Free indeed

Homosexuality | Exodus International celebrates 30 years of helping thousands of gays | Jamie Dean

Alan Chambers was a youth pastor's "dream kid": president of the youth group, a member of the youth choir, sure to be at church every time the doors opened. He was a role model to other kids and a trouble-free son to his Christian parents. But Mr. Chambers, now 33, was also the keeper of a dark secret.

Behind the veneer, Mr. Chambers struggled with homosexual impulses. By middle school he was acting out on the impulses, though he knew his actions were wrong: "I knew that I knew that I knew that what the preacher said about homosexuality being a sin was true, but I still struggled."

He sought connections and male affection through homosexual encounters in middle school, high school, and part of college, but that activity "never met the need I was looking for it to meet." He tried to conceal his secret, but when Mr. Chambers was 18 an older brother "asked me if I was gay, and I said yes." He agreed to attend his brother's church and found what he was looking for: connection in a meaningful relationship with Christ and other believers.