By Peter LaBarbera

Former proud homosexual Alan Chambers now disavows the term “ex-gay,” but to those of us struggling to defend truth in a fallen world, that imperfect term is mere shorthand for the wonderful work that God can do in any life that discards worldly wisdom and trusts humbly in Jesus Christ to live by a Perfect Standard. 

 Should we call Alan Chambers “ex gay”?

We share Steve Bennett’s disappointment with the regrettable statement to the Los Angeles Times by “ex-gay” (he now rejects that term) Alan Chambers — the president of Exodus International who has done wonderful work over the years for the pro-family cause — that “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete.” Predictably, the anti-ex-gay folks over at the pro-homosexuality website “ExGayWatch” tipped their hat to Alan (homosexual activist Wayne Besen was harsher) and acknowledged that he’s coming their way, while opining that he did not go far enough. One homosexual activist sent us a copy of the L.A. Times story with this note:

Ex-Gay is all fake, it’s harmful to people, even Alan Chambers of Exodus International is almost admitting it. G-d loves Gays & Lesbians as they are and you should too.

Well, “ex-gay” is not all fake, but there is always a problem with words in the post-Sexual Revolution, “gay”-affirming American culture in which we live. Yes, many people’s lives have been radically changed through Christ, and some without Him, yet homosexual activists want a special pass that says their sin problem (of course, they’d never call it that) is insurmountable — hanging their hopes on the supposed innateness and immutability of their “orientation.”

Wouldn’t each of us love to take our worst sin temptation and tell God that it’s not our fault, it’s just our “orientation,” so leave me alone?!  

There is a whole homosexual activist cottage industry, led by Besen and ExGayWatch, that — like the enemy of our souls — essentially gloats over failure. This decidedly evil movement heralds the latest stories of failed “ex-gays” who return to homosexual behavior, while ignoring (or ridiculing) the obvious successes and the fact that many people who’ve overcome homosexuality don’t care to talk publicly about the sins they left behind. 

The question is not, “Can gays change?” but how many already have. Only God knows.

Christianity Today magazine in March interviewed Charlene Cothran, a former lesbian who — after converting to Christ — changed her Venus Magazine from promoting the acceptance of homosexuality to helping homosexuals find freedom and deliverance through Jesus Christ. The CT interviewer, Amy Tracy, is also a former lesbian (and former press secretary for the feminist National Organization for Women!). Here is the introduction and two questions and answers from the March 23, 2007 Christianity Today interview with Cothran, titled “The Rebirth of Venus”:

Charlene Cothran, publisher and editor-in-chief of Venus Magazine, a national publication for African-American gays and lesbians she launched 13 years ago, made a startling announcement: After 29 years as a gay activist, she’s become a Christian, renounced her homosexuality, and changed the format of her magazine to spread the gospel to the gay community. Amy Tracy, whose own similar conversion story was told in an earlier Christianity Today article, interviewed Cothran about her new direction.

 

CT: What finally led to your conversion?

 

Cothran:  I also [publisher of] a publication called the Kitchen Table News. In June 2006, I was getting set to run an article on a local gospel group. A pastor in the group called to add something to the piece. She asked me a question, and from my response she knew I wasn’t “unchurched.” But I felt like pushing it. I told her I was a proud, card-carrying lesbian. She let me go on and on. Then she said, “I can tell that you want to come back to God, but you feel unworthy. That is a lie. Many souls will be saved by your saying yes to Jesus.” I could not speak for several moments. She continued to minister to me. She didn’t back down. I lived in silence for 48 hours. The Lord was dealing with me in my soul. I told him that I’d give back everything He gave me.

 

CT:  How did your family react?

 

Cothran:  My sister and mother prayed for me for years. It was a wonderful reunion with my family. My mother had prayed for God to deliver me. She knew the devil had his hold. She always knew that somehow I’d make it back. My mother was stubborn that way. She died before she could see me come back. I regret so much. She expected much from me, but I became a lesbian and an “out lesbian” at that. Now when I hear from parents of gay children, I use my voice to apologize … to apologize for their sons and daughters.

To read the entire Christianity Today interview, click HERE.

Stephen Bennett Ministries Press Release, June 19, 2007

Contact: Irene Bennett, SBM Media Relations, 203-926-6960, www.SBMinistries.org/media.html 

HUNTINGTON, Conn., June 19 /Christian Newswire/ — Stephen Bennett, President of Stephen Bennett Ministries, a pro-family organization advocating for the traditional family, the protection of children and proclaiming the truth about homosexuality, condemned the irresponsible and disturbing remarks attributed to and made by Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, an organization claiming to be “The largest information and referral ministry in the world on homosexual issues.”

