Brad Grammer says he gets 120 calls a year from people asking for help in shaking their attraction to people of the same gender.As director of Hope and New Life Ministries, a small operation based in Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, he helps the callers find counselors or directs them to churches with support groups.
Grammer's work is part of a network of "ex-gay" ministries affiliated with Exodus International, a 30-year-old Christian organization built on the premise that gay and lesbian people can change their sexual orientation.
For one week this summer, Exodus will make Indiana Wesleyan University the hub of the ex-gay movement when it brings its 31st Annual Exodus Freedom Conference to the university's campus in Marion, Ind. The event is billed as the largest gathering of ex-gays anywhere in the world.
Exodus says the gathering, which starts June 27, will feature personal stories from people who consider themselves to be ex-gays.
"We are not trying to shove this on someone that is not ready," says Julie Neils, a spokeswoman for Exodus International, which is based in Orlando, Fla. "We are here to say that change is possible because we have evidence of that, with hundreds of thousands of ex-gays that have come out of homosexuality."
Leaders in the gay community are wary of Exodus and its claims. They question whether anyone can turn from an orientation they were born with.
And they say perpetuating the idea that change is possible makes family members and public policy-makers insensitive to the real needs of gays and lesbians.
"In my congregation, there are any number of people who had been part of the ex-gay movement," says the Rev. Jeff Miner, senior pastor at Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, an Indianapolis congregation that believes committed gay relationships are not contrary to the Bible. "The stories they tell me is that it was an excruciating time in their life when they were trying to be something they could never be."
from Lansing State Journal
No comments:
Post a Comment