Veteran ex-gay leader John Smid recently acknowledged that, in his decades of ministry to make thousands of gay men turn straight, none had truly changed their sexual orientation, though many had changed their religious beliefs or their behavior.
Despite his own same-sex orientation, Smid plans to remain married to his wife, and he remains a Christian. Kudos, I say, to Smid for seeking to practice authenticity and congruence in body and spirit.
Longtime Exodus vice president Randy Thomas doesn’t feel the same way.
Thomas, who was nudged out of Exodus for unknown reasons this year, declares that Smid — one of his original ex-gay mentors — “renounced faith in Him.” In other words, Thomas lies about Smid’s faith and essentially condemns him to hell.
That condemnation, dear readers, is the mark of an insecure soul with little apparent grace – the most basic value of Christianity. (Read More)
The “ex-gay” known as Randy Thomas was just too much of a thooperthtar for Exodus International, apparently. To the delight of basically the entire LGBT blogging community, he who is “not gay anymore” has started his own blog, entitled, appropriately, “Confessions of an Ex-Gay ThooperThtar.” And what will you see when you visit?
Oh, my good sweet lord. What the HELL is that?
It’s just Randy Thomas, sittin’ around his room you guyz, definitely not bein’ gay, but bein’ a THOOPERTHTAR all the same! Even better, either Randy, one of the voices in his head or one of his various “not-gay” friends [which I imagine, for some reason, all look and smell like American Girl dolls], wrote what I can only assume is intended to be a song to introduce this glorious new venture:
If you made it through the horrifying song, that means you also got to see Randy, who yes, seems like a particularly tweaked out homosexual these days, queen out to and fro over whether Marcus Bachmann is gay or not. We can only assume he has a personal interest in the matter. Lady Birds of a feather, you know…
So far, it’s a pretty boring blog. He gives a “you go, girl!” to Alan “I Still Like Men” Chambers, giving his testimony at some wingnut confab.
In another post he shares one of his personal prayers:
“Dear Jesus, please help me to not see Edgar as an ass and for me to have the grace to not treat him like one either. Amen.”
I’m more of a chest man, but whatever.
Later in the same post, he says this:
But the truth is that being “ex-gay” is such a rare and stigmatized novelty that we as a 36 year old movement (at the time of this writing) are still figuring out what that actually means.
Oh, let me help, then. “Ex-gays” are the result of a really profitable industry that fundamentalist religious people use in order to convince themselves that they actually love gay people, even though they’re simply common bigots. They prey upon people who have experienced personal tragedy or simply made godawful choices and then they convince those people to spend LOTS of money with them, and to scapegoat all their personal shit on their sexuality. Most who go through these programs fail, and miserably. Many end up far more depressed than they were when they went in. Others end up committing suicide. Those who end up thoroughly brainwashed tend to find themselves on the payroll of one of the “ex-gay” businesses, until they get caught f*cking somebody of the same sex. Lather, rinse, repeat indeed.
Of course I don’t think of myself truly as an “ex-gay superstar.”
Nah, I was guessing the title of his new blog was more of a “fake it ’til you make it” sort of thing.
Aside from that there’s not much more in this cesspit of fail besides the fact that Randy went to the gym and worked with a personal trainer — he doesn’t share whether or not he got a boner that day — and that he’s all poopy upset about the mean gay blogs that are making fun of his new blogging venture. Here’s the funny part of that, because in just the last post I wrote, I discussed the bizarre wingnut habit of assuming that, when liberals are simply making fun of them, that we are actually angry. They do this, as Amanda pointed out, because they are passive-aggressive hypocrites, and because they can’t handle the simple fact that we’re mocking them. Here’s what the gay-by says:
So, dear gay reader who happens to be angry, if you are riled up and venomous, go ahead and bite. Get it all out. You won’t find anything but empathy and grace here.
