Former “ex-gay” leader Alan Chambers charged with soliciting a minor
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The former leader of Exodus International, a Christian ministry that once argued they could “pray away the gay,” has been charged with trying to solicit a minor.
As if we needed another reminder that good judgment was never his strong suit.
Alan Chambers made headlines in 2012 when, as president of the largest and most well-known “ex-gay” group, he admitted that homosexual couldn’t actually be cured, that “conversion therapy” didn’t work, and that he personally believed gay people (who didn’t repent) could still go to Heaven. Chambers himself was gay, but he had always insisted he turned straight, got married to a woman, and adopted two children together. All this despite harboring same-sex attractions because of course he still did.
By 2013, Exodus International shut down entirely.
That same year, Chambers issued a formal apology about his role in promoting that harmful misinformation that ruined countless lives:
… And then there is the trauma that I have caused. There were several years that I conveniently omitted my ongoing same-sex attractions. I was afraid to share them as readily and easily as I do today. They brought me tremendous shame and I hid them in the hopes they would go away. Looking back, it seems so odd that I thought I could do something to make them stop. Today, however, I accept these feelings as parts of my life that will likely always be there. The days of feeling shame over being human in that way are long over, and I feel free simply accepting myself as my wife and family does. As my friends do. As God does.
Never in a million years would I intentionally hurt another person. Yet, here I sit having hurt so many by failing to acknowledge the pain some affiliated with Exodus International caused, and by failing to share the whole truth about my own story. My good intentions matter very little and fail to diminish the pain and hurt others have experienced on my watch. The good that we have done at Exodus is overshadowed by all of this.
Friends and critics alike have said it’s not enough to simply change our message or website. I agree. I cannot simply move on and pretend that I have always been the friend that I long to be today. I understand why I am distrusted and why Exodus is hated.
Please know that I am deeply sorry. I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents. I am sorry that there were times I didn’t stand up to people publicly “on my side” who called you names like sodomite—or worse. I am sorry that I, knowing some of you so well, failed to share publicly that the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that when I celebrated a person coming to Christ and surrendering their sexuality to Him that I callously celebrated the end of relationships that broke your heart. I am sorry that I have communicated that you and your families are less than me and mine.
Was that sincere? I suppose. But even if there’s been growing acceptance (even among conservatives) that people don’t choose to be gay or lesbian, we’re still living in a country where right-wing zealots and evangelical Christians believe kids are groomed to become transgender, as if that too is a choice. Chambers’ apology may have been heartfelt but he was right to realize he wasn’t about to be forgiven for what he unleashed upon the world.
I probably hadn’t heard Chambers’ name mentioned in over a decade until this week, when he was arrested for allegedly trying to meet someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy. He had actually been talking to an undercover officer the whole time.
Orange County court records show that the charges against him include “solicitation of a minor via computer,” “transmission of material harmful to minors,” and “unlawful use of a two-way communication device.”
WFTV news got ahold of the affidavit which offers more details:
According to the affidavit, the detective identified himself [on Snapchat] as a 14-year-old boy living in Orlando.
The user identified himself as a 50-year-old man named “John David,” and told the undercover detective he lived in Orlando and later moved the conversation to text messages and Telegram, investigators said.
…
According to the affidavit, the user repeatedly discussed meeting and engaging in sexual activity with the person he believed was a teenager.
Investigators said the user also repeatedly expressed concern about the age difference and the possibility of getting in trouble.
…
When asked whether he communicated with any children, investigators said Chambers told them he communicated with one person he identified as a codename, who was 14 years old and whom he met on Snapchat.
According to the affidavit, Chambers told investigators they discussed meeting but would not specify why.
The facts aren’t looking great for him. Which is disturbing not just because of what he appears to have done but because, by all accounts, he had finally moved on from his past. In 2016, he delivered sermons at Washington National Cathedral and marched in Pride parades. More recently, he was an executive for a fashion company and still in the public eye. Even in recent profiles, he didn’t hide his past:
He says there that his post-Exodus life “has changed me—helped me become a better father, a better husband and a better leader.” (Which, I know, still doesn’t make up for the harm he caused.)
So what led him to pursue a child and not just use something like Grindr? Who knows. He didn’t speak for LGBTQ people before and he sure as hell doesn’t now. But you can bet conservative will attempt to use this as proof that gay people are groomers. Chambers was a useful tool for the right in the past and some things never change.
In that sense, it’s disturbing that this is how he’s resurfacing. He’s no longer someone who’s made peace with the damage he caused and has ideas for how to make amends for it. Instead, he’s someone accused of trying to exploit a child. He went from enemy, to pariah, to accused predator. There’s no redemption in that arc. After spending years fueling moral panics about LGBTQ people, he’s now accused of behavior far worse than the lies he used to spread.
But that’s also where conservatives should tread carefully. Chambers represents no one but himself. There are predators in churches and politics, as we know all too well, and there’s nothing the right can say about Chambers when they’re turning a blind eye to the Epstein files and their own megachurches.
What we should be talking about is the culture of repression and secrecy and fear that still exists among many people with same-sex attraction. That culture creates an environment for all kinds of poor decisions. In some ways, Alan Chambers is both an architect and casualty of that culture.
