If I had to put words in his mouth, I’d put John’s new attitude at, “God loves you. I believe that your behavior is sinful and that God would like you to change your behavior, but even if you don’t, I’m convinced that He still loves you and forgives you. And I’ll not judge you.”~~~

Oh please. If he really felt sorry, he’d be actively speaking out against the psychotic religious camp he worked for, not writing half-assed apologies. He’s still a sexually repressed, pathetic excuse for a human being who has caused direct and indirect harm to countless people through his actions.

“Then God comes along and He says, ‘You’re right, John, [that yellow wall] is blue.’ ”

Dissecting it, John acknowledges, and God acknowledges, that the wall really is yellow, not blue, but in John’s vision, God lies to him, telling him what he wants to hear, rather than what is true.

I think we are seeing here just how imperfect and anthropomorphized the fundamentalist take on God is –

“That’s the help I need.” Here John admits that he needs, or needed, for God to lie to him about reality, to tell him that the world really does conform to his whims, even though it does not. It is about using God to bend reality to their will, even when that makes God a liar, rather than surrendering their will to God.

It doesn’t get any better when they backpedal and say, “Well, I didn’t really mean to compare your monogamous relationship of twenty years to pedophilia…”

To what, then? Securities fraud?

Martin, AJD, Andrew, all of the things you all said.

I think we in the US are a little bit too trigger happy with our obsession with redemption stories. Skepticism is always in order, especially with characters like this.

This. I’m glad that he’s owned up to his past dishonesty, but my opinion of him will be influenced far more by how he behaves toward others in the future.

I’d rather reserve my respect for myself and those in the GLBT community who have the guts to be who they are and support our people than waste it on a self-hating, wannabe heterosexual like John Smid.

Apologies, even long ones delivered in writing, aren’t enough. If he wants forgiveness, then his apology needs to be coupled with a promise that he will not, in any way, work against the interests of the GLBT community ever again. If he promises to keep his religious beliefs about homosexuality to himself and not to support any anti-gay political cause or oppose any pro-gay ones, then he’ll have my forgiveness. I respond to “I’m sorry” when someone steps on my foot, not when he has dedicated his life to destroying the lives of others but made little indication that he plans to substantially repair the damage he’s done.

“Thanks for hurting me a little less” doesn’t cut it where I come from. I’d take him off a short list of people who should be publicly villified and consider moving him to people who should be shunned and ignored, but I’m not inclined to embrace the man while he continues to hold fast to beliefs that call me a sinner and evil, or calls my 10 year relationship a sin and evil.

Folks, it’s called self-respect. Find some.

No repentance is perfect or will satisfy everyone. After 30+ years of apologizing, I am still sometimes told by some gay activists that it’s not enough and never will be enough.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. If only Frank Worthen, Alan Chambers, Randy Thomas and the rest of Exodus leadership — past and present — would take such a step. I know this journey personally. It’s not an easy one or one that comes without cost.

But after all the wrong done, it is simply the right thing — the “Christian: thing — to do. Could he do more? Should be do more? Of course. But this is a very important step. I believe God will take him the rest of the way.