Click Image to Visit DMLive.com
Respected radio broadcaster, author and speaker Dawson McAllister, whose youth-oriented call-in show is on over 140 radio stations nationwide, is the latest target of several gay websites after his ministry directed a gay blogger posing as a teenager struggling with his sexuality, to Exodus International. KnowThyNeighbor.org’s Greg Kimball describes McAllister as “an evil, calculated sneak who is reaching out across the country and hurting our gay youth while pretending to be a good person who just wants to help people.” He is leading the charge to paint McAllister and the carrier of his syndicated radio show, Clear Channel, as propagators of advice that is undeniably harmful to young people and families. Kimball went so far as to call Kiss 108, the popular Boston carrier of McAllister’s show, to ask the station’s program director if he knew the show was dispensing such negative advice and had a religious foundation. He is urging others to take a look at the other radio stations that “have contracted Dawson McAllister’s sleazy little enterprise.”
I have no doubt Dawson McAllister’s ministry pointed Kimball to Exodus; that’s where I was led when I approached him after one of his speaking engagements almost 20 years ago as a young man grappling with same-sex attraction. Dawson was the first person I ever heard specifically say that God loves gay people. It was Dawson’s affirmation of God’s love and desire to be in relationship with me that caused me to get help. I didn’t need anyone to tell me how bad homosexuality was; I needed someone to tell me how good God was. Dawson did and I am here today because of that. I can honestly say that Dawson McAllister changed my life, and by God’s grace he’s positively impacted the lives of countless others in the many years he’s poured out his life to help young people.
In 2005, when Dawson made the decision to switch from Christian radio to mainstream Top 40 stations he took the risk of being maligned by the likes of Kimball. However, he’s also reaching an audience that may not be listening to the local religious station but yet desperately needs to hear the hopeful message that Dawson offers. Dawson McAllister’s show is not overtly religious, just truthful. McAllister may know the source of all truth but he does not promote Christianity on his show.
However, if a listener calls in the HopeLine, he may be prayed for. He may be counseled to seek God. He may be directed to a Christian ministry like Exodus International, for it is only in Christ that we have any hope.
I find it interesting that Kimball is a regular listener of Dawson’s show and states that the host seems “helpful and genuine” and that his website “seems to reflect his show…and offers several methods of getting in touch with the show.” What Kimball found off-putting was the Christian advice and the recommendation to an “ex-gay ministry”—the very advice that forever altered my life. The advice that led to my redemption. The advice that may not be for him, but then again, he called under false pretenses.
I wonder what advice Kimball would have been given if he had stated the truth when he called—if he had confessed to being a 22-year-old gay blogger seemingly comfortable with his sexuality. He may not have received advice but a listening ear.
About Alan Chambers
Anything good is always going to get opposition. The Town Pastors initiative here in my town (in the North) is going well. Town Pastors are Christians (and one or two non-Christians) wandering around the town centre on a Friday and Saturday night/early hours of the morning, and we try to help people in need. Rands, you know what I look like – short, wearing glasses – and in a big florescent yellow jacket, I can look like someone who knows nothing about life, and that is what one or two people in the street have assumed, and been verbally dismissive/nasty. Some people are always going to assume the worst, or look for trouble where there isn’t any. But the vast majority of people we encounter are 100% supportive of us, try to give us money for our work, or to help our funds, most can’t believe we’d do what we do as volunteers, and we have helped so many people and we are starting to see the same people coming back to us now, asking questions about faith. They might be defensive the first couple of times, but we are seeing people on real journeys. God is at work. Some people will always try to cause trouble – mainly because they have been hurt, and so are suspicious of anyone who is doing good things selflessly, cos they don’t compute that with what they have experienced of the world. But God is at work! -x-
Anything good is always going to get opposition. The Town Pastors initiative here in my town (in the North) is going well. Town Pastors are Christians (and one or two non-Christians) wandering around the town centre on a Friday and Saturday night/early hours of the morning, and we try to help people in need. Rands, you know what I look like – short, wearing glasses – and in a big florescent yellow jacket, I can look like someone who knows nothing about life, and that is what one or two people in the street have assumed, and been verbally dismissive/nasty. Some people are always going to assume the worst, or look for trouble where there isn’t any. But the vast majority of people we encounter are 100% supportive of us, try to give us money for our work, or to help our funds, most can’t believe we’d do what we do as volunteers, and we have helped so many people and we are starting to see the same people coming back to us now, asking questions about faith. They might be defensive the first couple of times, but we are seeing people on real journeys. God is at work. Some people will always try to cause trouble – mainly because they have been hurt, and so are suspicious of anyone who is doing good things selflessly, cos they don’t compute that with what they have experienced of the world. But God is at work! -x-
Ephesians 6:12 says:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
There truly is a war going on, so I am not surprised when things of this nature happen…All I can say is stand your ground, believers…stand your ground!
Ephesians 6:12 says:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
There truly is a war going on, so I am not surprised when things of this nature happen…All I can say is stand your ground, believers…stand your ground!
It always amazes me at how “narrow the pathway” really is.
It always amazes me at how “narrow the pathway” really is.