Christopher Austin
Claims to fame: Founder, Renew Ministries, Irving, Texas, “ex-gay”/“homosexual recovery” counselor at Church of Christ South MacArthur; ex-psychologist; ex-Sunday school teacher; felon; registered sex offender
Moral apex: Maybe the first time a client of Austin’s “ex-gay” program accused him of “engaging in improper sexual behavior that included ‘oral copulation and fondling’ during counseling sessions that spanned more than a year” during “touch therapy” — or maybe the child pornography found on Austin’s computer during the investigation of the sexual-assault charge — or maybe the time the second sexual-assault charge that stuck, costing Austin his therapy license and sham operation.
Ex-what? “Austin had started Renew Ministries, a counseling center run out of a church in Irving. He was affiliated with the National Association For Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Indeed, Austin taught a seminar at NARTH’s 2004 annual convention entitled, ‘Understanding and Treating Compulsive Sexual Behavior in Men with Value-Incongruent Homosexual Issues: A Multidimensional Approach.’” [Truth Wins Out, September 6, 2007]
“The large manual/workbook Christopher Austin had written for group,” recalled Mark Hufford, who first brought charges against Austin in 2002, “was full of behavioral changing methods and homework, with the promises that change was possible. Things quickly became very confusing when he offered freedom from homosexuality in 12 weeks, after I had already attended for 3 years. Some of the exercises within group meetings became confusing as well. Lying on top of one another, touching, an exercise where we had to write down our penis size at full erection (which was then read to the group aloud, without names). Other exercises included the rubber band snapping, naming your penis and having a daily conversation with it, and masturbating to heterosexual pornography or visualization.”
Tellingly, Austin’s wife, notes the Southern Poverty Law Center, “ran a program for the spouses of ‘husbands who struggle with homosexuality.’”
Sentence: Seven years probation and a $2,500 fine.
What about the child pornography charges? Nobody’s sure, but it appears they were dropped.
Where is he now? Last we checked, still in Irving, unemployed. You can keep an eye on him yourself through his record at the Texas Public Sex Offender registry.
Worth reading: The lengthy discussion on the ExGayWatch post, “Ex-Gay Counselor Chris Austin Convicted of Sexual Assault,” September 6, 2007
Memorable quote:
” I went to this individual for help, and my situation was abused and taken advantage of in a horrific way. The legal issues and law suits became overwhelming and I was hospitalized twice for suicide attempts. I felt shame and embarrassment for what happened, and frustrated that a man that proclaims to be a minister, therapist, and father could continue to hold recovery meetings, see clients, and still teach Sunday school after what he did. I always thought the Christian thing to do was own your actions and deal with it. After one hospital stay, my then wife, asked me to leave. She had had enough. I’d spent a lifetime trying to change something that wasn’t broken. …“In February of 2002, I met two individuals who where instrumental in my taking the steps to accepting myself as being gay, and that God still loved me for who I am. Since then, I have met numerous individuals, who support my action of exposing what was happening with this ministry and therapist. I am accepted and loved for who I am and I know that God does not intend for us to be something we are not.”
— Mark Hufford
Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Austin:
What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
— Job 13:2-5
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