Oh shush, you whiny little professional victim. You may be getting angry comments from a few readers — I mean, this is the internet — but the blogs that are making fun of you are not angry in the least. Moreover, the “empathy” and “grace” you market is a known sham, much like the protective guidance many Catholic priests offer children. The fact that you lisp around thweetly about your relationship with Jesus and your abandonment of the homoseckshul lifestyle, Randina, and the fact that you have sugary, meaningless things to say about “freedom” or whatever the hell it is you people prattle on about — all of this is irrelevant.
We are not angry. We’re laughing. At you, not with you. Because you are ridiculous.
It is difficult to believe, but Exodus International is still pouting and hung up on losing its iPhone App.
Waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy back in March, Truth Wins Out launched a Change.org petition calling on Apple to dump the hateful “ex-gay” iPhone app. After we collected 160,000 signatures, Apple agreed that the Exodus app must go.
Amazingly, it is now August and the lead story on Exodus’ sluggish website is, “Debunking Myths about Exodus and Their iPhone Application.”
Talk about sore losers! You lost, move on and get over it already.
P.S. I wonder how former Exodus VP Randy Thomas’ exciting new art career is going? I’ve checked with my old buddies on the Orlando art scene and no one has heard of Thomas. So, it appears that he isn’t making much of a splash. Maybe he is photographing gay art-house homoerotica like Mike Ensley?
Exodus International has given Jeff Buchanan, its director of antigay church and student activist networks, the duties that were formerly held by longtime official Randy Thomas.
Thomas, a former Texas “ex-gay” ministry leader who has worked for the Exodus national office for more than nine years, announced yesterday that he is stepping down next month.
Exodus announced Buchanan’s assumption of duties in the latest issue (PDF copy) of its Exodus Impact newsletter. (Hat tip: Ex-Gay Watch)
While Thomas was a high-school graduate with a big heart and maybe not-so-big analytical thinking skills, Buchanan is a hard-core ideologue — he has a master’s degree in theological studies from Jerry Falwell’s fundamentalist Liberty University, and he excels at giving churches rationales to turn against their gay-tolerant members and neighbors.
Unlike his colleagues who prevaricate and present conflicting messages to audiences in the vain hope of pleasing everyone, Buchanan maintains a solitary viewpoint: That libel in the service of an antigay God is a virtue. The dissemination of malicious antigay factual untruths is a fundamental part of Buchanan’s religious identity. In response to critics of Exodus’ libelous and scientifically unsound iPhone app, for example, Buchanan declared simply: “We exist and therefore, we will not always be liked.” Lacking any Biblical or factual basis for either the myth of reparative therapy or for Exodus’ antigay prejudices, Buchanan — like other Liberty University fundamentalists — simply assumes that the essence of Christian faith is meanness and judgmentalism.
In his work as Exodus church-network director, Buchanan has encouraged churches to incite confusion and conflict in member families that include someone in a longterm same-sex relationship. Buchanan has boasted that the Bible is on his side of any resulting schism, but his assertions have exposed both an ignorance of Biblical morality and a lack of Christian grace.
Buchanan defines ethics, not according to the Christian Beatitudes or robust moral philosophy, but rather according to the conventional wisdom of U.S. social conservatives. He then projects his populist definition of morality onto compassionate and better-educated people of faith, saying: “When morality is determined by popularity, depravity becomes normality and the death of that culture becomes an inevitability.” (Perhaps that is why Exodus is slowly dying?)
Given Buchanan’s fact- and spirit-challenged ideology, it is to be expected that his church network would offer so little for its annual membership fee: no professional clinical expertise, minimal grace or compassion, and merely a cherry-picking of godtalk phrases in lieu of rigorous and open-minded theological analysis.
The departure of Randy Thomas, and the consolidation of his duties by an on-staff ideologue, indicate that Exodus International remains firmly and stubbornly on course in search of a shrinking audience of hostile and spiritually underdeveloped individuals who sense a need to blame someone for the failure of God — or their revision of God — to change “ex-gays.”
As David Roberts of Ex-Gay Watch points out:
Buchanan will end up with [president Alan Chambers]’s job if Exodus survives that long. He’s a hardline spiritual gatekeeper and I’m sure he already thinks he would be better at it.
