Last month — almost nine months after Exodus International was warned by watchdogs including Truth Wins Out that its collaboration with extremists would lead to vigilantism and death in Uganda — Exodus President Alan Chambers claimed he had been unaware all along that conference co-speaker Scott Lively was a Holocaust revisionist who favored severe punishment, forced ex-gay brainwashing, or execution for homosexuals.
Having ignored or forgotten numerous warnings, and upon this supposed sudden realization, Chambers and colleagues belatedly released a letter of mild opposition to Uganda’s death penalty plan. The letter did not acknowledge that LGBT people have any human rights; instead, it merely argued that criminalization makes evangelical coercion and conversion more difficult.
Don Schmierer — the Exodus board member who co-keynoted the conference which launched Uganda’s genocide and brainwashing campaign — initially declined to sign the letter. (He signed, and pleaded ignorance about his conference’s purpose and co-speakers, weeks later.)
Now we may know why he actually was reluctant to sign:
On March 14, a passenger on a flight from the United States to Europe said:
Last week I sat next to this guy (Don Schmierer) on a flight from USA to Europe. He was on his way to Uganda to speak at a conference there on how to convert people from homosexuality.
We started talking and he was interesting. He was a nice guy, moderate in tone and personality, and concerned not to offend me in case I had different views.
Of course, he has batsh!t crazy ideas that The Gay is caused by a domineering parent, or neglected kids or broken homes. Or something. Whatever, it’s a 100% acquired condition. Also the Nazis were all gay.
He works for Exodus International, which apparently is the leading Christian ministry focusing on the ex-gay (conversion) thing. They are not short of cash as it’s funded by billionaire Howard Ahmanson. Africa is a big focus for them – it’s religious and predominantly anti-gay, and Exodus wants to keep it that way.
Anyway, if anyone wants “Preventing the Homosexual Condition in Today’s Youth” I now have a copy.
According to this passenger, Schmierer knew about and agreed with Lively’s Holocaust revisionism from the start.
One wonders if Schmierer was drinking during this flight, for it seems that he made another astonishing disclosure, this one about Exodus’ major source of cash. Howard Ahmanson is a man long associated with modern Christian Reconstructionism, a modern theocratic philosophy which appeals to followers’ false sense of tradition and authoritarianism through throwbacks to Biblical death penalties for conditions deemed offensive by an unfree, ancient, and uneducated society.
Schmierer was previously known to be a financial adviser to Ahmanson; now, it would seem, Exodus may be receiving substantial financial support directly or indirectly from Ahmanson.
However reckless, negligent, and intentionally forgetful Chambers may be, it is becoming clear that Schmierer has known all along, exactly what he was supporting in Uganda. We are left to wonder whether Exodus values Schmierer’s financial support and political connections so much that it is willing to risk participation in Holocaust revisionism and international violence in order to retain Schmierer’s support and access to power.
Hat tip: Commenters at Ex-Gay Watch and Box Turtle Bulletin
