On the Oprah Winfrey Network’s “Our America” program last week, host Lisa Ling praised Alan Chambers for a soundbite in which the Exodus International president — addressing whether gay Christians go to heaven — said that all “Christians” go to heaven.

Chambers likely knew that Ling, like many previous naïve journalists, would misunderstand his carefully parsed words and inaccurately state to a non-evangelical audience that Exodus includes LGBT people within the domain of Christian salvation.

Chambers also knew that Exodus’ behind-the-scenes decisionmakers — its Christian Right investors and specific local “ministry” leaders who favor bullying, imprisonment, and involuntary brainwashing to scare youths straight — would demand a reiteration of Exodus’ spiritual judgment against political incorrectness.

That’s exactly what happened.

Today on the official Exodus blog, Chambers reminded his conservative audience that Exodus rejects the Christian salvation of people who demonstrate same-sex behavior, same-sex attraction, honest same-sex celibacy, or same-sex “identity.”

In short, nothing has changed at Exodus at all: The organization demands as a condition of salvation that “ex-gay” or “post-gay” people reject chastity that is honest about sexual orientation. Exodus further demands that people lie to the public about their orientation, and claim an artificial heterosexual “identity” when in fact they remain as gay as ever. Anyone who dares to be sexually honest is ostracized and damned to hell.

Chambers states that sexual honesty “gives license to sin.” He falsely states that, for Christians who are honest about their orientation, “gay comes first and takes center stage.  God won’t share His throne with anyone or anything.”

Even if one disregards Chambers’ previous statement that homosexuality is the opposite of holiness, this new statement makes absolutely clear that under no circumstance will Exodus share its Heaven with homosexuals.

We are reminded that Exodus’ view of God lacks grace; it is chained to a conformity which demands the daily practice of denial, antagonism against those who choose sexual honesty, and ostracism toward religious dissidents.

Chambers complains: “Entire churches and groups are ‘distancing’ themselves from Exodus and any concrete position on sexual sin for fear that they will be targeted.  I understand; it hurts to be misunderstood, judged and threatened. It’s tough to stand for something when our culture is all about standing for nothing.”

What chutzpah, given a culture of moral relativism, judgment, and mischaracterization that we have found at Exodus’ antigay conferences and in the organization’s efforts to silence antiviolence campaigns that are inclusive of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Professional journalists should know better than to accept such deceit at face value, and to parrot the deceptions despite warnings from those whose families and friends have been destroyed by Exodus.

Please sign our petition and demand that the Oprah Winfrey Network retract its documentary. OWN owes airtime to the survivors of Exodus International and to the mental-health professionals who were denied a voice in the documentary.

In a Nov. 26 press release, ex-gay ministry network Exodus International says it’s “disappointed” and “saddened” that matchmaking company eHarmony is launching a dating site for GLBT singles.

Now, we’ve heard a lot about eHarmony of late: The site founded to serve Christian unmarrieds in 2000 initially discriminated against gays and lesbians seeking mates. Recently, the company announced plans to open CompatiblePartners.net, a companion site that will serve the GLBT community. Some have reacted with glee, while others find eHarmony’s separate-site approach to attracting gay dollars offensive. Still, this is the first time we’ve heard an entity admit to feeling sadness over the matter.

Exodus had wanted the issue surrounding eHarmony’s former no-gays-allowed policy settled by a judge. Two years ago, a gay man filed suit, claiming the company’s old plan violated New Jersey’s anti-discrimination law, which covers sexual orientation. (Exodus, interestingly, felt the need to surround the words “sexual orientation” with quotation marks.) Rather than risk a negative outcome in court, eHarmony decided to found CompatiblePartners.net as a way to settle the legal complaint.

This makes Exodus President Alan Chambers sad.

“Raising a white flag of surrender over foundational Christian principles cannot be an option when we truly believe that such truths are the gateway to freedom and new life,” Chambers said in the release. “The Bible is clear that homosexual relationships were never part of God’s creative design for humanity, nor is it His best plan for individuals. Those of us who have experienced the emptiness of gay life know that promoting it will inevitably lead to more heartache for many.”

What this has to do with the way in which a business chooses to operate escapes us. And what does eHarmony’s outreach to prospective gay and lesbian clients have to do with Exodus’ work? The group leadership says again and again that ex-gay ministries and likeminded reparative therapists exist to help those seeking relief from unwanted same-sex desires. In order to make a profit, eHarmony seeks to serve those looking to act on those desires. How does this threaten the work of Exodus and its hundreds of affiliates?

Chambers should take comfort knowing that eHarmony’s new GLBT-focused site may clear the decks, so to speak, so he can avoid wasting time on happy gays and more easily locate and “save” those not so accepting of their sexuality. And he shouldn’t take the existence of gay men and lesbians being happy and well-adjusted as a cause of misery — that’s just… sad.

