Going Out of Business

Exodus, International, an organization (at least originally) dedicated to helping homosexuals who have come to Christ and concur with the Bible that it is a sin wish to get free from that sin, is going out of business. They announced on June 19 that "the Board of Directors unanimously voted to close Exodus International and begin a separate ministry." Why? "For quite some time we've been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical," Alan Chambers, President of Exodus, said. "God is calling us to be the Father – to welcome everyone, to love unhindered."

I have several problems with this (shock of shocks, eh?). First, how does one conclude that the Father "welcomes everyone"? I specifically recall Jesus saying with boldness, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matt 7:23). Doesn't sound like an all-encompassing welcome to me. Instead, Jesus warned about "the sons of the kingdom" who would be cast into outer darkness for failing to believe (Matt 8:11-12).

And, of course, I have a problem with the claim that it is "neither honoring toward our fellow human beings nor biblical" to assist people to turn from their sin. Again, it was Jesus who told the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11). It was Jesus who preached repentance (Matt 4:17; Luke 13:1-9). And it was James who said that faith without works was dead faith, not saving faith (James 2:17). Paul said that it was important to expose the deeds of darkness (Eph 5:11) and to restore a brother caught in sin (Gal 6:1). He told Timothy to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (2 Tim 4:2). Trying to fit "be all-encompassing" and "neither honoring toward our fellow human beings nor biblical" into these biblical passages doesn't work very well.

Having said all this, I'm not at all sure about Exodus, International in the first place. The aim appeared to be to assist changing men with sexual desires for other men into men with sexual desires for women. Somehow that doesn't work for me at all, and in a number of ways. First, there is the suggestion that if we could just straighten out their lust (I used "straighten" as a pun, if you caught it), they'd be much better off. But Jesus didn't think that lusting after a woman was anything less than adultery (Matt 5:27-28). And Paul tells us that sexual sin is the first result of exchanging Creation for Creator (Rom 1:22-27). On that score, the first step is a surrender to "the lusts of their hearts" and the result of a continued surrender to lust is "degrading passions". So the remedy for "degrading passions" isn't a substitution of lusts, but a substitution of God for Creation as god. The Bible never offers "reparative therapy" instructions because it isn't in the plan. Instead, here's God's plan for fixing this problem: "Flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart" (2 Tim 2:22). "Yeah, yeah," we say, "we see that whole 'flee from youthful lusts' thing. Good. So we should work hard on fleeing, right?" No. We should pursue something else. We should be not be spending our time running from sin, but running toward righteousness, faith, love and peace. We should be pursuing these with others "who call on the Lord from a pure heart".

I'm not deeply disappointed that Exodus, International is closing its doors. An organization dedicated to changing homosexual desires to heterosexual desires seems to me to have missed the point. Further, an organization that classifies Jesus as "neither honoring toward our fellow human beings nor biblical" is probably not a good organization to encourage or support. I mean, if you're going to eject Scripture, on what basis then would you have anything to say on the subject? I do wish there was an organization that would dedicate itself to turning the hearts of men from the world and from lust and from self to Christ, but I think that one is called "the Church" and the President is none other than Christ Himself, so we'll have none of that "neither honoring toward our fellow human beings nor biblical" nonsense from Him. Nor will He go out of business.