Exodus’ Alan Chambers Wrote a Book About How He’ll Never Really Be Straight

As the president of Exodus International, Alan Chambers is the most repressed homosexual we’ve ever come across. (That is, unless we can confirm one of those Vatican fellas is in the closet.) Which makes him perfectly suited to write, unconvincingly, about the subject of how he learned to reject his same-sex attractions over twenty years. Which sounds like the worst use of time spent on earth, well, ever.

Chambers’ new book is Leaving Homosexuality, a feel good book about learning to hate yourself and reject nature. But what we can appreciate from Chambers is he’s not claiming himself to be a heterosexual — just a devout non-gay. He tells Citizen Link:

The key thought here is the opposite of homosexuality isn’t heterosexuality. It’s holiness. There are people who are conflicted with their sexuality, involved with homosexuality, and there is a way out for those who want it. But it doesn’t say that they’re going into heterosexuality, because that’s not the point. The point is that people can leave whatever it is that God calls less than His best and move into something that is His best, becoming more like He is.

[…] For so long I’ve heard gay activists say to me, “You’re just in denial. You’re not grasping the reality of the situation. You’re just denying who you really are.” The truth is, I am in denial, but it is self-denial. I’m not in denial of who I used to be. I’m not in denial of the temptations that I could still experience. I am denying the power that sin has over me.

Sin does not have any power that we don’t give it, and what I’ve found is that my freedom – and the freedom of others I’ve known who’ve left homosexuality — was centered around denying what might come naturally to us regardless of how it got there. And once you deny sin’s power, you can live a free life.

The most authentic part of my life is first and foremost my relationship with Christ, but sitting here where I’m doing this interview in my back yard — with my kids and with my wife — this is who I am. This is who I want to be. This is the truth of my life. This is who I was created to be. And this is what brings me happiness.

Bless the woman (Leslie) who married him, in sickness and, uh, mental “health.”

But here’s the rub: It’s not that we’ve got anything wrong with Chambers decision to deny himself the pleasure of being gay. That’s his call, and however ridiculous we find it, it’s a personal decision we wouldn’t want anyone telling us we don’t have the right to make.

Where we fault Chambers, though, is through his work with Exodus: Advocating adults and young people (and their families) disavow the way their creator made them for a life of hating yourself so a man on a cross won’t send you to hell. This man does not teach love and prosperity; he prescribes dangerous advice for malleable minds.