Exodus International was a non-profit, interdenominational ex-gay Christian umbrella organization connecting organizations that sought to "help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires". Founded in 1976, Exodus International originally asserted that conversion therapy, the reorientation of same-sex attraction, was possible. In 2006, Exodus International had over 250 local ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries in 17 other countries. Although Exodus was formally an interdenominational Christian entity, it was most closely associated with Protestant and evangelical denominations.
In 2012, then president Alan Chambers renounced conversion therapy, saying it did not work and was harmful. The following year, Chambers closed the organization and apologized for the "pain and hurt" participants of their programs had experienced. Several other prominent former members, including John Paulk, have made similar apologies. While Exodus International no longer operates, many of its member ministries continue to do so, either forming new networks, joining existing ones such as the Exodus Global Alliance, or operating independently.
History
During the presidency of Sy Rogers in the 1990s, Exodus International had offices on five continents and declared that "all homosexual relationships are sinful."
Day of Truth
In 2007, Exodus International began supporting the Day of Truth, an event created by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in 2005 that challenges homosexuality. In 2009, the ADF announced they had passed on their leadership role for the event to Exodus. In October 2010, Exodus announced they would no longer support the event. President Alan Chambers stated they realised they needed to "equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they'd like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not", adding that the Day of Truth was becoming too divisive. Chambers said that Exodus had not changed its position on homosexuality, rather they were reevaluating how to best communicate their message. Focus on the Family subsequently took leadership of the event, and renamed it the Day of Dialogue.
Love Won Out
In 2009, Exodus International purchased the Love Won Out conferences from Focus on the Family. The conferences' purpose was "to exhort and equip Christian churches to respond in a Christ-like way to the issue of homosexuality." Love Won Out maintained that "[t]he sin of homosexual behavior, like all sins, can be forgiven and healed by the grace revealed in the life and death of Christ. All sexual sin affects the human personality like no other sin, for sexual issues run deep into our character, and change is slow and uphill - but is possible nonetheless." Love Won Out ceased to exist when Exodus International closed.
Renunciation of conversion therapy
In January 2012, Alan Chambers announced during his address to a Gay Christian Network conference, that "the majority of people that I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9% of them have not experienced a change in their orientation", and apologized for the previous Exodus slogan "Change Is Possible". While he believed that "any sexual activity outside a heterosexual, monogamous marriage is sinful according to the Bible", he was attempting to disassociate the group from "reparative therapy" and also step back from contentious political engagement. Speaking to The New York Times in July 2012, Chambers talked about how he believed gay people can have gay sex and still go to heaven. "But we've been asking people with same-sex attractions to overcome something in a way that we don't ask of anyone else [with other sins]."
In a shift in the organization's previous positions, Chambers stated in June 2012 that conversion therapy is potentially harmful to those participating and it does not work:
Closure
On May 28, 2013, Exodus International withdrew from the Exodus Global Alliance. On June 19, following a vote of the seven member board of directors at the organization's annual meeting in Irvine, California, the board of directors announced the impending closure of Exodus International.
Alan Chambers said that the board made the move "after a year of dialogue and prayer about the organization's place in a changing culture." Chambers repudiated one part of the organization's mission in a nearly hour-long talk at Exodus International's 38th annual meeting: