You may want to put this mesmerizing tome on your Amazon wishlist for the holidays. The leader of the “pray-away-the-gay” organization Exodus International, the dapper Alan Chambers, has penned Leaving Homosexuality. He sat down with CitizenLink's editor Gary Schneeberger to talk about his 20-year struggle to contain his unwanted same-sex attractions through faith.

Schneeberger: Now, I’ve heard it, and you’ve heard it: Gay activists are going to read that and say, again, “Alan Chambers is living a lie. He’s suppressing who he really is.” You make a great point in the book that is very applicable to anyone who struggles with any temptation — and that is, self-denial isn’t a bad thing. How do you respond to those who say you’re just living a lie?

Chambers: For so long I’ve heard gay activists say to me, “You’re just in denial. You’re not grasping the reality of the situation. You’re just denying who you really are.” The truth is, I am in denial, but it is self-denial. I’m not in denial of who I used to be. I’m not in denial of the temptations that I could still experience. I am denying the power that sin has over me.

Sin does not have any power that we don’t give it, and what I’ve found is that my freedom – and the freedom of others I’ve known who’ve left homosexuality — was centered around denying what might come naturally to us regardless of how it got there. And once you deny sin’s power, you can live a free life.

The most authentic part of my life is first and foremost my relationship with Christ, but sitting here where I’m doing this interview in my back yard — with my kids and with my wife — this is who I am. This is who I want to be. This is the truth of my life. This is who I was created to be. And this is what brings me happiness.

I don't have a problem with Chambers and his personal desire to identify as heterosexual or celibate or anything of the sort. He can deny the natural sexual orientation that he believes God mistakenly gave him. He clearly sees same-sex attraction as a “biological error” of some kind that he has to deal with in the context of his religious beliefs. That's his worldview. At least he's true to himself.

The problem I have with Chambers and Exodus is that they profit on this point of view, only adding to the suffering of those who are struggling with their sexual orientation because of homophobia in our society. This is particularly onerous if the questioning people are of faith — in the world of the ex-gay movement there is no religious affirmation that being LGBT is not sinful or a roadblock to heaven.

It is a movement that takes its disinformation around the country in roadshows like Love Won Out, where parents of LGBT youth who are in denial about their child's orientation, are told that they can send their kid away to a camp to be de-gayed by prayer and receive ”gender-appropriate” coaching on how to be a masculine man or feminine woman. Chambers is aware this is a huge PR problem, so to sell his book, he blunts this fact with the soft sell:

Schneeberger: Some parents and friends of those who identify as homosexual are going to see this book and think, “I’m going to just drop this off for so-and-so.” But I know that’s not the ideal way you see this kind of resource being used. How should those who have a loved one living homosexually use the book? Why is it a bad idea to go just drop this off if someone may not be in the place where they can receive it?

Chambers: Certainly parents or family and friends are well-meaning in their desire to help their loved ones dealing with these issues. But it goes back to the premise that leaving homosexuality isn’t the point. If they have a loved one who doesn’t know the Lord, homosexuality should be a very back-burner issue. The most important thing for someone who doesn’t know the Lord is that they know Christ, not that they leave homosexuality.

So for a parent or a loved one who sees this as, “This is so good; I’m going to send this to my kid,” you may alienate them, turn them off. If they pray about it, if there’s a conversation about it, if it’s done in a respectful way, maybe that could be the right thing. But we have to really respect, regardless of whether we like it or not, where our kids are at in their journey. And if they’re not in a place where they’re looking to leave homosexuality, it might just send them further away or alienate them more if we continually make this a priority issue in our relationship.

OK, talk about walking the tightrope on that one. Clearly Chambers wants to have it both ways. He wants parents to buy the book, and then the onus is on them to be ones to decide if it's appropriate to pass on the propaganda to the kids. The mothers and fathers most likely to buy this book are ill-informed about homosexuality and or the process of coming out to begin with; that are already negatively predisposed to the issue and the kid's only going to end up confused and alienated no matter what escape hatch Chambers tries to create to ensure healthy book sales.