased last spring — bad timing to say the least. Exodus had previously leased a modest set of offices in Orlando but claimed in a newsletter that they were cramped and needed room for new staff.

Truth Wins Out has criticized some of Ensley’s anti-youth and anti-family commentaries. But most of these commentaries occurred in official Exodus and Focus on the Family publications that are edited and approved by top management. In other words, it’s his editors — not Ensley — who should be laid off or accept salary reductions if times are difficult.

The layoffs leave Exodus with a staff a bit more heavily weighted toward fund-raising and political lobbying instead of outreach to would-be ex-gays and their families.

I soon expect to hear that Exodus is subletting its overpriced and oversized office space — if they aren’t doing so, already.

Perhaps Exodus will one day become the new Kmart-Sears: a real-estate company that pretends to be a merchant of dime-store quality merchandise and suburban pop culture.

Antigay lesbian publisher Charlene Cothran seeks Americans’ cash in these hard times to “prevent homosexuality in youth.”

Cothran claims to be ex-gay, but she is still predominantly attracted to women and declines to say whether she has any significant attraction to men. In other words, she is a celibate lesbian who understands that telling the public the honest truth about her choice of lesbian celibacy is not profitable.

According to Rod 2.0:

Cothran wants substantial donations to fund a multi-platform broadcast ministry‚Äîwith her as the host of course‚Äîon radio, DVD and internet. “Charlene Cothran has elevated her rabid capitalist ‘ex-gay’ charades from a magazine to a ‘ministry’.”

Cothran won’t identify the board of directors whom the donations would support; in the past, antigay activist D.L. Foster has served as her advisor and editor.

Nor does Cothran say what miracle she has discovered that “prevents” homosexuality.

And finally, the “ministry” is reportedly a business, not a non-profit charity, meaning the public’s “donations” might be better-spent at Wal-Mart.

Blogger Clay Cane compares Cothran’s ex-gay-for-pay ministry to “those modeling agencies that are advertised in the back of the Village Voice‚Äîif they have to ask you for money, it isn’t legit.”

Rod 2.0 says, “After the disastrous results of Prop 8 and the escalating tensions between blacks and gays, Cothran’s phony ‘pray away the gay’ story might be become welcome currency in many anti-gay black churches. Just ask Donnie McClurkin.”

The Los Angeles Times web site hosts a database that monitors the money spent by non-profit organizations to raise funds — and how little money was returned to the non-profit by the fund-raisers. (The database is limited to fund-raising reported to the state of California from 1997 to 2006.)

The database reports, for example, that Concerned Women for America‘s education and legal action fund collected $14.7 million in gross revenue via for-profit fund-raisers during the decade.

However, CWFA only received $975,000 from its fund-raisers. It seems that more than a million dollars per year, or 93.4 percent of donations collected by for-profit fund-raisers and reported to California, went to the fundraisers, who were primarily:

• InfoCision Management Corp., an Ohio telemarketing company with conservative-Christian and GOP clients,
• MDS Communications Corporation, an Arizona/California outfit that also serves National Right to Life, FRC, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. (They also serve the global anti-hunger charity CARE — perhaps some polite letters to CARE are in order.)
• Regency Communications, apparently a now-defunct Texas telemarketer that was tied to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Alliance and The Rutherford Institute

I understand that for-profit telemarketers don’t just raise funds; they charge fees to non-profits to conduct political advocacy, such as rallying members to call lawmakers about an antigay vote. CWFA donors expect their donations to be spent as described by the telemarketer, but CWFA’s for-profit fund-raisers can spend their majority share of the donated money any way they please. They can redirect non-profits’ fund-raising revenues — via discounts, pro bono work, and fresh donations — into partisan political campaigns. And non-profits can choose to overpay their fund-raising contractors, with the knowledge that the overpayment will benefit allies who use the same contractor.

In fact, there are vague signs of such a redistribution of donor cash at MDS Communications: While CWFA received an average 6.6 percent return from all reported for-profit fund-raisers, its returns from MDS are often negative: CWFA has repeatedly spent more than it received. Meanwhile, Family Research Council has enjoyed a 30.6 percent return on donations and National Right to Life has received returns of up to 50 percent from various MDS campaigns from 1997 to 2006.

In 2007 federal tax filings, CWFA reported $10 million in direct public support. While other organizations conduct their political advocacy in-house to maintain control of their message and conserve cash, CWFA paid its for-profit contractors more than $4 million in 2007 — $2.8 million of which appears have been for-profit political advocacy rather than pure solicitation.

The Los Angeles Times story focuses on excesses of charitable fund-raising, and so it does not report, nor even question, MDS’s fund-raising results for Democratic and GOP committees.

