| Type | Nonprofit |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1976 |
| Founder(s) | Michael Bussee Gary Cooper Frank Worthen Ron Dennis Greg Reid |
| Headquarters | Orlando, Florida, USA |
| Website | exodus.to |
Exodus International is a non-profit, interdenominational ex-gay Christian organization founded by Michael Bussee, Gary Cooper, Frank Worthen, Ron Dennis, and Greg Reid. Exodus International promotes "the message of Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."[1] Exodus International states reorientation of same-sex attraction is possible,[2] but warns its members not to go to counselors who claim they can help eliminate all attractions to the same gender.[3] It does not conduct clinical treatment but holds the position that, "reparative therapy - a holistic, counselling approach to addressing unwanted same-sex attraction - can be a beneficial tool."[4] Techniques can include abstinence, lessening of homosexual temptations, strengthening their sense of masculine or feminine identity, correcting distorted styles of relating with members of the same and opposite gender."[5]
Founded in 1976, Exodus is an umbrella organization which has grown to include over 120 local ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries in 17 other countries.[6] Although Exodus is formally an interdenominational Christian entity, it is most closely associated with Protestant and evangelical denominations. The group also has monthly newsletters, annual conferences, speaking engagements and web services. Alan Chambers is the current president of Exodus.
The Exodus Global Alliance formed out of Exodus International in 2004.
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In 1973, Frank Worthen began a ministry called Love in Action, which ministered to homosexuals. A conference of various ministries to homosexuals was held in 1976 in the United States during which the ministries (including Love in Action) decided to form a coalition that called itself Exodus International North America. The conference became an annual event when it convened for the second time in 1977.
The conference continued until 1979, when many officials of Exodus North America left the organization due to internal divisions. In 1980, the Exodus North America Conference experienced a rebirth with new leadership and a renewed sense of vision. Between 1981 and 1984, the views of Frank Worthen began to influence people outside of the United States through interviews and a book written by Kent Philpott called The Third Sex?[7] Exodus International attracted the attention of Johan van de Sluis, who attended the 1981 conference and subsequently created Exodus Europe in coalition with Exodus North America. Exodus Europe held their first conference in 1982 in the Netherlands. Conferences were held annually, each year in a new country. Ministries to homosexuals also arose in Australia and New Zealand under Peter Lane; Brazil under Esly Carvalho; and Europe under Johan van de Sluis. Alan Medinger became the Director for Exodus North America. Medinger founded a ministry for homosexuals and pornography addicts called Regeneration. His position as Director of Exodus North America was filled in 1985 by Bob Davies.
In 1990, Worthen traveled throughout the Philippines, and sent Sy Rogers of Exodus North America to Singapore. During his stay in Singapore, Rogers traveled extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand and South America building vision for a worldwide ministry.
In 1994, Exodus Latin America was created under Esly Carvalho. In 1995 it was decided that the Exodus groups should converge under a single name, Exodus International. The Exodus leaders held a Summit in San Diego, California and formed the Exodus International Advisory Council which merged the various Exodus ministries to create a stronger, more focused Exodus International ministry. Ministries to those with homosexual inclinations were represented from many countries.
Exodus South Pacific (Australia, New Zealand) was represented by Peter Lane and Debbie Hirsch. Exodus Europe was represented by Johan Van de Sluis and Jeremy Marks. Exodus Latin America was represented by Esly Carvalho and Affonso Zuin. Exodus North America was represented by Frank Worthen, Pat Lawrence, and Bob Davies. Exodus World-Wide was represented by Sy Rogers. Asian ministries to homosexuals were represented by Samuel Lee and Rene Gomez.
The founding Exodus Advisory Council included Frank Worthen, Sy Rogers, Bob Davies and Pat Lawrence as representatives of Exodus North America (Lawrence was selected as the International Coordinator), Peter Lane as a representative of Exodus South Pacific, Jeremy Marks as a representative of Exodus Europe, and Esly Carvalho as a representative of Exodus Latin America.
Between 1996 and 1999, ministries expanded throughout the South Pacific. In 1997 the Exodus Advisory Council became the Exodus International Board and restructured itself to include two representatives from each region. Exodus South Pacific changed their name to Exodus Asia Pacific and established ministries in Singapore and the Philippines, where Worthen and Rogers had previously ministered. The first conference was held in Brisbane, Australia in 1999.
