At the end of this month Grace Communion International is holding a conference in Disney World at the Hilton. Of the different ministry sessions there will be three devoted to those who have same sex attractions i.e gay/lesbian.
Sharing in Christ’s Ministry to those Dealing with Same-Sex Attraction
Sharing in Christ’s Ministry to those Dealing with Same-Sex Attraction – to register click here
This workshop will be offered on Thursday afternoon.
In this three-part workshop we will consider the complex questions
involved in serving with Christ those who experience same-sex
attraction. The first session will address discerning the moral and
spiritual dimensions of this issue. Biblical and theological foundations
will be a central consideration, but the claims of social science will
be given some consideration. In the second session we will begin
considering the practical implications of ministering to such persons
and how best to approach it. The third session will be devoted entirely
to discussion, sharing experiences and attempting to discern together
how best to conduct such a ministry.
Attendance at all three sessions is strongly encouraged.
Pre-registration will be required as well as some preparation which will
involve the reading of a couple of papers. These will be sent to all
those who pre-register for the class, via email. Gary Deddo and Ted
Johnston will lead this seminar.
More about the GCI conference a little later.
The Church of God has always had gay members in it. They were in WCG, they are in UCG, LCG, PCG, RCG and many of the other splinter groups. Many are there for the love they feel for God, others are there thinking that God has placed them there so they can be cured and made straight. Even LCG has gay members, though God only knows why considering the garbage that Rod Meredith continually spews out at them.
Herbert Armstrong employed several in his years ruling the church. The interior decorator of the church was and helped HWA decorated three campuses and countless offices and homes. Meredith and others tried over and over to get HWA to fire the man and he would not. He and his partner showed up for HWA's funeral.
If you look on the Painful Truth website at the
Suicides page, you will see a lot of young men and women. While not all were gay, several of them were. They struggled and struggled to be something they could not. After listening to sermon after sermon, having hands laid on them to cast demons out, praying and fasting for literally decades, God did not change them.
The Church of God and many Christians churches have destroyed lives all in the name of the God they claim to follow. One of the biggest tools of this damage has been the ex-gay ministries that have popped up over the years. There are Ex-Gay Ministries in the Mormon Church, the SDA's, Evanglical groups, and several others. All claiming that they have huge success rates in changed gay and lesbians Christian's into 100% straight heterosexuals. The biggest of these groups is Exodus International. Many COG members have went through this organization.
Today, Exodus International announced it was shutting itself down because of the damage it had done to peoples mental and spiritual lives over the last close to four decades.
Its leader, Alan Chambers, announced this on
Wednesday:
Recently, I have begun thinking again about how to apologize to
the people that have been hurt by Exodus International through an
experience or by a message. I have heard many firsthand stories from
people called ex-gay survivors. Stories of people who went to Exodus
affiliated ministries or ministers for help only to experience more
trauma. I have heard stories of shame, sexual misconduct, and false
hope. In every case that has been brought to my attention, there has
been swift action resulting in the removal of these leaders and/or their
organizations. But rarely was there an apology or a public
acknowledgement by me.
And then there is the trauma that I have caused. There were
several years that I conveniently omitted my ongoing same-sex
attractions. I was afraid to share them as readily and easily as I do
today. They brought me tremendous shame and I hid them in the hopes they
would go away. Looking back, it seems so odd that I thought I could do
something to make them stop. Today, however, I accept these feelings as
parts of my life that will likely always be there. The days of feeling
shame over being human in that way are long over, and I feel free simply
accepting myself as my wife and family does. As my friends do. As God
does.
Friends and critics alike have said it’s not enough to simply
change our message or website. I agree. I cannot simply move on and
pretend that I have always been the friend that I long to be today. I
understand why I am distrusted and why Exodus is hated.
Please know that I am deeply sorry. I am sorry for the pain and
hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent
years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions
didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts
and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized
parents. I am sorry that there were times I didn’t stand up to people
publicly “on my side” who called you names like sodomite—or worse. I am
sorry that I, knowing some of you so well, failed to share publicly that
the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being
amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that when
I celebrated a person coming to Christ and surrendering their sexuality
to Him that I callously celebrated the end of relationships that broke
your heart. I am sorry that I have communicated that you and your
families are less than me and mine.