There is a strong and largely unregulated potential for cronyism among religious shell organizations; insiders who double-dip as employees and as contractors; fund-raisers; partisan political interests; and unrelated political causes (such as free trade) that would offend many donors to religious-right shell organizations.

Concerned Women for America isn’t alone in preying upon donors’ patriotism and concern for children while handing donations to cronies, according to the Times:

Among The Times’ findings:

• More than 100 charities raised $1 million or more from commercial appeals but netted less than 25 cents per dollar. Fundraisers got the rest.
• In 430 campaigns, charities got nothing: All $44 million donated went to fundraisers. In 337 of those cases, charities actually lost money, paying fees to fundraisers that exceeded the amount raised.
• In hundreds of other campaigns, charities apparently entered into contracts that limited their share of donations to 20% or less, no matter how successful the campaign.
• Groups with strong emotional or patriotic appeal — those supporting animals, children, veterans and public safety workers, for instance — often fared worst. Missing-children charities received less than 15% of more than $28 million raised on their behalf.

What additional restrictions, if any, are needed to prevent religious non-profit organizations from hiring fund-raisers that may siphon off donations for partisan political uses, out of sight of the donors?

And what more must be done to prevent religious organizations from abusing their tax-exempt status?

• Portland Fellowship, an Exodus affiliate program in Portland, Oregon, has launched a web site to recruit churches to the ex-gay cause. Supporters are asked to pick a church, write a recruitment letter, and send $25 per church. The $25 apparently buys each church an ex-gay CD-ROM and a Starbucks $5 gift card. One critic noted that Starbucks is among the top gay-inclusive companies, according to Human Rights Campaign. Obvious question: Were the cards purchased by the Fellowship or donated by Starbucks?
• Randall Harp is a supporter of the antihomosexual agenda — that is, an agenda that opposes the supposed gay agenda (whatever that is). Harp attempts to separate gay people from their agenda their freedom by appealing to fear and strawman arguments.
• A middle-aged British woman asks whether she has become ex-straight.
• Box Turtle Bulletin fact-checks ex-gay propaganda that was provided by Exodus and NARTH (a reparative-therapy advocacy group) and recently marketed to the American Fork High School PTSA in Utah.
• Beyond Ex-Gay, a support group for survivors of ex-gay programs, celebrates its first anniversary. Congratulations!

Addendum: Portland Fellowship confirmed to TWO that Starbucks gift cards are purchased with the $25-per-church contribution. Starbucks was chosen for its availability.

Focus science coverup: While acknowledging his role in cultural warfare, Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family declines to acknowledge that his employer covered up numerous false claims in a widely distributed and uncorrected press release about the alleged anthropology of marriage. Instead, he admits that publication of the release was premature, but he offers no retraction. Stanton has agreed to dialogue with an anthropologist on a watchdog blog, safely out of view of Focus’ subscribers and media contacts.

Investor activism: With the help of other religious conservatives, Exodus conference speaker Ken Hutcherson has launched a religious-right investor activist group to steer companies toward policies that discriminate against their workers who happen to be same-sex-attracted, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, former clients of Mercy Ministries — an antigay residential program serving Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom — say they were denied professional psychotherapeutic or counseling services and granted only occasional, program-monitored visits to a general practitioner.

Instead of professional care, residents were dictated Bible verses, prayed at, and “exorcised” — and then denied support for appropriate follow-up care. Some residents say they required years of professional care to recover from abuse suffered in the program.

Mercy is a residential program for 16- to 28-year-old women that claims to offer “Christian counseling” to women who struggle with abuse, depression, eating disorders, unplanned pregnancy, and sexuality. Residents are monitored during their trips outdoors and denied access to family and friends for four to six weeks at a time. Some participants reside on-site for months.

Ex-transgender and former Exodus North America executive director Sy Rogers was reportedly featured often in the program’s in-house videos. Former clients who experienced no same-sex attraction say they were disturbed by the program’s preoccupation with stamping out “lesbianism.” Program rules forbid hugging and any other physical contact among clients.

Despite harsh rules and inordinate repetition of ex-gay rhetoric, “Mercy Ministries denies it runs an ‘ex-gay’ program,” according to the Herald.

New Zealand government agencies have allegedly subsidized the abuse:

Government agencies such as Centrelink have also been drawn into the controversy, as residents are required to transfer their benefits to Mercy Ministries. There are also allegations that the group receives a carers payment to look after the young women.

Corporate sponsors have since yanked funding — except for Gloria Jean’s Coffee, which continues to subsidize what appears to be an abusive cult-like environment:

Deeply felt ties bind Mercy Ministries, Gloria Jean’s and the Hillsong Church, connected through a complicated chain of directors and former directors – as well as donations.