Bennett, along with many others pro-family leaders, were shaken Monday by Chamber’s remarks and are eagerly awaiting Exodus International’s official response to their President’s misguided statements.

In Monday’s Los Angeles Times article, the writer alludes to a posed question to Chambers, possibly, “Are there really such people as ex-gays?”

The writer, then based upon a response from Chambers writes, “Truth is, he’s not sure he’s ever met one.”

What’s odd is that Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, is a supposedly a former homosexual himself.

In the same article, one of the most troubling quotes by Chambers states, “By no means would we ever say change can be sudden or complete.”

What? Then what exactly does Exodus International offer as “hope” to individuals struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction and to families of homosexual- identified individuals?

 Steve and Irene Bennett

By Stephen Bennett of www.sbministries.org

_________________________

…so they say.

I want to wish my beautiful wife, Irene, a happy 14th Anniversary today, June 13th.

The last 14 years of my life have been the most precious and meaningful ones to me.

We are your average, traditional American family next door: a husband, a wife, two kids (a boy and a girl) and, well, a rabbit.

Life has never been better.

My 11 years involved in the homosexual lifestyle are a horrible nightmare. The immoral sex with numerous people, the bars, the drugs, the alcohol, the failed relationships, the pornography, playing “house” with my “gay” partners, friends and lovers dying from AIDS – a nightmare.

Today, I have peace. I have stability and responsibility. I’m a husband and a father, the provider, the one who pays the mortgage, the tuition, the bills and puts food on the table.

To read the whole article by Stephen Bennett, click HERE.

UPDATE on this story: Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist Cathleen Falsani — author of a controversial column titled, “Sigh of Relief over Falwell’s Death” — contacted Americans For Truth late Friday afternoon for the sole purpose of requesting that we remove her copyrighted photo from our website (which we did). When AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera sought to engage Falsani in a discussion about her anti-Falwell column, she curtly said she was only calling for the “legal purpose” of removing the photo. “I’m not interested in engaging in dialogue with you,” she said.

When LaBarbera countered that this was odd since Falsani is a “reporter” who talks to people for a living, Falsani replied that she is not a reporter, but a columnist. (As you can read below, she was only recently relieved of her reporting duties at the Sun-Times.)

Said LaBarbera, “This story only gets weirder: a religion columnist cruelly trashes a conservative minister days after his death, then refuses to discuss her column with a critic. It seems Cathleen Falsani can dish it out but she can’t take it. We echo Illinois Review editor Fran Eaton’s call for Falsani to be fired as a Sun-Times religion columnist. As one who is obviously bigoted against Bible-believing religious traditionalists, she should not be writing on religion for a major metropolitan daily.”

Our original article follows:

__________________________

You can write Cathleen Falsani at cfalsani@suntimes.com; or write a letter to the Sun Times (phone: 312-321-3000) at letters@suntimes.com.

In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good.
     And I didn’t mean “good” in a oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant “good” as in “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”
— Cathleen Falsani, “Sigh of Relief over Falwell’s Death,” May 18, Chicago Sun-Times

I wrote Cathleen Falsani to say how sad it is that a religion columnist would so cruelly denounce and defame a man shortly after his death. (More of that HERE.) The Religious Left — of which one could now safely say Falsani is a member — prides itself on its compassion, but when it comes down to it, they can be quite mean and guilty of the same harshness and “hate” of which they accuse others. It reminds me of the pro-abortion-rights liberals who fancy themselves as compassionate people who look out for the downtrodden (“the little guy”) — and yet can’t face their own hypocrisy in zealously defending the “right to choose” to kill society’s most helpless people: the unborn.

Sometimes Christian-identified writers and reporters go overboard in attacking Biblical traditionalists to show their media peers that they’re not a tool of the stereotypical “religious right.” Maybe that’s what happened here. Whether or not that’s the case, it’s tragic that Falsani, a Wheaton College grad, has sunk to this level. This is an ugly and tacky piece of writing that exposes the hypocrisy of self-righteous liberals and the disdain of the media for traditionalist Christian leaders. 

Like many in the Fourth Estate, Falsani needs sensitivity training and would surely benefit from a sabbatical at Falwell’s Liberty University. She should be removed as the Sun-Times’ religion columnist (at least she is no longer a religion reporter for the paper), but that won’t happen because most of the paper’s staff probably loved her column. Nothing like beating up on the ‘fundies,’ dead or alive, to burnish your credentials in the media. (Now, writing a fair column about a man or woman who has left homosexuality behind, through the power of the same Christ that Falsani professes to follow, that’s another story….)

