Are you gay? Black? A woman? There's help!

This morning the roads were icy, so I had to take a different route to work. Reading the billboards along the side of Interstate 610, I saw something which literally made me pull over and take a picture:

In case you can't read the poster through my rain-covered windshield, it says:

"Questioned Homosexuality? Change is possible. Discover How - http://www.exodus.to"

The billboard was put up by a company called "Exodus International." Their website has, among other things, a link to a DVD called "Homosexuality 101 - where does it come from, is change possible, and how should Christians respond?", all for the bargain price of $15. Not only that, but Exodus International goes on to give a four step process to ridding yourself of the horror that is homosexuality. Steps one through three involve getting involved with a church and signing up to their newsletter. Step four, surprise, surprise, involves buying books from their bookstore.

I have gotten over the rage that used to build up inside of me when people refered to homosexuality as a "disease" - I understand that people generally fear that which they do not understand. I have even come to terms with the opposition to same-sex marriage - as Arthur Schopenhauer said, "all truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." I have confidence that fifty years from now, we will look back on this time when many opposed this self-evident truth in the same way we look back on segregation and the days before female suffrage. However, people turning a profit using a combination of fear and scripture - well, now that I think about it, I suppose there's nothing new at all about that at all!

Churches seem to make very good businesses - ironic considering I'll bet each employee of Exodus International could quote John 2:16*

John 2:16 - ...make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. (Christ clears the temple having found it being used as a marketplace)