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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
Why a Leading Conversion Therapy Organization Shut its Doors
Guest Host, Kevin Eckstrom, is the former editor-in-chief of Religion News Service and Communications Director at the Washington National Cathedral. He talks to Alan Chambers who sent shock waves through the Evangelical community when he shut down Exodus International, a network that worked to “re-orient” gays and lesbians through prayer and therapy. Alan and his wife Leslie talk about their new book, My Exodus: From Fear to Grace, as they try to distance themselves from conversion therapy, and how they deal with same-sex attraction in their marriage.
Two Men Try to “Pray Away the Gay” with Varying Results
Allen Calhoun, PhD candidate in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen, spent one year attending Regeneration, a faith-based organization that helps people struggling with sex and relations. He says the program worked–he is now straight and married to his wife Mary Ann.
Performance artist, activist, and scholar, Peter Toscano spent 17 years and over $30,000 on three continents trying to become straight and came to believe that the task was impossible. He now believes there is nothing wrong with being gay and Christian. Peterson is now married to his husband Glen Reteif.
Celibacy: A Third Way
Eve Tushnet author of, “I’m Gay, but I’m Not Switching to a Church That Supports Gay Marriage” found a third way to reconcile her lesbian orientation with her devout Catholic faith: celibacy. Other conservative Christians are also moving away from prescribing conversion therapy in favor of encouraging a celibate lifestyle.