In 2002 Exodus Brazil was created apart from Exodus Latin America. Exodus Brazil was headed by Willy Torresin de Oliveria. A homosexual man himself, he had attended a conference as a translator in 1989 without even knowing the nature of the group. 2002 also saw Oscar Galindo as the new director for Exodus Latin America. Under the leadership of Peter Lane, Exodus International saw growth in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia in 2003.
From 2003 to 2007 Exodus International was a (founding) member of Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality.
In 2004, Exodus International renamed themselves Exodus Global Alliance. The first Leadership Summit was held in 2005 and later that year an International Conference was held to discuss ex-gay ministries growing in Africa, Asia, China, Europe, India and Latin America.
In 2006, Exodus began ministries in Caribbean countries such as Barbados and Jamaica as well as Latin American nations such as Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Venezuela.
2007 saw the formation of the Exodus Youth Network.
On October 6, 2010, it was reported by CNN and Ex-Gay Watch that Exodus International would not support the 2011 annual Day of Truth (a counter protest to the LGBT community's Day of Silence) originated by the Alliance Defense Fund, as the organization had done in 2010. President Alan Chambers was quoted as saying "All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they'd like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not."[8][9]
Focus on the Family reaches out to persons with homosexual desires in cooperation with Exodus International through the Love Won Out Conference.[10] Love Won Out maintains that "[t]he sin of homosexual behavior, like all sins, can be forgiven and healed by the grace revealed in the life and death of Christ. All sexual sin affects the human personality like no other sin, for sexual issues run deep into our character, and change is slow and uphill-but is possible nonetheless."[11] Exodus International aims to facilitate that change in accordance with the Love Won Out Conference.
Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian group. The non-profit organization was founded in 1977 by Dr. James Dobson and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the last decade. A major component of the American Christian right, it is active in promoting interdenominational work for a socially conservative public policy.[12]
Professors Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse teamed as authors to answer the questions "Can persons who participate in focused religious ministries experience a change in their sexual orientation?" and "Is it harmful for anyone to participate in such programs?" amongst various persons ‘seeking change’ while involved with Exodus ministries over a three-year period of time. They published their results in “Ex-Gays?”: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change In Sexual Orientation”.[13] They found, from a sample of 73 participants (98 before dropouts):
They found "no evidence that the type of attempt to change sexual orientation studied here is harmful."
Schaeffer et al. surveyed 140 members of Exodus. After a year, 29% said they had changed their orientation, and another 65% said they were in the process of changing. Participants were considered behaviorally successful if they had abstained from any type of physical homosexual contact in the past year. Success was associated with strong religious motivation and positive mental health. Change was positively associated with religious motivation and emotional well-being.[14]
Research by Ponticelli on 15 ex-lesbian women found that Exodus helped them change their lesbian identities through a combination of a new and compelling schema concerning sexuality, reinterpretation of one's past according to that schema, and social support.[15]
Most of Exodus' leadership have successfully avoided controversy regarding their sexual identity for decades. Scandals now are less frequent. However, there have been incidents of note amongst the founders and a leader of the organization.[16]
Michael Bussee, one of the founders of Exodus and Gary Cooper, a leader within the ministry of Exodus, left the group to be with each other in 1979.[17] In time, they divorced their wives and participated in a commitment ceremony in 1982, exchanging rings and vows. Bussee and Cooper lived together until Cooper's death from AIDS-related illness in 1991.[18] Their story is one of the foci of the documentary One Nation Under God (1993), directed by Teodoro Maniaci and Francine Rzeznik.
