Update: Jim Burroway notes that the essay, posted as Charisma's headline article under "7/20/2012," dates back to 2004. However, the article reads, "Six states, plus Washington, D.C., have legalized same-sex marriage, and legal battles are waging in nearly every other state to accomplish the same," which was not true until last year.
Update II: It appears Charisma has removed the article from its website, but can be read in its entirety below.
Update III: Chambers now says the article does not reflect his current views and has been edited by Charisma:
I am on the beach, literally, with my family enjoying the dog days of summer. I have no idea why Charisma decided to reach so deep, edit and republish an 8 year old article that I am embarrassed that I ever wrote. Our PR team has asked them to remove the article and not to repost it. When I am back in town I will contact them, as well.
****
Alan Chambers of Exodus International faced an onslaught of attacks from his Religious Right colleagues after he said gay Christians could go to Heaven and distanced Exodus from promoting sexual orientation conversion therapy, but today in Charisma Magazine, Chambers appears to be trying to win back his anti-gay allies with his lament that the “land of the free and the home of the brave is morphing into a homosexual haven.” Chambers describes his escape “from the seemingly unbreakable bondage of homosexuality” and also thanks his parents for teaching him that “homosexuality was anti-creation and anti-God.”
He argues that gay rights advocates are using public schools and absent parents to, like “Hitler and Marx,” attempt to “radically influence the hearts and minds of young people” through the media and education. “The gay lobby has taken America hostage,” Chambers warns, asserting that “if this process is not stopped, the gaying of the United States will begin to affect religious freedom.” Have you noticed that America is becoming a gay nation? The land of the free and the home of the brave is morphing into a homosexual haven.
Gay activists want much more than legalized gay marriage. Are you comfortable with their vision for our future?
Have you noticed that America is becoming a gay nation? The land of the free and the home of the brave is morphing into a homosexual haven.
Just look at the top programs on television or listen to the most popular actors and musicians. They are celebrating all things gay: gay marriage, gay adoptions, gay cruises, gay politics, Gay Days at Disney World, gay-friendly businesses and, of course, gay churches. And more and more Americans are applauding what was once considered perverse.
How did this happen? We have been naive targets of the most successful marketing campaign in history.
We shouldn't be surprised that a few powerful people were able to lure mainstream Americans into accepting homosexuality as a lifestyle. Marshall Kirk and Erastes Pill predicted in 1987 that this would happen. In an article called "The Overhauling of Straight America," Kirk and Pill wrote in Guide magazine:
"You can forget about trying to persuade the masses that homosexuality is a good thing. But if only you can get them to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders, then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won."
Kirk and Pill called for a "large-scale media campaign" to change the image of gays in America. This campaign, they said, would involve six steps: (1) Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and often as possible; (2) Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers; (3) Give protectors a just cause; (4) Make gays look good; (5) Make the victimizers look bad; and (6) Solicit funds.
All six of these objectives have been successfully accomplished in only 17 years. We now live in a society in which some of the most influential individuals are either living as homosexuals or relentlessly promoting how normal it is to live this way.
Most members of the Hollywood media elite are involved in this subversive campaign. Homosexuality has become a part of almost every movie plot, sitcom, song, acceptance speech or liberal political campaign mantra.
And we all know what happens to those who refuse to conform to the groupthink mentality of the politically correct. Just ask Laura Schlessenger, the popular talk-show host whose TV show was canceled because she had the audacity to suggest that homosexuality is a biological abnormality.
She only said what many pro-gay organizations' websites imply in more couched terms. Yet Dr. Laura's sponsors pulled their support.
So much for freedom of speech.
You may wonder how I can be so direct and opinionated about this issue. I believe I have a right to warn people about the gay agenda because I was at one time trapped in a homosexual lifestyle. My attractions were exclusively homosexual, and I bought into the lie that I must have been born gay.
Though I grew up in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as my Savior at age 6, I was still susceptible to sexual immorality. Though I never chose my homosexual feelings (who would?), I did choose to act on them.
I tried going to a gay church to see if I could reconcile homosexuality with Christianity. I attended gay pride rallies and volunteered to work for AIDS organizations. I lived in a shame-based cycle of sexual encounters that left me empty--until the day God sent two Christians into a gay bar to encourage me, walk me out the door and help me overcome my unhealthy behavior pattern.
Twenty years later I am a different man. After much counseling, prayer, obedience, tears, deliverance and daily submission to God's will, I am free from the seemingly unbreakable bondage of homosexuality. I am living testimony that gays can change.
As a homosexual I suffered in one broken relationship after another and struggled to find inner peace. I fought for satisfaction through sex, social acceptance and the pursuit of rights. But I finally realized that only Jesus Christ can fill the voids of life. So I chose to follow Him.
Brainwashing America
My parents had a very different view of homosexuality than most young people today. When I was growing up, the only thing I ever heard about homosexuality was negative.
My dad's office was in downtown Orlando, Fla., near a local scenic spot called Lake Eola. At that time the park near this lake had a bad reputation because so many gay men went there for anonymous sex. My dad often told me and my brother when we were making our clothing choices that he didn't want us to grow up and become "like the queers down at Eola Park."
