Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Exodus International dropping support of anti-gay event Day of Truth

From the Department of What Took Them So Long:

A national Christian organization will stop sponsoring an annual event that encourages school students to "counter the promotion of homosexual behavior" because the event has become too divisive and confrontational, the group's president told CNN on Wednesday.

"All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they'd like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not," said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the group that sponsored the event this year.

Called the Day of Truth, the annual April event has been pushed by influential conservative Christian groups as a way to counter to the annual Day of Silence, an event promoted by gay rights advocates to highlight threats against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

The Day of Truth, held on the same day as the Day of Silence, "was established to counter the promotion of homosexual behavior and to express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective," according to a manual for this year's event published by Exodus International.

On the Day of Silence, students take a "a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools," according to a web site run by the event's sponsor, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

The Day of Silence began in 1996. The Day of Truth started in 2005 and attracted the participation of 6,000 students nationwide this year, Chambers said.

"I thank Exodus for making this very important step," said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard on Wednesday after hearing of Exodus' decision. "The Day of Truth was an effort to push a very specific set of opinions about homosexuality into schools in a way that was inappropriate and divisive."
More here

It's a nice article but let's be honest. The Day of Truth was a flop from the beginning. It was a bad idea pushing bad information on children. Compared to the Day of Silence, the Day of Truth paled like snow. It got very little support and even less media attention, unlike the Day of Silence, which so many folks got on board. Exodus International probably pulled support from Day of Truth to save face.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Hat tip to Truth Wins Out

Related posts:

Religious right 'Day of Truth' peddles same old lies to youth

Whatever happened to the Day of Truth?

Day after the Day of Truth - another Day of Silence

Day of Truth? Give me a break!!


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