A gay dad who attended Exodus
International says a member of the ministry blamed his sexuality for
his son's death.
Jerry was among those interviewed for
an Our America profile on the world's largest “ex-gay”
group.
The episode aired Thursday, the day
after Exodus announced that it was closing its doors after nearly 40
years and the group's president, Alan Chambers, apologized to the gay
community.
(Related: Exodus'
Alan Chambers says he wants peace but won't say gay is OK.)
Soon after coming out gay seven years
ago, Jerry's son, who suffered from epilepsy since the age of 12,
suddenly died when he stopped breathing during an epileptic seizure.
He was 26.
“When I came back to town for the
funeral, one of the people from Exodus said to me, 'It was your
fault.'”
“He said, 'Well, the Lord took his
hand of protection off of your family because you chose the
homosexual lifestyle,'” he said.
Jerry said that a part of him believed
the message: “You almost feel like you deserve bad things because
you couldn't fix it. You couldn't overcome it. You couldn't conquer
it.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)