Obviously my father lacked compassion for homosexuals, and no one should use such unkind remarks to refer to other people. My dad did not understand the complex psychological, medical and emotional reasons people become gay. But he did understand that homosexuality is innately wrong.
My parents' generation was the last to see this issue in such absolute terms, unfortunately. Many of today's GenXers think being gay is just an "alternative lifestyle." They've seen enough episodes of Will & Grace and listened to enough media propaganda to conclude that homosexuality is just one more way to express love.
Because my parents knew homosexuality was anti-creation and anti-God, they instilled in me some of those "old-fashioned" values that are greatly lacking in so many homes today. I'm thankful they did.
But many kids today are not so fortunate. From the public school system to the entertainment industry to government and military to businesses, homosexuality is now perhaps the most protected, promoted and endorsed lifestyle in our world.
We promote homosexuality on a daily basis when we subscribe to cable TV services, buy designer clothes or go to the bank. It's hard to find even one company essential to daily life in the 21st century that does not overtly or passively fund the advancement of homosexuality.
The growing trend in American society for the last 30 years has been for both parents to work (if a child is lucky enough to have a mother and father under the same roof) so that their families can enjoy the "good life." With this trend came the routine that children in these homes go to school, come home, eat alone, watch television, surf the Internet and put themselves to bed--not to mention engage in sexually promiscuous behavior.
Pro-homosexual leaders realized the same truth employed by Hitler and Marx: To advance their agenda they must radically influence the hearts and minds of young people.
Because Mom and Dad are working all day and Susie and Junior are in school and then home alone, activists came up with a plan: Use public schools, television, the Internet and other youth-friendly venues to influence the way young people view homosexuality.
Under the guise of AIDS education, groups such as the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network gained access into public schools. Similarly, pro-homosexual activists ran for school board positions and partnered with every kid's favorite after-school babysitter, MTV. Teenagers got hooked on the Internet, which opened them up to a 24-hour source of temptation and perversion.
The plan worked. If you ask the average kid, even the average Christian kid, how they feel about homosexuality, nine out of 10 will tell you they believe it is genetic, normal and just like heterosexuality. We have allowed an entire generation of young people to be brainwashed with an alternate morality.
The Power of Words
Much of this brainwashing has come by way of buzzwords and phrases. For example, everyone has become accustomed to talking about "sexual orientation." Brilliant homosexuals intent on legitimizing homosexual behavior used this phrase to generalize all sexual conduct. Whether one is heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or even pedophilic, all are lumped under this term.
Though homosexuality, bisexuality and pedophilia bring up negative, unpleasant or adverse reactions, "sexual orientation" seems nonoffensive. Lumping homosexuality in with heterosexuality under one definition helped homosexuality gain new credibility as at least a runner up, if not an equal to, heterosexuality.
Once "sexual orientation" was introduced into our vocabulary, it was then propagated throughout the media. Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric and Peter Jennings inundated us with this new phraseology. Those battling for the acceptance of homosexuality experienced newfound respect from a culture that at one time used the unflattering term "sodomy" to denote homosexual practice.
With this new vocabulary ingrained in our subconscious, gay activists began fighting for protection from discrimination. They purposed to make it impossible for anyone to refuse restaurant service, housing, jobs, raises and promotions based on sexual orientation.
The Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest homosexual-rights advocacy group, reports that in 2002 more cities and counties added sexual orientation to their anti-discrimination ordinances than in any other year (a total of 15). In all, more than 140 cities and counties have ordinances protecting lesbians and gay men from discrimination, and 53 cities and counties now also protect the transgendered. Fourteen cities and two counties added gender identity to their anti-discrimination ordinances in 2002, an increase of more than 300 percent over 2001.
Where is this headed? And can we stop this process?
Sadly, much of the damage is already done. Our nation's moral fabric is unraveling and most of us don't even realize it.
The Supreme Court has legalized sodomy. Six states, plus Washington, D.C., have legalized same-sex marriage, and legal battles are waging in nearly every other state to accomplish the same. The mayor of San Francisco acted illegally by marrying same-sex couples, and yet he was not penalized for his actions.
Now, perhaps too late, we are waking up from a three-decade sleep to realize that the gay lobby has taken America hostage. I hope we are not so naive that we think their agenda stops with legalizing same-sex marriages. Ultimately, if this process is not stopped, the gaying of the United States will begin to affect religious freedom:
Churches will be forced to hire gay people in staff positions.
Christian broadcasters will be penalized or even shut down if they air programs that call homosexuality a sin.
Religious people will be jailed for violating "hate speech" laws--because they describe homosexuality as abnormal or immoral.
I hope we wake up soon. The apathy that has gripped the church for so long has been costly.
Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: "The church is neither the master of the state nor the servant of the state but rather the conscience of the state." The moral crisis we face today is the result not of sinners running loose but rather of Christians remaining passive and prayerless. Only if we repent, recommit and remobilize do we have hope for reformation.
Last year alumni from Wheaton College—what used to be the heart of conservative evangelicalism—made headlines for forming an organization to not only support the gay community, but also to promote the belief that homosexuality and Christianity are compatible. As on Christian college campuses throughout the United States, they have once again succeeded in convincing believers that Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor” means turning a blind eye to what the Bible explicitly calls an “abomination.”