Exodus International announced today that Randy Thomas — longtime spokesman and until February the organization’s executive vice president — will leave his position in July. (Hat tip: Ex-Gay Watch)
On his blog, Thomas describes the departure as a gradual and voluntary vocational choice. But then Thomas adds: “What’s next? The final decision wasn’t made until a few hours ago so … not quite sure as of yet.”
Exodus International’s finances have been burdened in recent years by the ill-timed purchase of a new headquarters and by the impact of U.S. economic difficulties on donations.
In 2009 — the most recent year for which Internal Revenue Service data is publicly available — Exodus International reported a calendar-year decline of $60,000 in cash on hand; the organization ended the year with $280,000 banked, according to the group’s IRS 990 form.
That form lists total revenue for 2009 of $1.1 million and expenses of $1.2 million, of which salaries, wages, and employee benefits constituted about $525,000.
Hong Kong’s government has hired quack psychiatrist Hong Kwai-wah to “re-wire” LGBT people through cold showers and prayer. Hong Kwai-wah is chairman of the New Creation Association, which is directly linked to North American organizations Exodus International and Exodus Global Alliance.
“Scandal-prone ‘ex-gay’ programs have become a joke in the West, so these charlatans are exporting their scientifically-bankrupt theories overseas,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “As they opportunistically look for new global markets to exploit, we will put a cold shower on these fraudulent efforts. There is not a single acre on the map in which these slippery groups can hide from our work to spotlight and expose their quack therapies.”
The link to North American groups is robust and incontrovertible. On its website, the Canadian-based Exodus Global Alliance writes:
Kelvin and Tammy are the directors of New Creation Ministries. They say, “We are thankful for the encouragement from Dr. Melvin Wong, Anita and Frank Worthen, Jenny Li, Dr. Kwai-wah Hong, and Exodus Global Alliance. Thank God! He sees the needs of the gay community in Hong Kong and He prepares the hearts of the workers. We believe God will accomplish the works that He has begun.” May God bring new hope to those who want to become free from sexual addiction and bondage.
According to news reports, the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department issued a statement saying it presents a variety of viewpoints to staff members and that it has had gay rights advocates speak to the department in the past.
“Apparently, promoting harmful therapy rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health association in the world is considered a ‘viewpoint,’” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “In truth, the Hong Kong Social Welfare Department is disgracefully promoting anti-gay propaganda that that is harmful and ineffective.”
Ex-Gay Watch first discovered an interesting tidbit on the Exodus International blog. The organization’s President, Alan Chambers, wrote a rosy piece announcing that he had eliminated Randy Thomas’ position as Vice President.
Thomas will now assume his reduced role as part-time blogger — which is being euphemistically called “Director of Digital Media and Development.” Whaterver.
According to Chambers:
This new role will also enable Randy to continue to support our ministry, which I know means a great deal to him, while allowing him ample time to pursue his calling and passion in the arts and pastoral care…. I am excited about this new season for Randy and would encourage you to pray for him as he trusts the Lord and steps out in faith to pursue God’s will.
How gutsy of Thomas to try his hand at “the arts” during a time of high unemployment. Does Thomas’ “artistic” side include photographing homoerotic smut? If so, former Exodus staffer Mike Ensley could help him get back on his feet.
It will be interesting to see if Thomas’ old position is filled in the near future. If not, his downsizing may actually signal that Exodus is going through a season of tough economic times.
If you are a business owner, beware. Social conservatives want to tell you what products you can sell and what ideas you must disseminate, whether you like it or not.
These totalitarians think that their beliefs are superior and if you don’t support them, you are violating their First Amendment rights. However, after a close reading of the U.S. Constitution, I found nothing that said, “thou shall be forced to sell obnoxious and offensive products by religious cults that prey on youth.”
Nonetheless, social conservatives are up in arms because Apple exercised its right to choose what products are in its online store when it dumped a scientifically bankrupt and defamatory “ex-gay” app by the group Exodus International. Not surprisingly, these anti-business and anti-free speech thugs are whining and playing the victim card. Ironically, they are using the language of business with catchphrases like “the marketplace of ideas” — even as they work to dictate what the market can sell to consumers.
