Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 8th, 2006
With the rapidly falling dollar, economists point to the silver lining that American-made goods are cheaper on the world markets, and that this should spur American exports. But there is one export that is faltering in the world market of ideas. The American ex-gay ministry Exodus, which claims to offer “freedom from homosexuality” is having trouble gaining a foothold in Europe.
Ex-Gay Watch reports that Exodus of Europe has decided to part ways from Global Exodus. The Swedish Ex-gay ministry Medvandrarna placed this notice on their website (translation from an Ex-Gay Watch reader and confirmed by Swedish reporter Tor Billgren):
Exodus Europe has been something of a sad series of events in the newsletter of the Medvandrarna ministry over the years. The latest developments is that since the Exodus conference in Northern Ireland in the summer of 2005 the work of the elected board [of Exodus Europe] has come to almost a complete breakdown, and a lot of the reasons for that is disparate views on how the relations to the Exodus Global Alliance (EGA) are supposed to look like. The board of the Medvandrarna ministry has, together with many of the other member organizations, for long held the opinion that Exodus has been too much affected by non-functioning structures and American thinking. After a great deal of discussion we were called to a yearly meeting in Denmark the 25-27th of April. The turnout was great, with all the member organizations represented. We elected a partly new board of directors we decided also to cancel our membership in the Exodus Global Alliance. The board of directors has been assigned with the task of developing new bylaws and visions and also coming up with a new name for Exodus Europe.”
The complaint that “Exodus has been too much affected by… American thinking” appears to refer to the stridently anti-gay political rhetoric that Exodus insists on espousing. Rather than simply confining their efforts to helping those who want to conform their behavior with their religious values as Exodus often claims their goals are, Exodus insists on spreading a broad range of stridently anti-gay propaganda and distortions.
Tor Billgren, a journalist and author of the Swedish blog Antigayretorik, described the Medvandrarna ministry to me in an e-mail this way:
Medvandrarna is an organization for people who “struggle with their [homo]sexuality”. The word means something like “The go together-goers”. The chairman Erik Johansson is a priest who identifies himself as a man with homosexual feelings, and therefore he lives in celibacy. He opposes the “homosexual agenda” and encourages people to sign a big anti-gay-marriage petition.
However, he seems to be a nice guy. He realizes and accepts that there are other valid views on the topic of Christianity and homosexuality. On the site he links to EKHO, a Swedish homo-Christian organisation, which believes that homosexual love (and thus love acts) are OK in the eyes of God. He also links to my blog, which deals with anti-gay activism.
Maybe Medvandrarna and other formerly Global Exodus-affiliated groups, in time, will evolve in ways similar to the UK-based Courage (not to be confused with the American Catholic ex-gay organization of the same name). UK Courage started out as an American-style ex-gay group, but they have since evolved into an ex-ex-gay group, “stepping out of ex-gay ministries in faith”. They now proclaim:
We do not see a gay Christian as someone compromised in any way. We do not believe that gay Christians are sub-standard, sick, or second-class. Our fellowship is a place where God is at work amongst us – where we are secure in the love of God, centred in Christ and led by the Holy Spirit…
Moreover, the gay Christian is uniquely well placed to bring the light of Christ to the gay secular world, witnessing to Jesus’ message of hope for all gay men and women who are searching for true and lasting fulfilment in relationships.
We can only hope that other European ex-gay movements will recognize that ongoing vilification is a serious stumbling block for millions of gays and lesbians around the world. And we can only hope that this realization someday dawns on Exodus and NARTH here at home.
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