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Last week, Alan Chambers was arrested in a sting operation for allegedly soliciting sex from what he thought was a 14-year-old boy, but instead was a police detective.
The current circumstances surrounding him are terrible and tragic, but his exposure should not be too much of a surprise given his belief system and the cost of permitting issues of the heart that lead to sexual sin to fester. Naturally, the mass media put a dizzying spin on things, blaming it on Chambers’ belief that Christians can walk out of homosexuality, forgetting that for the last 15 years they’ve been celebrating his “repentance” from that belief to teach that a lifestyle of sin is acceptable to God.
For those who don’t know, Chambers became the world’s favorite gay advocate when he shut down Exodus International North America (Exodus N.A.), as its president, in 2013. At the time, he denied the importance of repentance from sexual sin, which includes addressing the root issues that research shows lead to same-sex sexual sin. Chambers falsely claimed that Exodus, the world’s largest ministry serving those with unwanted same-sex attractions and behavior, had failed and harmed people. People took that at face value, which is completely understandable given his position of authority. But they didn’t see what those of us close to the situation saw.
But I know because I was there. Moreover, the full truth is worth highlighting because similar, spiritually truncated approaches continue to be used by current leaders, which never result in real transformation and holiness.
In 2011, Chambers changed his understanding of the Gospel and the importance of dealing with the underlying issues that lead to homosexual sin. At that time, he pulled me and Julie Rodgers (who later became famous for rejecting Christ and recently mutilated her breasts) aside and said, “It’s really important that I get your opinions because you’re the youngest leaders here. You’re the next generation.” Rodgers was all for it, but I was troubled and spent many hours writing a letter expressing my concerns with the theological and practical trajectory I saw unfolding. I would later verify some of the structural problems within the organization.
Though many factors contributed to the closure of the ministry, at the root, much of it boiled down to Chambers’ relationship with God and His Word. He embraced a doctrine called antinomianism, which denies that there are moral laws that Christians must obey. He wound up saying, “The thing that changed the most for us was … that someone changing their behavior or changing their beliefs or changing their sexuality or any of those things wasn’t going to make them more pleasing to God … and I think that’s the root of the evil, if I can call it that, for Exodus…” Alan’s pastor, Clark Whitten, who became the final head of Exodus N.A.’s board, teaches that this is “pure grace”.
But this is a different “grace” than what God truly offers. God’s grace is the power to live beyond sin, not to abide in it. The New Testament writers did not fail to address this issue, especially as they responded to early aspects of a religious and philosophical belief called Gnosticism, in which the soul is seen as good and pure, but the body is morally free to behave as one chooses. Paul the Apostle declares in Romans 6:12: “We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
Antinomian “grace” replaces the true grace of divine empowerment to live a life beyond sin with a license to sin. This distorted belief has real-life consequences.
The other critical change that Alan started making years before Exodus N.A. shut down was to remove any recommended resources that identified and suggested informed care techniques for the root issues that can lead to homosexuality. But what are you doing if not addressing root issues? These are things like childhood same-sex love deficits, wounds from abuse, specific lies, vows, unforgiveness, sinful childhood defenses, detachment from a same-sex parent, fear, shame, guilt, and codependency, among others. These are among the consistent patterns as to how people end up struggling with these issues that illuminate specific strategies to target unique spiritual strongholds.
Without those insights and strategies for root issues, all Exodus N.A. was left with was “pray-the-gay-away” emptiness. Exodus N.A. thus had no purpose to continue existing.
The truth is that those of us in this kind of ministry know of repentant homosexuals who revert to their former lives of same-sex sexuality. But that’s the same for any life-controlling sin issue. Recovery ministry recipients fall into three groups: 1. those who resolve root issues enough and find restoration, 2. those who go back and deteriorate further, and 3. those who’ve found tools to be stable without getting worse (which is still a victory because of how life-controlling sin issues otherwise tend to go). Especially regarding redemptive ministries for those facing same-sex attractions, secular media immediately jumps to the conclusion “so-and-so went back, so ministry doesn’t help anybody,” or is even deemed abusive. But that’s a fallacy.
The critical problem we must address in the Church today is that many prominent voices are still deceiving people into ignoring root issues.
To name just two of them, author Preston Sprinkle and Pastor Bill Henson have supported a half-life for repentant homosexuals that covers up root issues. Henson even had a “they/them” identified person as his “gender expert” for his ministry — a woman who dresses very masculine. Sprinkle also points to her as a church expert on transgender matters. This is not helpful as people are left drowning in unmet needs. Freedom and wholeness are lost.
Some other highly influential Christian teachers subscribe to what some call “stop it!” theology, which leaves “resistance” as the primary tool for addressing sexuality struggles. Celibacy becomes an excuse for not resolving underlying issues. (Marriage is not the solution either, by the way.) Many people end up giving in to “do it!” theology when resistance alone keeps them perpetually trying to keep their heads above water. “Do it!” theology says, as Alan did a decade ago, God is “cool with” gay “marriage.” They tried to contain the outgrowth of root issues in their own power without the tools to proactively face and surrender roots to the lordship of Christ.
Meanwhile, redemptive ministries that bring Jesus and His wisdom to address root strongholds continue to transform lives and set captives free, among them, Restored Hope Network, Desert Stream Ministries, Exodus Latinoamérica, Joe Dallas, Changed Movement, Joseph Nicolosi Jr., and Greenfield Ministries. They provide wisdom to live out what Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
We owe it to the many who want help with same-sex attractions to offer proper insights about root issues and practical solutions, that we might be conduits of redemption. “Stop it!” and “Do it!” theology leaves people crying out for new life. But nothing is too difficult for wise King Jesus.