In the documentary, Bussee and Cooper present themselves as "two of the original co-founders of Exodus." In an article regarding the history of Exodus International, Dr. Warren Throckmorton questioned whether Cooper should be considered a founder.[19] However, Exodus International president Alan Chambers counts both Bussee and Cooper as "founders" in a September 2006 newsletter article.[18]
As acknowledged by Exodus International in 2006, Michael Bussee "has been a longtime critic of Exodus and its leadership."[18] In June 2007, Bussee issued an apology for his involvement in promoting orientation change through Exodus. Also apologizing were Jeremy Marks, former president of Exodus International Europe, and Darlene Bogle, the founder of Paraklete Ministries, an Exodus referral agency. The apology stated in part "Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families."[20] In April 2010, Bussee stated, "I never saw one of our members or other Exodus leaders or other Exodus members become heterosexual, so deep down I knew that it wasn’t true."[21]
John Paulk, a well-known United States "ex-gay" public figure and Chairman of Exodus International, was removed by Exodus International Board of Directors vote on October 3, 2000, following confirmation of his "engaging in behavior which has negatively impacted the credibility of Exodus." [22]
Paulk, a self-described former "drag queen and homosexual prostitute", became active in Focus on the Family, was manager of Focus on the Family's Homosexuality and Gender Division.,[23] and was the elected Chairman of the board of Exodus International North America in August 1995 for a first three-year term. Paulk was re-elected for a second three-year term in 1998 (the incident occurred during the second three-year term).[24]
On September 19, 2000 while on a speaking tour, Paulk was identified drinking and flirting at Mr. P's, a Washington, D.C. gay bar, giving his name as "John Clint," one he had used in his days as a hustler in Ohio. A patron recognized him and contacted Wayne Besen, an employee of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay political action organization. When Besen arrived at the bar forty minutes later and confronted "John Clint", he denied that he was in fact John Paulk. Upon exiting the bar, Paulk's picture was taken as documentation that he had been in the bar. When confronted by Besen about the incident and the photographs, Paulk admitted being in the bar, but stated that he didn’t know it was a gay bar and had simply stopped in for a moment to use the restroom. However, eyewitnesses reported that Paulk stayed for more than an hour, flirted with other men, and when questioned about his sexuality, said he was gay.[25][26]
An Exodus press release soon followed:
"John's actions represent a serious lapse in sound judgment. His decision to enter a gay establishment for any reason opens him up to all kinds of speculation by both other Exodus leaders and also the gay community." [24]
On March 2, 2006, Liberty Counsel, a law firm acting on behalf of Exodus International, sent cease-and-desist letters[27][28] to Justin Watt, who blogs at Justinsomnia, and Mike Airhart, who blogs at Ex-Gay Watch. The letters "insist[ed]" that Watt and Airhart "immediately cease use" of an edited photograph on their respective blogs "or in any other form" which parodied an Exodus billboard. The original billboard image, obtained from Exodus's website, consisted of the message "Gay? Unhappy? www.exodus.to" while the parody image, created by Watt in September 2005, showed the same sign, substantially cropped, with the text altered to read "Straight? Unhappy? www.gay.com."
The following excerpt from Watt's cease-and-desist letter details Exodus's rationale for the request. The letter mentions Wikipedia because Watt had cited the Wikipedia entry on fair use in posting his parody.
"You appear to believe that the stolen image is exempt from federal intellectual property laws as a 'parody' due to 'fair use.' Unfortunately, the intricacies of federal law cannot adequately be covered on 'Wikipedia' due to the variety of facts addressed by courts in numerous cases. Your use of the image is indeed a violation of copyright law and is not covered by 'fair use.'"
In response, Watt contacted the ACLU, who took his defense and responded to the cease-and-desist letter[29] in partnership with the law firm of Fenwick & West LLP. According to reports in The New York Times[30] and USA Today,[31] Exodus decided against pursuing further legal action once the Exodus logo was removed from the parody.
Exodus International released an iPhone app "designed to be a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders." Exodus said the app receives "a 4+ rating from Apple (applications in this category contain no objectionable material) ..."[32] Truth Wins Out, in its online petition, counters, "No objectionable content? We beg to differ. Exodus' message is hateful and bigoted." The app was removed from the iTunes store on March 23, 2011 after they collected 151,000 signatures.[33] Michael Jones of Change.org has stated that the petition will stay up and collecting more signatures until there is a press release from Apple on the application or its removal.[34]
An outspoken critic of the app was Gary Remafedi, who says his research was manipulated by Exodus for this application. He stated that he "wrote to Apple founder Steve Jobs and interim CEO Tim Cook letting them know that Exodus International's "ex-gay" app flies in the face of science, and violates the ethical codes and positions of virtually every major medical and mental health organization."[35]
A counter petition was setup on Change.org to keep the app.[36][37] On March 24, 2011, a statement was released from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr stating: "We removed the Exodus International app from the App Store because it violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people."[38]
As of March 25, 2011, Truth Wins Out is still continuing the petition for an unannounced reason and has amassed 155,000 signatures.[39]