Courage
- This article is about Courage, the gay-affirming evangelical group. For the UK branch of the Courage International, a Roman Catholic organisation promoting abstince, see EnCourage.
Courage is an evangelical Christian group ministering to gay and lesbian Christians.
Courage was founded in 1988 by Jeremy Marks. It initially promoted abstinence on the part of gay people, and was a member of the "ex-gay" movement Exodus International. It ran discipleship programmes with a view to helping people "come out" of homosexuality. However, practical experience proved this to be a counter-productive approach. In 2001, Jeremy Marks wrote in the journal Lesbian and Gay Christians, "I have come to the conclusion that we have been quite wrong to dismiss all same sex love (other than platonic) as sinful."[1]
Since then, the mission of Courage has been to support gay and lesbian Christians who are in same-sex relationships, as well as those who still find a conflict between their sexuality and their faith. In particular it provides support to gay people who, like Jeremy Marks himself, are in opposite-sex marriages.
As a direct result of the New Approach, Courage took a "sabbatical" from Exodus International.[2] and was forced to resign from the Evangelical Alliance.[1]
In August 2012, Jeremy Marks announced that he was retiring from leadership of Courage, and that the organisation itself would be wound up, to be replaced by a new organisation called Two:23.
Further reading
Jeremy Marks, Exchanging the truth of God for a lie, published by Courage UK, 2009. ISBN 978-1-903905-45-6
Jeremy Marks, Chapter 28 "Courage UK, 1988–" in Out of the Shadows.
External sites
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=166&sec=20&cont=5 News article in WorldWide Religious News, 6 April 2001.
- ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2001_March_13/ai_71763682 News article in The Advocate, 13 March 2001
