Orlando Ministry Says It Helps Heal 'Unwanted Homosexuality'

Wait a minute! The homosexuals are teaching our kids that being homosexual is as normal as being right handed or left handed. They say it's a genetic trait that cannot be changed. So how is it possible that people are able to leave homosexuality?
Could it be that homosexuals are not telling you and your kids the whole story? (Yes).
Could it be that it is a lifestyle choice (a dangerous choice at that) ? (Yes).
Maybe it would be good to get all the facts? (Yes).

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Matthew Walker was always teased as a kid for being small, awkward and different. He felt different, too, but wasn't sure exactly why.
He must've been about 7 or 8 years old when he pointed toward a bouncer at a country music festival in Branson, Mo., telling his brother something like, "You know, if I was a girl I would date him."
By the time he got to Oklahoma State University, Walker was dating guys. But now, at age 34, he has been out of homosexuality for more than seven years.
He's one of thousands of former homosexuals who enlisted the help of an Orlando-based Christian group called Exodus International, an organization with 135 member ministries in the United States that works to "heal" gays and lesbians through prayer, counseling and group therapy.
The ministry is at the forefront of an increasingly high-profile "ex-gay" movement that claims it's possible to leave homosexuality behind, and estimates it has successfully treated tens of thousands of people since it began three decades ago in San Francisco.
It has also drawn sharp criticism from gay rights advocates who say it's not any more possible to change a person's sexuality than it is their ethnicity - and trying to "treat" homosexuality can cause alienation, depression or worse.
"It promotes treatment for people who do not need to be treated, promotes idea that homosexuality is a mental illness," said Roberta Sklar, spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It promotes things that are very deleterious to families - the idea you should be scrutinizing your 5-year-old to catch them before their sexual orientation is marred."
Walker always knew homosexuality didn't cohere with his devout Christian upbringing, but says he did it to fill a void in his life for male attention. He did it because his father paid more attention to his brother and because he always felt more comfortable around girls.
He lived a gay life for nine years before he saw his world falling apart.
He was $25,000 in debt, his mother was sick and he returned to Oklahoma to help care for her. There, he made a decision to leave homosexuality behind.
"I grew up knowing that God thought this was wrong, but at the same time battling with the fact that there was no point in my life that I felt like homosexuality was inserted into my life. It was always there," Walker said.
"I no longer believe that I was born gay. I can look at my early life experiences and influences and see each one directed me down a path towards homosexuality," he says.
Exodus president Alan Chambers says the group fields about 400,000 inquiries a year, up dramatically from about 250,000 calls in 2002. Some, like Walker, are homosexuals who want to change; some are parents and relatives worried about a gay or lesbian loved one. Others are youth pastors or other church leaders who want to learn how to get involved.
Most gays and lesbians who seek help are Christians, Chambers says, but not all.
Besides Chambers, there are just 11 people who work at the ministry's national headquarters in Orlando - on the second floor of a two-story, yellow and brick rectangle building that bears no sign.
The group might draw protesters if it advertised too much, says Chambers, himself an ex-gay who now has a wife and child. (Back in 1996, a group called the Lesbian Avengers dropped 1,500 crickets into the office, then based in San Francisco, to simulate a plague of locusts.)
The office itself is just a reference, with no therapy or counseling. All of that happens around Exodus' affiliate ministries, where at any given time Chambers estimates about 1,000 people are going through a program.
Only about three or four of them are residential, he says. There is no way to generalize them entirely, but most, like the one Walker attended, consist of regular monthly meetings where attendees share their trials - much like Alcoholics Anonymous.
Like AA, Chambers estimates, Exodus has about a one-third immediate success rate. Another third decide they were happy being gay in the first place, while the remaining third are still floating somewhere in between.
Chambers is quick to point out that Exodus isn't about "curing" anyone or "turning people straight." In fact, many who go through the program might never have a heterosexual relationship, he says.
Instead, it's about refraining from activities that violate their beliefs - in God or anything else - and addressing "unwanted homosexuality."
"These are people who have identified that they struggle with same-sex attractions and are conflicted about that, and they want to find some sort of level of support and ability to overcome those feelings, move beyond them or live with them in conjunction with their Christianity," Chambers said.
Interestingly, Exodus keeps a somewhat peculiar place in the canon of Christian conversation about how homosexuality develops. For them, it's more complicated than being simply a choice, lifestyle or abomination - and could involve biological causes, though Chambers doubts there is a "gay gene."
"There is no quick answer or one thing that causes homosexuality," Chambers says. "It's a combination of factors that play in someone's life that lead them to deal with that issue."
Chambers says the most prevailing theme is a "a deficit in their same-sex relationships, starting with their same sex parent and going into their peer relationships" - a deficit like Matthew Walker felt.
Still, their comparatively open explanation hasn't stopped criticism from gay rights groups who say Exodus and other ex-gay organizations dangerously ignore the American Psychological Association position that homosexuality is neither treatable nor a disorder.
In a report released last month, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute questioned whether the therapies are ethical or effective and said state and federal authorities should provide greater oversight when they involve youth.
It mentions several cases in which parents allegedly forced their children to enter programs, including one who was driven to the facility in handcuffs.
"They're given this trust that people who don't normally associate themselves with religious faith are not given, and they end up misleading parents and families," study author Jason Cianciotto said.
Cianciotto also cited reports that reparative sexual therapy can cause low self-esteem, alienation and depression leading up to suicide. He said groups like Exodus send a dangerous message that parents should watch their children for signs of homosexuality and kids somehow need to be "cured."
"It feeds into that general stigma and fear about gay and lesbian people that's raised so much money and made them so prominent," he said. "The notion that you can somehow become gay, or that gay and lesbian organizations are somehow recruiting."
Chambers says he and other ex-gays are living proof the programs can work.
"If someone doesn't want to be gay, why tell them that they don't have an alternative when they do?"