“It’s about freedom of speech, the ability to participate in the marketplace of ideas,” Prison Fellowship’s Chuck Colson disingenuously wrote today. “The gay-rights groups have shown their fangs. Victory in the courts or in the legislatures is not enough for them. They want to silence, yes, destroy those who don’t agree with their agenda. So they target Christian groups and corporate America to do just that.” (We must be winning. Colson said “gay” and not “homosexual”)
The Exodus App histrionics continued with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council huffing and puffing in a fund-raising letter:
“Our form of democracy will not long survive if the freedom of speech and religion are lost.”
And, I’m sure the absence of racist and anti-Semitic apps at Apple’s online store have decimated democracy, religion, freedom of speech as well.
I suppose Perkins might have a point, because he worships at the altar of hate. This is the guy, after all, who runs a Southern Poverty Law Center certified hate group and once tried to further his political career by purchasing former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke’s mailing list.
The most ridiculous statement, as usual, came from Exodus President Alan Chambers, who’s about as bright as the bottom of the sea.
“We are extremely disappointed to learn of Apple’s decision to deny equal representation in the public square,” said Exodus President Alan Chambers in a statement. “Discrimination of thought and belief obstructs essential dialogue and authentic diversity.”
Chambers appears to be an ignoramus. As the leader of an organization, he surely must have some clue that Apple is a private company and in no way part of the “public square”. And, what does his organization have to do with diversity? Are there any openly gay people working at his outfit?
Aside from the attack on business and confusion of what constitutes the public sphere, Exodus is making the outrageous and patently dishonest claim that it does not promise to cure anyone. What a bunch of lying, oleaginous snakes. Here is what Peterson Toscano, founder of the “ex-gay” survivor group BeyondExGay wrote today:
“Only after 15 years of attending a variety of Exodus-member programs, I finally heard one of their leaders admit that actual change in orientation was not a realistic goal. During my first week at the Love in Action ex-gay residential program in Memphis, TN (what would become a two year stint) the director informed us that we would never be heterosexual. Wait! What about the big fat slogan on their website and brochures–Freedom from Homosexuality through Jesus Christ? Turns out it’s just PR. They have a public message and then a private reality.”
Toscano also pointed out why the Exodus App was pulled — it harms people:
“Being an ex-gay survivor myself and personally speaking with over 1,500 fellow survivors, I can say that Buchanan is correct on one point—Exodus has no cure to offer. Instead they issue a curse for those who submit or are forced to submit to their teachings. They offer harm—psychological, emotional, and spiritual damage. They tamper with their clients’ relationships, careers, personal development, and finances. They make a mess of our lives in Jesus’ name.”
Anyway, back to where we started. If Exodus, Tony Perkins and Chuck Colson truly believe in forcing private entities to carry views they find offensive, they should put their money where their mouths are — by publishing my weekly column.
What — they don’t want to be forced to disseminate my views? What about the new found commitment to “diversity” these phonies have hid behind this week?
Welcome to America fundies — if you don’t like Apple’s policies get rid of your electronic typewriters and go back to cave drawing.
I had not realized Exodus had moved the goalposts this far into la-la-land, but here’s Randy Thomas!
As Jeff pointed out, we don’t do “ex-gay therapy.” The app is a resource app that pulled in many of our online resources including blog posts, announcements, event information and even a powerful article against bullying.
Also, we do not label ourselves “ex-gay” but identify as Christians who have had or have same sex attractions. Our goal is to live out our lives congruent with our faith. Exodus is here to help those with similar beliefs to do the same.
Really, guys. They never said they could change anyone’s sexuality. They never even said they aren’t gay anymore. We have always been at war with Eastasia, and Randy Thomas doesn’t know what you guys are even talking about or why you’re being so mean and stuff.
Longtime Exodus vice president Randy Thomas doesn’t feel the same way.
Exodus International has given 
On his blog, Thomas 