More from the Sydney Morning Herald:

• God’s cure for gays lost in sin, March 19
• No mercy for transgressions, March 19
• The business of giving Mercy, March 18
• Corporates move quickly to cut ties, March 18
  
• Why Mercy Ministries was godsent for Hillsong, March 18
  
• Hell or a godsend: women tell their stories, March 18
  
• Ethics, financial probity for review, March 18
  
• They prayed to cast Satan from my body, March 18
  
• They sought help, but got exorcism and the Bible, March 17
  
• Women ‘mistreated’ by secretive ministry, March 17
  
• Lives at risk when vulnerable patients taken in by cult-like groups, March 17

Bene Diction Blogs On explains Mercy Ministries’ close ties to Hillsong, Australia’s largest pentecostal church, and finds the ministry planning to expand in Canada and the United States.

Ongoing coverage: Religion News Blog

Thoughtful religious analysis: One Salient Oversight

Hat tip: GayNZ

After claiming last week that the ex-gay network had stepped back from public policy, Exodus admitted otherwise this week — but without admitting the apparent deception.

President Alan Chambers acknowledged to Ex-Gay Watch that his organization will continue as an active member of the Arlington Group, a political alliance of most major religious-right organizations that coordinates members’ policy choices and priorities.

Chambers claimed last week, “There isn’t anyone on staff that has policy in their job description and we don’t plan to spend money there.” On its 2006 filing of an IRS 990 form (PDF via Guidestar), Exodus reported a $5,000 donation to the Arlington Group; Exodus donations for 2007 are yet to be disclosed.

Chambers announced last week that Exodus’ withdrawal from public policy began in “August, 2007. 2008, however, marked a complete refocus on ministry.”

But as TWO has noted since then, Exodus board member Phil Burress (pictured), youth activist Mike Ensley, and speaker Ken Hutcherson continue to actively campaign for antigay and partisan political causes.

Just two days ago, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas boasted of his ongoing, expenses-paid trips to Washington, D.C., to provide political “friends” with ex-gay rhetoric and support.

And on Friday, board member Burress sued to hold taxpayer-subsidized church services in an Ohio public library. Burress’ self-led Citizens for Community Values (another Arlington Group member) opposes anti-bullying, tolerance, and sex-education programs in schools, and it is largely responsible for a 1993 Cincinnati vote to overturn local antidiscrimination law. A 2004 vote reversed the earlier vote.

In reaction to Exodus’ commitment to the Arlington Group, former ex-gay Peterson Toscano finds Exodus violating Biblical values under Chambers’ leadership.

Ken Hutcherson is selling tickets for a culture-war voyage from Seattle to Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Hutcherson boasts:

New Encounter with God!

This time together will be an outstanding opportunity to stand for righteousness and renew our commitment to God as individuals, as couples, and as a group.

God has called us to be salt. Do you know what that really means? During our time together I will help you understand through the Scriptures what it really means.

Got [sic] wants to make sure your salt doesn’t stay in the shaker so let’ get shakin’ for Christ! Let’ run the race and reach for the prize.

Pastor Hutch

Feeling righteous? Reserve your tickets now — $659 for a deluxe stateroom — for Oct. 3-6, 2008. It isn’t clear whether unrighteous individuals are welcome on the cruise — but non-smokers clearly are not very welcome. Not only is smoking allowed in most public lounges and deck areas, it is also allowed in all staterooms — there are no non-smoking rooms.

Journey Into Manhood is a $650-per-person, ex-gay weekend boot camp for men who mistakenly believe that homosexuality is caused by inadequate masculinity. The retreat is operated by an ex-gay advocacy group called People Can Change.

In response to criticism by a pro-exgay pundit of the retreat’s controversial pro-gay origins and secret practices, PCC recently released a rigged customer-satisfaction survey which claimed overwhelming success — by excluding most of the retreat’s dissatisfied participants from the survey.

According to The Washington Blade, Doug Haldeman — a gay psychologist based in Seattle and a board member of the American Psychological Association — has joined public criticism of the survey. Haldeman said the name of the retreat, “Journey Into Manhood,” has an inherent bias presupposing that “anyone who is struggling with feelings of same-sex attraction is not a man.” Haldeman also criticized the survey for failing to identify why participants wanted to change their sexual orientation.

“Most of those groups use convenient sample surveys like that and try and call it research,” he said. “What they really are … just amounts to testimonials of people that I believe are pressured, either externally and internally, into something as difficult as trying to change your sexual orientation.”

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