The conservative-Christian New Man Magazine interviewed Exodus International president Alan Chambers on March 20.

The interview consisted of carefully worded questions that appeared to have been written by (or for) Exodus to bypass any serious analysis of ex-gay politics and pseudoscience.

Chambers’ answers were boilerplate ex-gay rhetoric; the questions were more telling in terms of bias and evasion of facts by Exodus and those who uncritically provide Exodus with a soapbox.

The Truth Wins Out blog analyzed the first half of the interview here; read on for part two. (Read More)

Against freedom: An antigay Catholic group is upset that many Catholic universities permit freedom of speech and freedom of association among their gay-tolerant students and faculty. Styling itself as “The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property,” the group claims that, out of 211 U.S. Catholic universities and colleges, at least 96 have pro-tolerance clubs on campus. Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society equates tolerance of homosexual persons and their constitutional rights with promotion of homosexual activity, and he insinuates that sexual honesty is incompatible with “students’ moral formation.” Focus on the Family appears sympathetic to both Catholic antigay groups. (Focus)

Freedom from crime a “special right”: In its ongoing war against young victims of violence, the antigay American Family Association of Michigan has targeted state Sen. Valde Garcia, a Republican, for his support of legislation to protect students from bullying. Gary Glenn of AFA/M asserts that protection from bullying amounts to “special rights” if youths’ specific at-risk demographics are acknowledged. But Garcia says he had already threatened to withdraw his sponsorship of the legislation unless a list of protected demographics was removed. However, Garcia then contradicted himself — admitting he would hypothetically support legislation granting explicit anti-crime protections if they were limited to seniors, children and police. According to Sean Kosofsky of The Triangle Foundation, “If it’s not specific, it [anti-bullying legislation] will end up having little impact.” Kosofsky added, “There’s nothing gay about this bill whatsoever. It protects all students.” (Daily Press & Argus)

Gay genetics study: ABC News oversimplifies research into ties between genetics and homosexuality by falsely suggesting up-front that researchers seek a single gene that might explain sexual orientation. That’s not the case. According to the fine print in ABC’s own news story, the hypothesis is more complex:

Dr. Alan Sanders, a psychiatric geneticist at Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, is currently heading the biggest study ever undertaken on sexual orientation. He’s looking at the genetic makeup of more than 700 sets of gay brothers.

“I think the evidence is pretty convincing already that a substantial contribution to sexual orientation comes from genetics,” he said. “It’s probably the single biggest factor that we know about.”

FRC apologizes: Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council apologizes for suggesting that America export its gay citizens in lieu of granting legal immigration to their foreign partners. (FRC Blog)

Kern meets with PFLAG: Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern still says equality for gay people is a bigger threat to America than terrorists — and further calls her opinion “Biblical.” But she has also met with members of the Oklahoma City chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and stated that she opposes discrimination against gays in the workplace. That should infuriate Concerned Women for America, which defended Kern’s terror talk as something that “reasonable people can debate.” Earlier, Kern debated a gay Christian pastor on KFOR-TV. (Queerty, PageOneQ, Good As You)

Religious-right socialism: Focus on the Family, ex-gay political powerhouse and host of the Love Won Out roadshow, rebrands Barack Obama’s vision of compassionate community values with the label “big-government socialism.” Focus overlooks its own support of socialism in the form of so-called faith-based initiatives — at least $2 billion in taxpayer handouts to ineffective and unskilled evangelical organizations, with regulatory strings arbitrarily enforced by bureaucrats.

You told us so We told you so: Exodus and Focus on the Family pretended today that they have always supported a combination of nature and nurture in theories about the roots of sexual-orientation formation. In discussing a new brochure by the American Psychological Association, Randy Thomas of Exodus voices hope for a slippery slope in which the APA eventually slides into a cesspool of belief that sexual and romantic attractions don’t matter — that all people can change their self-labeling as easily as Thomas has. Addendum: Good As You notes that Thomas and Focus omitted reference to a key passage of the brochure that finds no evidence that ex-gay programs are effective — and some indication that ex-gay promotions are harmful.

Who’s jamming whom? The religious right has, since 9/11, jammed public discussion of sexual orientation with hot-tempered and poorly documented accusations of terrorism, atheism, and dangerous behavior among people of faith and family values who happen to be American couples of the same gender. In their latest effort to make discussion of sexuality inseparable from terrorism, defenders of Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern are accusing the opposing side — those couples at home by the fireplace, upset at fundamentalist smear campaigns — of being the jammers.

Ex-gay: Bullies made me gay, not nature: Independent ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett recently appeared on an evangelical TV “helpline” (video intro) to declare — amid waves of amateurish gospel music — that childhood name-calling by bullies caused him to mistakenly believe he was gay. But have no fear, he reassures antigay Christians — nature has nothing to do with sexual orientation.