Congratulations, Cathleen: you scored some more points with the Left, but you did so at the price of your own dignity, your Christian testimony, and to the detriment of your once noble profession.— Peter LaBarbera 

The following is excerpted by Media Research Council’s “NewsBusters” blog, by Tim Graham (emphasis added). You can read Graham’s entire piece by clicking HERE, and Falsani’s nasty column HERE):

Chicago Sun-Times Writer: Jerry Falwell Was a Spiritual Bully, Like Tony Soprano

By Tim Graham, Newsbusters.org, May 18, 2007

It might not be surprising for liberal blog commenters or talk-radio callers to denounce Rev. Jerry Falwell upon his death, but it’s a little more surprising when it comes to a professed Christian who’s religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Cathleen Falsani reflected on her first reaction about hearing Falwell was “relief” and compared him to gangster TV character Tony Soprano:

Knowing I didn’t have a deadline to meet that day, my first thoughts were not of what to say or write.

 

In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good.

 

And I didn’t mean “good” in a oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant “good” as in “Ding-dong, the witch is dead.”

 

But that thought — good riddance, I suppose — was not meant to be cruel or malicious. [!]After all, the faith that the Rev. Falwell and I share teaches us that he was, at that moment, in a far better place, with Jesus in heaven, and not roasting on a spit in Hell’s kitchen.

 

By shrugging off his mortal coil, the Rev. Falwell had ceased to suffer the pain of humanity.

 

Still, I’m not particularly proud of my knee-jerk reaction. But there it is….

 

My initial reaction to the Rev. Falwell’s death was, and remains, relief — not unlike the ease I felt when a particularly nasty bully who used to spit at me on the playground and threaten to beat me up after school moved to another town.

 

The Rev. Falwell was a spiritual bully. He was the Tony Soprano to Pat Robertson’s Paulie Walnuts.

How on Earth can a religion columnist compare a televangelist to a malicious mob boss and killer? We could understand the typical Elmer Gantry comparisons, but Tony Soprano? Including Robertson on the list suggested clearly that was Falsani believes is that conservatism and orthodoxy are “bullying” and that liberalism and relativism brings true spirituality and harmony with God.

The Other Dark Exchange: Homosexuality, Part 1

To listen online to this sermon, click HERE; to read the entire sermon, go HERE. To learn more about John Piper, visit HERE.

By John Piper October 11, 1998  

Romans 1:24-28

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.

Astonishing Relevance
In our exposition of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we come now to this astonishingly relevant section in 1:24-28 where Paul touches on the reality of homosexuality. It is relevant for many reasons. For example, yesterday there was conference called “Here I Stand” to address the issue of homosexually active clergymen in the ELCA (Star Tribune, 10/10/98). On the front page of the Star Tribune there was the story of what appeared to be a hate crime against a homosexual student at the University of Wyoming who was in critical condition after being tied to a fence and beaten. In August, 641 Anglican bishops from around the world gathered for the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, and voted overwhelmingly to affirm that homosexual practice is “incompatible with Scripture.”

Full-page ads were recently [in 1998] taken out in USA Today and the New York Times and the Washington Post showing some 850 former homosexuals who gathered last summer at the Exodus conference and who declared there is power in Christ to be changed. Here in Minnesota, legal cases continually crop up about child custody and adoption of children by homosexual people. And most immediate of all, here in our church there are people who have homosexual desires and many more people among us who have people in their families whom they care about very deeply who consider themselves homosexual. The reality of homosexuality is inescapable today, and this would come as no surprise to the apostle Paul, and therefore should not to us.

One of the things that makes matters unusual today is the effort on the part of some people to defend the legitimacy of homosexual behavior from the Bible. Most common, for example, is the claim that the denunciations of homosexuality in the New Testament are not references to committed, long-term homosexual relations, which these people say are legitimate, but rather refer to promiscuous homosexual relations and to pederasty, which are not legitimate. To use the words of one scholar, “What the New Testament is against is something significantly different from a homosexual orientation which some people seem to have from their earliest days. In other words, the New Testament is not talking about what we have come to speak of as sexual inversion. Rather, it is concerned with sexual perversion” (Paul Jewett, Interpretation, April, 1985, p. 210).

To read Piper’s whole sermon, click HERE.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Please be a part of the wonderful story of former lesbian Charlene’s Cothran’s rebirth in Christ by subscribing to her magazine VENUS — which has been transformed from a publication that celebrated “gays and lesbians” to one that tells that stories of people like herself who have overcome homosexuality with God’s help. Subscriptions to VENUS are $19.95 per year for four issues. — Peter LaBarbera

THE RESURRECTION!, published in VENUS magazine 

by Charlene E. Cothran

Venus Magazine Publisher

When I asked God to come into my heart, I knew that EVERYTHING would change and I thank Him for the opportunity to bare my cross for Christ’s sake.  Oh, I’d been persecuted before, jeered at and rejected, but not for Christ’s sake.  It was for MY sake, for the right to hold on to MY own sinful pleasures and wave them, in the form a rainbow flag, in God’s face.  But the Lord is so loving, patient and merciful that He gave me one last chance to make things right. 

