Liar du Jour

Why, it's none other than Tony Perkins, calling for prayers to defeat California's AB 2943, which would class offering sexual-orientation change therapy for money as consumer fraud. The preamble to the "prayer" is classic Perkins:

California AB2943 Counseling BAN Vote Expected Tomorrow — Believers are rallying in California to prevent the criminalization of counseling, speech, books, advertising, and every kind of therapy to help people who seek to overcome unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, rebuked Colorado Human Rights Commission officials for contending “that religious beliefs cannot legitimately be carried into the public sphere or commercial domain.”

1: No, the bill does not do what he says. It's very clear that offering SOCE for money is consumer fraud. Here's the text of the bill. From the Legislative Counsel's Digest:

This bill would include, as an unlawful practice prohibited under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act, advertising, offering for sale, or selling services constituting sexual orientation change efforts, as defined, to an individual.

2: The Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, based on a really fanciful reading of comments by members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, is irrelevant. And that's not what the Court said to begin with.

3: At least one court has already found that offering such "therapy" for money is consumer fraud, in Ferguson vs. JONAH. It's a very interesting article (at least for legal geeks), but here's a summary of the decision (citations removed):

On June 25, 2015, after a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for only three hours before returning a unanimous verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. After the ruling, one juror told Equality Case Files that the JONAH program was not therapy and the decision was “cut and dried.” In addition to this first-in-the-nation verdict, a pretrial ruling by the Court declared for the first time in American history that homosexuality was not a mental disease, disorder, or equivalent thereof as a matter of law. David Dinielli, SPLC deputy legal director said, "this verdict is a monumental moment in the movement to ensure the rights and acceptance of LGBT people in America...Conversion therapy and homophobia are based on the same central lie — that gay people are broken and need to be fixed. Conversion therapists, including the defendants in this case, sell fake cures that don’t work but can seriously harm the unsuspecting people who fall into this trap. We’re proud of our clients, who survived these so-called treatments and had the courage to call to account the people who defrauded them with their false promises.”

Let's hope this trend continues.

Exodus To Shut Down

Exodus International, the largest "ex-gay" ministry in the world, is closing down.

Exodus International, the oldest and largest Christian ministry dealing with faith and homosexuality announced tonight that it’s closing its doors after three-plus decades of ministry. The Board of Directors reached a decision after a year of dialogue and prayer about the organization’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 judgment by the organization and the Christian Church as a whole.

“Exodus is an institution in the conservative Christian world, but we’ve ceased to be a living, breathing organism,” said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus. “For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.”

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin, who attended this year's Exodus conference, live-blogged the session in which Chambers made the announcement.

First, I want to express my admiration for the courage Chambers has displayed in not only realizing he's wrong, but admitting it publicly, and even more, his part in disbanding the organization that did so much damage. I do take exception to Tony Moore's statement about "the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people." I haven't seen any positive effects, unless you consider teaching people to consider themselves damaged and inferior to be positive. I don't. If it's a matter of bringing your basic make-up into conformity with your religious beliefs, I have one reaction to that: religion is a choice; sexual orientation is not.

This all goes back to one of the things that I find most objectionable about Christianity as it has developed over the course of the centuries. It stems from the old Judaic idea of submission to God's will (something you find as well in Islam). Submission is not really part of my repertoire. I mean, one can recognize the realities of the universe and realize that there are things you can't do anything about -- like tornadoes and earthquakes. But the idea that someone else should be making my choices is one I find thoroughly repellent. (There's a line in, of all things, Gensomaden Saiyuki, that reflects this, when Sanjo says words to the effect that "Who your enemies are is not something someone else should be deciding for you.") And yet, that is the basis of Christianity -- someone else is making your decisions.

At any rate, before this turns into a ramble, I just want to note that the remains of Exodus apparently intends to move the office furniture to new digs and set up under a new name, with, one hopes, a new mission. Via Chris Geidner:

“Exodus is an institution in the conservative Christian world, but we’ve ceased to be a living, breathing organism,” said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus. “For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.” …

For these reasons, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to close Exodus International and begin a separate ministry. “This is a new season of ministry, to a new generation,” said Chambers. “Our goals are to reduce fear (reducefear.org), and come alongside churches to become safe, welcoming, and mutually transforming communities.”

I'm reserving judgment until I see what shape this new ministry takes. If it's still in the camp of evangelical Christianity, it's going to take some serious remodeling to make me believe it.

I may come back to this as I run across more.

Update: Here's an OpEd by an ex-gay survivor, one of those who confronted Alan Chambers on Lisa Ling's segment on "Our America" on "Gays and God," which airs tonight.