I think it's worthy of note when someone who has done some really bad things makes a sincere apology, and we have an example of that today.
There's a group called Exodus International. It's a Christian group founded in 1976 that has provided some of the theological and ideological ammunition for the bogus outfits that claim to “cure” homosexuality. I can hardly conceive of the suffering that Exodus and groups like it have caused to people who were indoctrinated to hate themselves for being different.
I have to admit, this week we saw a serious, sincere, and meaningful apology from these people. I'm not kidding: they admitted they were wrong all along, they apologized for the suffering they caused, and they shut themselves down.
Take look at part of his apology, and then read the whole thing:
Yet, here I sit having hurt so many by failing to acknowledge the pain some affiliated with Exodus International caused, and by failing to share the whole truth about my own story. My good intentions matter very little and fail to diminish the pain and hurt others have experienced on my watch. The good that we have done at Exodus is overshadowed by all of this.
Friends and critics alike have said it’s not enough to simply change our message or website. I agree. I cannot simply move on and pretend that I have always been the friend that I long to be today. I understand why I am distrusted and why Exodus is hated.
It's hard to read this,and the rest of their post, and not believe that they're sincere. Plus, their action in shutting down the organization, at least as currently constituted, seems like a big, big deal.
I'm not one of the people they hurt by their actions, so I'm in no position to accept the apology, but in times like these, when every politician's change of position on marriage equality, however tardy, is rightly welcomed into the movement, this change seems as big as the unprecedented swing in public opinion we've seen in the last ten years.
It was difficult to believe and yet, there it was…with no wallop on the backside.
Christianity has gotten such a reputation for mean-spiritedness, irrationality and politically-driven hypocrisy. If humility and humanity become a trend, we, the legion-of-the-lapsed, will have to completely rethink our own prejudices!
This “apology” may or may not be sincere, Jack. The threat of his organization being sued and its tactics outlawed just when donations no longer fund the program (although the donation opportunity is apparently still being offered) may well make an organization’s president/CEO very “sincere.” With one good “apology,” he can head off all manner of financial damage, and frame it in the language of his faith, to boot.
Not to mention that he still opposes same-sex couples’ legal right to civil marriage – he’s seen the handwriting on the wall and has simply decided, with his board of directors, that it’s not cost-effective to fight on that front any more.
“Some have chosen to end their lives.”
Where is his and the organization’s statement of responsibility for the shaming, the rejection, the emotional pain and isolation, the futility and sense of failure when Exodus’s tactics did not work?
It is, Jack, an artful apology, and thank you for highlighting it. It might even be “sincere,” as far as that goes. But it’s a long, long way from making up for nearly 4 decades of Exodus’s lies and secrets and hypocrisy and enmity toward innocents who were conned into believing they had to earn the love of their judgmental and mistaken god.
NanuqFC
You can safely assume that you have created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. ~ Anne Lamott