More than anything, I am sorry that so many have interpreted this religious
rejection by Christians as God’s rejection. I am profoundly sorry that
many have walked away from their faith and that some have chosen to end
their lives. For the rest of my life I will proclaim nothing but the
whole truth of the Gospel, one of grace, mercy and open invitation to
all to enter into an inseverable relationship with almighty God.
I cannot apologize for my deeply held biblical beliefs about the
boundaries I see in scripture surrounding sex, but I will exercise my
beliefs with great care and respect for those who do not share them. I
cannot apologize for my beliefs about marriage. But I do not have any
desire to fight you on your beliefs or the rights that you seek. My
beliefs about these things will never again interfere with God’s command
to love my neighbor as I love myself.
A Room of Ex-Gay Survivors Reacts to Alan Chambers' Apology
After Alan Chambers reads his apology (watch the full, uncut apology here) on behalf of the former "conversion" and "reparative" therapies that Exodus International ministries preached with him at it's helm, some ex-gay survivors are less than enthused. Watch as they question his message, his motives, and ask the ultimate question: where does his apology and announcement leave Exodus now?
To view a scrolling, historical timeline of events since the first Our America episode of "Pray the Gay Away?"
click here.
Exodus International's founder came out years ago and said that the organization did not work and refuted the claim that gays can be cured:
John Paulk Apologizes for Ex-Gay Gospel, Wife Ann Says She’ll Pray for Him
Tony Campolo, a prominent evangelical preacher and author had
this to say:
The ex-gay myth has crashed.
Fallen. Shattered. Exodus International president Alan Chambers
announced last night that Exodus is shutting down. Tonight in a
televised interview with Lisa Ling (OWN 10pmET), he will publicly
apologize to all who have been harmed by the organization. (See apology here)
The ex-gay house of cards has been
falling for some time. Over a decade ago, Focus on the Family’s Dr.
Dobson was advocating the use of so-called ex-gay ministries. Prior to
2000 Focus on the Family broadcasts featured their own John Paulk,
“the story of how one man overcame homosexuality.” In 2000, however,
when Paulk was spotted in a gay bar, he quickly disappeared from the
organization family.
A most interesting Focus on the
Family story you may have missed was in 1997, when Focus on the Family
co-founder Gil Alexander-Moegerle, having left the organization, wrote a
letter of apology for the organization’s stands on homosexuality and
women’s issues. (This story of course was not broadcast, and Dr. Dobson
certainly did not endorse it.) He could no longer keep silent. In his
words: “I apologize to lesbian and gay Americans who are demeaned and
dehumanized on a regular basis by the false, irresponsible, and
inflammatory rhetoric of James Dobson’s anti-gay radio and print
materials.”
Now to GCI's conference workshop.
The two men running it are Gary Deddo and Ted Johnston. Deddo is a Presbyterian minister, an adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary, and also in the employ of GCI's online "
seminary." Johnston is a WCG/GCI minister who embraced the changes and runs a blog called
The Surpising God, the blog that Gavin Rumney loves to hate.
A former WCG elder, Micah Royal, who resigned several years ago over the mistreatment he saw the COG was doing towards gay members has been very vocal in his criticism. He and his wife have been very critical of the WCG/GCI stance over the years, as well as the anti gay stance of various COG's.
He still seeks and honest dialogue with the Church over this issue:
I spoke with one of the organizers and they said they will
NOT present an alternative point of view to this paper this year, but
may later. When I stated that I viewed the paper is very misinformed on
the nature of sexual orientation, the organizer seemed shocked and said
they would be willing to hear my critique. I have put together a
critique to send them, and here it is.My hope and prayer right now is
not that Grace Communion International come to my stance on this issue
-- which is full inclusion of same-gender couples and recognizing the
equal place GLBT people have before God already -- but that they move to
the place most mainstream denominations are at: where intellectually
honest discussion goes on that include presentation of more than one
side on an issue. This is a standard approach for denominations both
that exclude and include same-gender couples in their life of faith,
including Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, various Episcopal/Anglican
denominations, Quakers, Anabaptists, and many others.
Deddo bases many of his arguments against gay Christians based upon trinitarian approaches to marriage. You can read more of Royal's critique here:
One Step Forward, Three Steps Back: Problems with Grace Communion International's Current Approach to Explore GLBT Issues
It remains to be seen what GCI's stance will ultimately be, but it most likely will be that God still rejects them as Children of God. While they won't hurl most of the insults and derogatory comments that so many "christian" ministries do, they will still present a stumbling block to it's gay and lesbian members.