’Ex-Gay’ Christian Blogger Caught on Grindr
An "ex-gay" blogger who wrote for the Christian Post about how he was cured of his homosexuality was recently spotted on the gay geosocial hookup app, Grindr, Gawker reports.
In Matt Moore's lengthy piece for the Post last year, titled, "My Story: Homosexuality, Drunkenness, Grace and Redemption," he writes how Christianity has helped him leave his gay lifestyle - at least until he discovered Grindr.
"I can, in truth, firmly say that the longer I keep turning away from my homosexual desires, the less in strength they become," Moore wrote for the publication. In August, however, Moore, 23, wrote that he was still having urges to have sex with men.
"Although I have same sex thoughts on a daily basis, I do not, in any way, feel compelled to ever return to a lifestyle of homosexuality," he wrote. Just last week Moore blogged that he was suffering from "overwhelming loneliness."
"Many, many days I have failed to fight perfectly. I have at many times in my walk stooped down and willingly spoon-fed myself the familiar, vile vomit that is sin. Yet, in each and every one of my failures- I was given grace; grace to repent and to keep following after Jesus," Moore wrote.
Apparently Moore had a moment of weakness recently as Zinnia Jones of Freethought Blogs exposed the "ex-gay" was cruising Grindr and looking for "special friends."
Initially, Jones suspected the profile may be fake, as she was tipped off by a reader and Moore's Grindr profile picture was the same as his Post's profile picture. He didn't deny that he was using Grindr, however, and admitted to Jones that he has given into temptation once again.
"I am wrong in having been on grindr. I haven't changed my views on homosexuality, the bible, etc.," he told Jones. "Creating a grindr profile and talking to guys on it was major disobedience on my part....disobedience to Christ. Disobedience to a loving and gracious God. Thankfully, I believe that He forgives me for this disobedience. I believe the blood of Christ covers this disobedience. And I won't be on grindr again....ever."
He also added that he told his pastor he was on Grindr before the news broke. Still, Jones applauded Moore for owning up that he was on Grindr but was also disappointed by his hypocrisy.
"So-called 'ex-gays' publicly promote the notion that LGBT people are sinning against a god who will torture them eternally if they fail to suppress and deny their true nature," she wrote on her blog. "But privately, they often seem to have trouble practicing what they preach."
Moore also expressed his "ex-gay" views in interviews with Christian websites and has been involved with events like the Overcomers SSA Conference - a conference aimed to "help men, women, and families struggling with Same Sex Attraction."
The "ex-gay" movement has been delegitimized a number of times last year: in October, California became the first state to ban teen conversion therapy and in November four gay men sued a New Jersey conversion therapy group that claimed it can turn gay men straight.
In April, Robert Spitzer, a psychiatrist who published a controversial study in 2001 that claimed gays could become straight through psychotherapy, retracted his findings and apologized. He even said that conversion therapy "can be quite harmful."
"In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques are largely correct," Spitzer said. "The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more."
The controversial movement took a major hit when Alan Chambers, the leader of the country's largest "ex-gay" Christian organization Exodus International, echoed Spitzer's sentiments and told the New York Times that conversion therapy is ineffective and can be harmful. He also told the publication that almost every "ex-gay" he met still has attractions to people have the same-sex, including himself.
"I believe that any sexual expression outside of heterosexual, monogamous marriage is sinful according to the Bible," Chambers said. "But we've been asking people with same-sex attractions to overcome something in a way that we don't ask of anyone else."
It should be noted that every major American medical authority has stated there is no support that claims conversion therapy works.