Alan Chambers on loving “The homosexual”

From Ex-Gay Watch:

Chambers: Vote Against Marriage Equality to Make It Easier for Ex-Gays:


Full transcript of video. As always, feel free to copy at will. Commentary follows.

Prop 8 Speaker: We have Alan on the phone with us. Alan, can you hear me?

Alan Chambers: I can hear you.

Prop 8 Speaker: Thank you for that inspiring testimony, that’s awesome. We want you to talk to us - we’re here in California - you full well know, 40 days, we have 40 days and that’s it. Why is same-sex marriage a bad thing?

Alan Chambers: Well for me, same-sex marriage would have only hindered my ability to come to the Lord, you know. It would have only put one more obstacle in the way that wasn’t there at the time, and I’m so grateful that back in 1990 and 1991, that wasn’t something that stood in my way in coming to Christ in the way that He had me come to Him. If that had been an option for me I certainly would have chosen it, and it would have been a more difficult road for me, and I think that that’s the truth for young people like me who don’t need this obstacle in their way.

Prop 8 Speaker: I s’pose the simplest question I want to ask right now is, people who struggle with same sex attraction - you are a testimony, and you know others who can be set free, who can walk free of that particular action. Am I correct?

Alan Chambers: Absolutely. I am one of tens of thousands, if not more, of men and women who have found freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ, and for more than 15 years I’ve been walking in that freedom, and my story is just, is a dime a dozen. There are men and women who have found freedom and who’ve been walking in that freedom for four and five decades. The truth is that First Corinthians 6:9-11 is true, ‘and such were some of us’, and freedom is possible for those who want it.

Prop 8 Speaker: Alan, I’m praying for two things. The Lord began to really burden my heart with this about ten days ago, very intense, and it came very strongly. Number one, is that there be an avalanche of love from Bible believing Christians to those struggling with homosexuality - a massive avalanche of love. Secondly, there be an outbreak of revival, inexplicably, within the midst of the homosexual community. Now talk to us about the first one. Coach us, how do we do that?

Alan Chambers: You know, I think that we have angry and bitter gay rights movement today. Because we in the Church have failed the homosexual community. I think we have beaten people over the head with the truth of Scripture, and failed to uphold the other 100% of Jesus, and that was grace. We failed to understand that they’re human beings, that Christ died for them or He died for none of us. And I think that that is a message that we have to share louder than we have shared it. We have to do more to reach out to people than we done in the past, because they remember that Church as that awful hateful place that only spoke the truth. And we’ve got to do a really good job of reaching out with Christ’s Love, to people who deserve it. And thinking about loving the homosexual isn’t hard if you think of this, they are our brothers, they are our sisters, they are our moms, our dads, our next door neighbors. They’re people who have been hurt more than they’ve been anything in this life, and it’s easy to love people like that, and I think we in the Church have that capacity more than anyone else. And if we show them that love, I think that will be a compelling reason for them to come to Christ.

Prop 8 Speaker: Alan, thank you for who you are and what you represent, you’re an encouragement to so many of us, and thank you for standing and being the model you are. We praise God for you and your life.

Alan Chambers: Thank you.

Prop 8 Speaker: Way to go. Blessing on you. Thank you for being with us.

Many points regarding that exchange have been intelligently rebuffed in that Ex-Gay Watch thread. Two in particular jumped out for me:

Ben in Oakland: Can you say “My livelihood is in danger?”

grantdale: The saddest thing is… some day soon enough… his children will discover they can google his name in the public library.

God help them, at that time.
~~~That said, the bad taste that I walk away with first, is the insulting and demeaning tone with which he refers to us:

“the homosexual community,” “they’re human beings,” “Christ died for them.”

“And if we show them that love, I think that will be a compelling reason for them to come to Christ.” ~~~The fact that Chambers felt the need to clarify that those of us who are same-gender attracted are “human beings” whom “Christ [also] died for,” demonstrates his own innate disdain and disgust for us (and the homosexual 'part' of himself' too, for that matter).

In specific, not only the fact that we accept ourselves as we are, but for some of us, the fact that we also accept our relationship with Jesus/God as valid, true and binding - as is.

Demonstrably, that is the subtext of this little missive of his. I find that it’s not so much about that he wouldn’t have found Christ as an openly gay male, clearly he would have pursued that anyway, but what he attempts to do -- without saying so -- is to imply that anyone who accepts their SSA as non-sinful, is not only sexually broken, but also spiritually broken. Thus nullifying any evidence or testimony to the contrary. Message being that gay persons are incapable of having a valid relationship with Jesus, Christ and/or God.

It is politics at its finest. Despicable, abhorrent, and downright Satanic - in that in his attempt to strip us of our human identity as sexual beings, he also attempts to strip us -- purposefully, and in the eyes of the voting public -- of our spiritual identities as well.

All in the name of “loving us,” in the name of Love itself (God).

You best keep your “love” for us Mr. Chambers, you’ll be needing it shortly, as you are in some deep deep karmic doo-doo.
~~~Alan Chambers: “they’re human beings”

How thoughtful of him to clarify that we’re not bloodthirsty baby-eating monsters.

And the oh-so ironic clincher: “And we’ve got to do a really good job of reaching out with Christ’s Love, to people who deserve it.”

As opposed to those of us who don’t deserve it, as in conditional love, as in the OPPOSITE of unconditional love, as in the opposite of God's Love.


Ergo, Satanic.
~~~Alan Chambers: "Absolutely. I am one of tens of thousands, if not more, of men and women who have found freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."

And for every one of those “tens of thousands” of ex-gays you churn out, Alan Chambers, you’ve managed to generate exponentially more atheists in the process. Directly and otherwise. I’ve met some of them, I am a witness to their fact.

All of whom (at least according to your "deeply held moral beliefs") are doomed to suffer the pain of burning alive for all eternity.

You recently stated: “There are many who do not share our beliefs, nor are they in conflict living as homosexuals. We respect this human right to self-determination. In the spirit of tolerance and diversity, we ask only for the same as well.”

Clearly you don’t “only” ask for the same as well, as the above video so perfectly highlights.
~~~Alan Chambers, the real truth is, that in the end, when you finally do see the truth of which you claim to speak, you will recognize and realize that God can’t make you forgive yourself.

I humbly suggest you take that sentiment to heart.

'Cause you’re in a mess of trouble, son.