Veteran ex-gay leader John Smid recently acknowledged that, in his decades of ministry to make thousands of gay men turn straight, none had truly changed their sexual orientation, though many had changed their religious beliefs or their behavior.
Despite his own same-sex orientation, Smid plans to remain married to his wife, and he remains a Christian. Kudos, I say, to Smid for seeking to practice authenticity and congruence in body and spirit.
Longtime Exodus vice president Randy Thomas doesn’t feel the same way.
Thomas, who was nudged out of Exodus for unknown reasons this year, declares that Smid — one of his original ex-gay mentors — “renounced faith in Him.” In other words, Thomas lies about Smid’s faith and essentially condemns him to hell.
That condemnation, dear readers, is the mark of an insecure soul with little apparent grace – the most basic value of Christianity.
Thomas tries to reassure his readers that he won’t follow other leaders in “renouncing Christ or my beliefs.” But he already has. He renounced many of his Christian beliefs when he joined the extremist Exodus a decade ago. And Randy renounces the commonly accepted understanding of Christ every time he damns and ostracizes another soul for disclosing fraud and antifamily practices within the ex-gay industry — an industry that has already largely spat Thomas aside.
Thomas says: “A leader challenged me to make a decision that even if every Christian I knew fell away from the faith … would I stay committed to pursuing Christ?”
The lowercase christ that Thomas follows is not the New Testament dissident, outcast, redeemer, and savior. Thomas’s christ more closely resembles a modern-day Pontius Pilate who judges, ostracizes, jails, or crucifies any honest and moral soul who veers from the merciless policies of his empire.
Thomas lives his life as he thinks Jesus would: By emulating the cop who killed Him.
