(A ‘Blinded’ Chambers Now On The Gay Marriage Market?)

Last year, Alan Chambers, the head of so-called “ex-gay” group Exodus International appeared in full-page newspaper ads opposing same-sex marriage. His bizarre reasoning in the ad text stated:

“By finding my way out of a gay identity, I found the love of my life in the process. Gay marriage would have only blinded me to such incredible joy.”

Well, now that marriage is legal in California, might the temptation be too much for poor, struggling Chambers? Might the sight of thousands of happy same sex couples, “blind” him and his celibate understudy, Randy Thomas? If his silly ad is an indication, Chamber’s might run off to California and marry a man any day.

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In 1988, I was fresh out of college and working as a full-time volunteer for Catholic Charities in Nashville, Tennessee.

I was also a quietly celibate gay man who was living with fellow Christian volunteers.

By day, I helped illegal aliens apply for legal residency through Catholic Charities while my housemates worked with prisoners and the homeless.

When we weren’t working, my unpaid housemates and I spent evenings at home in low-income East Nashville, sitting in front of our portable black-and-white television watching “Facts of Life” and a new show called “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” We shared meals of low-budget jambalaya, chatted on weekends with acquaintances (on their dime, if possible) at the Vanderbilt University Fuddrucker’s, and explored various churches and neighborhoods around Nashville. As my one-year volunteer placement wound down in mid-1988, I sought religious sponsors who might help me work for Nashville CARES or for similar AIDS treatment and support organizations in other cities.

This was my gay lifestyle.

Across town, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas was, by his own new account, living a very different lifestyle: bar-hopping, using drugs, seemingly oblivious (then and now) to liberal Christian outreach to society’s outcasts.

In a heartbreaking moment of vulnerability, Randy remembers the day when he learned his former partner had died from AIDS: (Read More)

“Gender identity is very important to God,” according to Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas.

But what verses of the Bible or any other authoritative religious document refer to “gender identity”? In an interview published today by Focus on the Family, Thomas does not say.

Sidestepping specifics about the Bible, Thomas ignores a growing Christian debate about gender-variant Biblical role models and eunuchs, broadly labels gender-variant individuals as “confused,” and offers a bold generalization: that the courage to express one’s individuality is the fault of unidentified “activists.” (Read More)

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.