Exodus International, the largest ex-gay ministry has announced that it’s closing its doors after three-plus decades of ministry.

Up until recently, Exodus maintained that homosexuality could be ‘cured’ by therapy and prayer despite the American Psychiatric Association’s 15-year-old statement that such treatment could lead to depression and anxiety.

Exodus President Alan Chambers, who has struggled with same-sex attraction, has sent out a public apology in relation to their controversial and damaging techniques to ‘cure’ homosexuality.

“Exodus is an institution in the conservative Christian world, but we’ve ceased to be a living, breathing organism,” said Chambers. “For quite some time we’ve been imprisoned in a worldview that’s neither honoring toward our fellow human beings, nor biblical.

“It is strange to be someone who has both been hurt by the Church’s treatment of the LGBTQ community, and also to be someone who must apologize for being part of the very system of ignorance that perpetuated that hurt,” said Chambers. “Today it is as if I’ve just woken up to a greater sense of how painful it is to be a sinner in the hands of an angry church.”

He continued “I am sorry for the pain and hurt that many of you have experienced.  I am sorry some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents.

“More than anything, I am sorry that so many have interpreted this religious rejection by Christians as God’s rejection.  I am profoundly sorry that many have walked away from their faith and that some have chosen to end their lives.”

He ended his letter with “I cannot apologize for my deeply held biblical beliefs about the boundaries I see in scripture surrounding sex, but I will exercise my beliefs with great care and respect for those who do not share them.  I cannot apologize for my beliefs about marriage. But I do not have any desire to fight you on your beliefs or the rights that you seek.”