July 10, 2010

Exodus International president Alan Chambers appeared on MSNBC Hardball July 9, 2012 with Chris Matthews. The MSNBC host referred to homosexuality as an innate condition and reparative therapy as “pray away the gay.”

Chambers claimed his problem with reparative therapy was that its focus has changed to claim a 100 percent cure of homosexual attractions and the use of heterosexual pornography by some therapists as a tool to instigate heterosexual attraction.

MSNBC’s Matthews showed Chambers a 2011 video tape where he compared reparative therapy to Weight Watchers. Chambers said that the comparison still holds up for him, because he has struggled with his weight as well as same-sex attractions.

When pressed by Matthews about his claim that he still has same-sex attractions, Chambers stated, “My attraction and my desire for my wife has only grown stronger. Never in 15 years have I been tempted to be unfaithful to my wife. I love her …”

Regarding the old and new direction of Exodus Chambers stated, “If someone hears my message and thinks that I am telling them that they are never going to struggle again, that those feelings are going to go away or that their lives are going to be anything like my life, I am sorry for that. That has never been my intention. My intention is to simply help people of faith who are in conflict where their sexuality meets their faith to live either celibate lives or to pursue a life that they feel is congruent with their faith.”

The interview is posted on Exodus International http://exodusinternational.org/2012/07/alan-chambers-interviewed-by-msnbcs-hardball/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=alan-chambers-interviewed-by-msnbcs-hardball or at MSNBC http://video.msnbc.msn.com/hardball/48126418#48126418.