I shared my new convictions and VENUS’ new mission right away with our advertising agencies.  One executive was particularly kind and reassured me that our clients would probably stand by us. But eventually, letters and emails from gay organizations found their way to the advertising director’s office of several major corporations with whom we have done business for years. 

Think About it

I was counseled, ‘we’ll give you a week to carefully think about what you are doing.’  They were basically saying,  O.K. you’ve given your ‘testimony’ but now go on publishing the old VENUS, affirming gays and lesbians, and reassuring them to be proud of who and what they are.   There was no need for time to think.  God himself knew that I meant it when I gave complete control of VENUS Magazine to Him, to be used for His exclusive glory.  However, in my spirit, I also knew that it was just a matter of time before I would receive the news that the company’s income was gone. 

Reading page after page of negative email, letters, and blog entries began to wear at my joy.  My countenance began to fall.  Satan laughed right in my face; ‘Look at you now, ‘saved’ huh? Your old friends don’t want anything to do with you, your local church community wants to ‘wait and see’ how ‘saved’ you’ll be next year this time, and by next month you’ll have no more money coming in, after all the years you’ve worked to build this thing. You are such a fool.’    To counter these negative thoughts — rebuke Satan — I began to fast and pray, and to call on the name of the Lord.  I prayed, Lord I need you; Don’t let it be so, don’t let my enemies appear to have won.

I Trust God

During my fast, the Lord spoke to me in a passage of scripture, Jeremiah 17:7,8 and said ‘Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.  For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.’   I emerged with a revelation and understanding of what a commitment to God truly means: It means we must TRUST Him totally, completely, unconditionally. My strengthen renewed, my joy restored, I can face, with Godly confidence, whatever comes my way; all because I TRUST GOD!  What a wonderful gift!

Sure enough, on that Monday morning, we received several faxes cancelling all current and future advertising in VENUS.   All praises be to God, I couldn’t even get upset!  Then, NOTHING happened for three days.  The phones didn’t ring, no emails or no letters, not a word from anywhere.   It was as though the business had died that Monday. 

On The Third Day

On Thursday morning, I sat down at my computer and I could hardly believe my eyes.  Hundreds of new emails waiting to be read, with subjects like ‘Thank God for Your Testimony’; ‘This has Changed My Life’, ‘Redeemed! So Powerful!’.  I cannot begin to express the joy that flooded my soul.  I cried and typed responses for hours and hours, but they just kept coming! Sometimes I had to just get up and walk around and praise God out loud! God had sent His ARMY to encourage me!   Thank you Jesus!  God fearing people from all of the world wrote to say, ‘We are praying for you, God is preparing to use you in a mighty way.’  The Lord had opened a window and continues to pour out a blessing I hardly have room to receive!

I believe with all my heart, this Easter season, that the Lord burried the old VENUS Magazine, then in three days He resurrected it unto Himself, changed it, and placed His blessing on it.  We are  perusing nearly 1,000 new emails, and letters, and will post as many as the Lord approves.

Click HERE to read some of the wonderful letters Charlene has been receiving from people all over the world — including one from one of her former contributing writers! We will continue to bring you exciting news from Venus magazine and Charlene’s new life.

Former lesbian and VENUS Magazine publisher Charlene Cothran published this letter online, which she received from a former contributing writer to the then-pro-homosexual VENUS magazine:

I can say, too, I am changed.

 

I am very happy for you because you have found a relationship with God and he does what He always does; He changes people.  I have been where you are, my calling is to teach and He changed me in so many ways.  I did not know that God was going to fully change me when I stopped writing for you.  I just knew God wanted me to change and I could not teach and write for your magazine in its form and focus.   I can say, too, I am changed.  I am no longer in the life, it happened in a blink of an eye and it was not what I thought he would change but he did.   I had my alone time but that is what God does, he will take you away so you have to depend totally on him.  When I came out of wilderness I had a missionary from my church befriend me.  It was great.  Having said that, if you want me, and will allow me to write for you again I would love to.

 

I love you with the Love of Christ,

 

Lavonia-New York,
Olympic Silver Medalist
Former Contributing Writer for [the old] VENUS Magazine

____________________________

P.S. Please be a part of the wonderful story of former lesbian Charlene’s Cothran’s rebirth in Christ by subscribing to her magazine VENUS — which has been transformed from a publication that celebrated “gays and lesbians” to one that tells that stories of people like herself who have overcome homosexuality with God’s help. Subscriptions to VENUS are $19.95 per year for four issues. — Peter LaBarbera