As 'Gay Conversion' Ministry Folds, Good Riddance

Up until this week, Exodus International was the biggest Christian ministry still trying to "cure" gay people though prayer and counseling. And then leader Alan Chambers apologized "for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced" and announced he was shutting the group down. (Read his full statement here.) It's about time, writes Jaime Bayo at the Advocate, who recalls being 12 years old and being made to feel like a sinner because of his homosexuality. It was only a few decades ago that being gay was considered a mental illness, he notes. My how things have changed, as a glance at the Supreme Court docket makes clear.

"I feel ever more confident that we are winning and that there will be a day in my lifetime when my doctor, my pastor, and my elected officials all agree that I am healthy," writes Bayo. Exodus, meanwhile, will "become only a sad part of our collective history." Maybe, but the Rev. Dan Vojir at OpEdNews isn't in a forgiving mood. "Just as tears from a Pope at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall did not exonerate 1,500 years of Christians persecuting Jews, one tearful message of a (now) ex ex-gay does nothing to eradicate the pain and loss caused by a movement to change the innate." Read his full column, or Bayo's full column. (More Exodus International stories.)