July 14, 2012

Excerpts from the the Christian Post article “Interview: Alan Chambers Talks Gay ‘Cure,’ Salvation for Homosexuals.”:

Christian Post: “I believe you mentioned before that everyone at Exodus, the board, agree to the changes you made at Exodus. A New York Times story mentioned though that there is a growing schism within the network and I’m not sure if he was referring to Exodus or to all groups similar to yours. I wanted you to clarify if there is a schism. What kind of response have you been getting after the changes (to halt reparative therapy)?”

Alan Chambers: “…We’ve had 12 ministries leave our network in the last six weeks or so. So there is some disagreement over a number of different things. I don’t think it can boil down to one issue over another but I think there is some disagreement. But out of 270 or so organizations that are still a part of Exodus, 12 leaving is sad for sure but people have to do what they have to do. It’s not any different than something like a split that we see happen in churches all the time.”

Christian Post: “Let’s get to the part that Dr. Gagnon expressed most concern for. You’ve made several statements expressing your belief that active homosexuals can still go to heaven if they have a relationship with Christ. What do you say to Dr. Gagnon and others who believe one’s eternal destiny can be endangered if they have persistent and unrepentant sin and are acting out on that?”

Alan Chambers: “You know my issue isn’t whether gay people go to heaven or straight people go to heaven. The point that I’m trying to make is that we as believers can have security in Christ when we are believers. We will all struggle, we will all fall prey to some type of sin, some will fall prey to the same types of sin over and over again. I don’t differentiate between this one sin struggle than any other. Rob Gagnon said on NPR last week that homosexuality was a more egregious sin. I don’t find where that’s stated in the Bible at all.” [Editor’s note: Chambers did not answer the question asked of him – Does he believe the Bible infers that actively practicing homosexuals who are unrepentant of their sin can go to heaven?]

Christian Post: “In that passage you mentioned, Apostle Paul said there were cases where homosexuals did change after converting. Why did you decide to stop reparative therapy altogether if it maybe did or could help one or two people?”

The full text can be found at http://www.christianpost.com/news/interview-alan-chambers-talks-gay-cure-salvation-for-homosexuals-78234/.