Exodus International leader Alan Chambers Exodus International is closing its doors after three decades of trying to turn gay people straight, a move which comes after an apology to the gay community for ‘years of undue judgement’. The Board of Directors says it has reached the decision after “a year of dialogue and prayer about the organisation’s place in a changing culture”. “We’re not negating the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people, but a new generation of Christians is looking for change – and they want to be heard,” Tony Moore, Board member of Exodus. The message came less than a day after Exodus released a statement apologizing to the gay community for years of undue judgement by the organization and the Christian Church as a whole. “It is strange to be someone who has both been hurt by the church’s treatment of the LGBT community, and also to be someone who must apologise for being part of the very system of ignorance that perpetuated that hurt. Today it is as if I’ve just woken up to a greater sense of how painful it is to be a sinner in the hands of an angry church,” leader Alan Chambers says in the lengthy apology. Exodus has decided to close and begin a separate ministry, called Reduce Fear, which it says will be about working alongside churches to become safe, welcoming, and mutually transforming communities.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 21st June 2013 - 9:08am