Box Turtle Bulletin

What “Grace and Truth” Look Like in the Exodus Church Network

Exodus International is the umbrella organization for protestant ex-gay ministries. And one of Exodus’ latest emphases is its Exodus Church Network. This is an affiliation of churches of various denominations through which Exodus hopes to equip chuches to be a pivotal part of healing and restoration.

One, we hope to exhort the church at-large to stand confidently and boldly on the truth of scripture with regard to homosexuality. Two, we hope to equip churches to minister to the individuals within their own congregation who are struggling with unwanted homosexuality, as well as the family members of a gay loved one. And three, we hope to create a nationwide referral list of churches, including your church, for those who are searching for a church family that will walk alongside them in their journey.

Alan Chambers, the President of Exodus, often speaks of how churches need to become loving and welcoming of those “struggling with homosexuality”. But what does this loving welcome look like?

In the Exodus Church Network application package, Exodus emphasizes the importance of these churches in the life of the struggler.

Central to this redemption is Exodus\’ desire to unite and equip the Church to carry out this healing process. Exodus bridges the gap between Christians who respond to homosexual men and women with ignorance and fear, and those who uphold homosexuality as a valid, Christ-centered lifestyle. To Exodus, both extremes fail to convey to the homosexual the fullness of redemption found in Christ – He who embodies grace and truth, and invites us to partake of Him.

If would certainly appear, from this, that Exodus Churches do not respond with “ignorance and fear.” Rather, they convey “grace and truth.” But what does this grace and truth look like?

To get a sense of the ideal Exodus Church, perhaps we can look to Alan Chambers’ newest book, Leaving Homosexuality. In this book, Chambers again takes “the church” to task and implies what an Exodus Church does better.

In fact, if I had one thing to say to my fellow believers who are the body of Christ regarding how we have historically treated homosexuals it would be, “We were wrong in our attitudes and thus mishandled the situation.” In the name of Christ many people helped create the angry and bitter Pro-gay Movement because of their pride and arrogance and un-Christlike heart toward people in need. Let\’s wake up. Let\’s repent of our hostility and recommit to boldly loving sinners as Christ did…and does.

So an Exodus Church will not treat homosexuals as they historically have but would instead boldly love sinners as Christ did and does. But what does this bold love look like?

Perhaps we can look at the ideal Exodus Church, the one that Exodus so admires that the pastor has spoken at Exodus’ Freedom Conference, the church so in line with boldly loving grace and truth that Alan Chambers invited the pastor to write a recommendation published with his new book: Miles McPherson of The Rock Church in San Diego. Here’s what McPherson said about Chambers’ new book:

Alan’s stories will break your heart, convict your conscience, and hopefully inspire today’s church to reexamine its message on this complex issue.

But what does this reexamined message look like?

You may recall The Rock as being the home church of “opposite marriage” endorser Carrie Prejean. But The Rock and Miles McPherson are so much more: they are examples of what Exodus upholds as a glowing beacon of Christlike love for homosexuals as expressed in grace and truth.

So what does grace and truth looks like at The Rock?

Well, according to this article written by Miles McPherson and hosted on The Rock Church’s website:

God’s Word tells us differently and He provides us of the evidence that homosexuality is not natural or normal. There are physiological repercussions from homosexual behavior; male homosexuals are 430 times more likely to contract HIV than a heterosexual, while heterosexuals have a 1-in-750,000 chance of contracting the virus responsible for HIV, a male homosexual has a 1-in-165 chance of getting HIV. A 20 year old gay male has a 30% chance of either dying or contracting AIDS before the age of 30. They are also 23 times more likely to get other sexually transmitted diseases than a heterosexual.

There are also moral repercussions stemming from homosexual behavior as evidenced by the fact that one third of all sexual crimes against children are committed by homosexuals even though they are representative of only one percent of the population. Pedophilia has even been called central to the gay lifestyle. The agenda of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is to lower the age of consent so that sex with children will be legal.

Emotionally people suffer from homosexuality. Gays are five times more likely to commit suicide than a straight person. They are suffering depression because of God’s judgment and their alienation from Him. So God not only tells us what is right and wrong but that by continually doing what is wrong there will be consequences and this is all evident to us so we have no excuse in suppressing the truth.

and

The homosexual agenda is being pushed upon this nation, to the point where it may become illegal for pastors to preach against homosexuality from the pulpit, that is where even such preaching is deemed a crime. In some countries this is already the case.

and

It is clear among statistics that homosexual relationships are mainly about sex, this is attributed to the fact of the amount of sexual partners a homosexual person has a year, regardless of whether he is in a monogamous “marriage” relationship.

This is presented, of course, as justification for McPherson’s and The Rock Church’s political efforts to deny rights to gay and lesbian Californians. And, of course, as an example of The Rock’s “grace and truth.”

Have we heard all of this before? Yes, we have. And we have debunked it time and time again.

These are lies. They are not misstatements, they are not exagerations, they are not misunderstandings. They are deliberate and intentional demonizations of gay men and women with the express intent of horrifying the reader and firing them up to attack the civil rights and liberties of the segment of the population that McPherson despises.

Oh but wait, it gets better:

Recently in Pennsylvania, a woman was arrested and sentenced for 47 years in prison because she had the following bumper sticker: God loves homosexuals, but homosexuality is a sin. This is only one of the many current and shocking examples of Christian prosecution presented in today’s message.

WFT?? This is a new one even for me. And it’s a new one for Google as well. This appears to be a flat out fabrication, apparantly made up by Miles McPherson himself to scare his flock through ignorance and instill hatred and fear of gay people, precisely what Chambers claims to oppose.

This is evil.

This is what “grace and truth” looks like in the Exodus Church Network.