The other day we got to watch the documentary “Pray Away” (the Spanish language version) on Netflix. It is well worth viewing!👏 It’s a fantastic portrayal of the growth and subsequent dismantling of Exodus International, a pillar of the ex-gay movement. This Christian organisation was built around the premise that, with God’s help, homosexuality was “curable”. It promoted the idea of sexual reorientation, which came to be known as “conversion therapy”. The film explains how, after many years, the leaders themselves realised that it wasn’t working.👎 That, in reality, the whole movement was based on a fallacy, a lie. And that they were hurting a lot of people.😱 So in 2013 they made the brave decision to dissolve the organisation and apologise publicly.🙏
In my book (in Spanish) about the homosexuality debate in evangelical circles, I devote a whole (short) chapter to the dismantling of Exodus, because ☝️ it was a key element in my own rethinking of the whole issue of homosexuality.
For me it was highly revealing😯 that people with a lot of faith in God, committed to the gospel and the Bible, that believed in emotional healing and the power of prayer, had decided to throw in the towel and admit, in the words of their president, that in at least in 99.9% [1] of cases, sexual orientation could not be changed. That all the effort put into discipleship, support groups, retreats, spiritual practices, and so on, was tantamount to psychological torture😰 and was only creating frustration and depression.
I fully understand that many evangelical believers have a hard time accepting this.🤔 They have heard or read of Christians who claim that they have been able to abandon homosexuality. In my book I describe and analyse (very respectfully) a number of testimonies of this type [2]. But I have ended up giving much more weight to the conclusions of the leaders of Exodus.🤷🏻♂️ After all, they had worked for years on sexual reorientation, they knew hundreds of cases (apart from their own) and their decision to dissolve the organisation can’t have been easy.
☝️ But their commitment to Jesus also meant a commitment to the truth, something that we all need to keep in mind, as Jesus followers, in this and many other domains.
You can see more information about this documentary, and the official trailer, on the Netflix site and on YouTube here:
📌 If you’d like to comment on this post (in the language of your choice), you can do so at the end of the Spanish version, here.
Notes
[1] This percentage, given by the last president of Exodus, Alan Chambers, has been cited in various media and books. See, for example, this post by Warren Throckmorton, from January 2012: “Alan Chambers: 99.9% Have Not Experienced a Change in Their Orientation”, still accessible at: https://wthrockmorton.com/2012/01/09/alan-chambers-99-9-have-not-experienced-a-change-in-their-orientation/.
[2] Although I mention personal stories in various parts of my book, there are two chapters dedicated specifically to them. If I ever do an English version, these will probably be their headings: “6. Testimonies and what they can (and can’t) tell us” and “16. Testimonies that (apparently) run contrary to the scientific consensus”. In Spanish they are: “6. Los testimonios y el valor que tienen (y no tienen)” and “16. Testimonios que vienen a contradecir (al menos aparentemente) el consenso científico”.