May 18, 2026 – Elizabeth Cavell to Speak on State/Church Separation Litigation (Skokie, Ill.)
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
RSVP here.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation Metropolitan Chicago Chapter (FFRFMCC) is pleased to host a special speaking engagement featuring Elizabeth Cavell, deputy legal director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Monday, May 18, 2026, at the Skokie Public Library in Skokie, Illinois.
Cavell will present an overview of recent court cases involving state/church separation and provide attendees with an update on the current work of FFRF’s legal department based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her presentation will highlight ongoing constitutional challenges and the organization’s efforts to defend the rights of nonbelievers.
The event will take place from 6:45 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Skokie Public Library, located at 5215 Oakton St., Skokie, IL 60077. The presentation will last approximately one hour and will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A session. Light refreshments will be served.
The event is open to the public, and all are welcome to attend. Those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP in advance through the chapter’s event registration page by clicking here.
The post May 18, 2026 – Elizabeth Cavell to Speak on State/Church Separation Litigation (Skokie, Ill.) appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Trump-backed Christian nationalist rally falls flat on National Mall
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation reports that Sunday’s Christian nationalist prayer rally on the National Mall failed to inspire the massive turnout or enthusiasm its organizers promised.
Despite promotion from President Trump’s allies and appearances from top administration officials, only thousands attended the government-sponsored prayer fest in Washington, D.C. — far below the 80,000-plus turnout anticipated by delusional Pastor Robert Jeffress.
Even Trump appeared to treat the rally, formally known as “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving,” as an afterthought, sending only a video message. Rather than bothering to record a dedicated address for the prayer rally, Trump provided a rerun, a video he (inappropriately) recorded last month for a bible-reading marathon last month. In the recycled Oval Office video, Trump recited a passage from 2 Chronicles favored by Christian nationalists. Trump’s only fresh acknowledgment of the event came in a Truth Social post Sunday morning saying: “I HOPE EVERYBODY AT REDEDICATE 250 IS HAVING A GOOD TIME … I’M BACK FROM CHINA!!!”
Throughout the rally, public officials repeatedly fused religious doctrine with national identity and repeated the Christian nationalist Big Lies that the United States was founded “under God” and as a Christian nation.
Quite to the contrary.
“We live under a godless Constitution whose only references to religion are exclusionary,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, who was in the nation’s capital yesterday to protest the government-sponsored prayer revival. “America was founded on Enlightenment principles, not biblical authority. No amount of prayer rallies or revisionist history can erase that.”
The revival was staged beneath towering faux stained-glass altar displays featuring a large white cross emblazoned over rotating revolutionary images, such as a depiction from the John Trumbull Declaration of Independence 1818 painting showing the Declaration’s signing. The false claim that the United States was founded as a Christian nation was repeatedly invoked throughout the day by elected officials, cabinet members and religious leaders.
Vice President JD Vance, also in a video, wrongly declared that America has “always been, and still are, a nation of prayer,” claiming “our faith was the ground upon which America stands.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a video statement likewise claimed Christianity defined the nation from the beginning. “With the dark storm clouds of war looming on the horizon, they did what Christians have always done across place and time for 2,000 years,” Rubio said of the Founders. “They turned their eyes to heaven and placed their faith in the hands of God.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told attendees in video remarks that America’s Founders “knelt” and sought God’s guidance before independence. “Now today, exactly 250 years later, we gather here on the National Mall to do the same,” Gabbard said, “to give thanks, to ask for forgiveness, and to humbly ask once more for God’s mercy and guidance.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appeared in person, urged Americans to pray “on bended knee” to Jesus Christ, invoking George Washington at Valley Forge as an example — a piece of Christian nationalist disinformation. After the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Museum of the Bible, which owns the 1975 painting by Arnold Friberg of Washington kneeling in the snow, the museum display was changed to say it depicts what “many believe Washington” did, as the New York Times recently reported.
In his remarks, Hegseth added, “Let us ask our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as Washington did on that momentous day, ‘So help us God.’”
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who also appeared in person, repeatedly insisted that Christianity and prayer were foundational to the nation. He began his remarks asking, “How many love Jesus,” to huge cheers. “There is no way to grasp the last 250 years of America without looking to the power of prayer,” Scott said. “Our rights don’t come from government, they come from God.”
Pastor Jeffress openly embraced the label “Christian nationalist.” “If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,” Jeffress told the crowd.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who appeared in person, led an extended prayer declaring that the United States was founded on “biblical and foundational principle[s]” and formally “rededicate[d] the United States of America as ‘One Nation, Under God.’” Johnson, who as speaker is third in line to the presidency, also condemned what he called attacks on America’s “moral and spiritual identity,” while asserting that Americans’ rights “do not derive from the government, they come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father.”
FFRF warned ahead of the event that the rally would promote pseudohistory and Christian nationalism, an ideology asserting that a preferred version of Christianity should be privileged in American government and public life.
Counterprotests on the day of the rally highlighted growing opposition to theocracy and religious favoritism in government. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and Faithful America displayed a giant inflatable golden calf with Trump’s face on the National Mall, mocking the idolatrous merging of religion and Trump-style politics. FFRF leased two digital billboard trucks to carry the message, “Democracy Not Theocracy” around the Mall. The Interfaith Alliance projected protest messages onto the National Gallery of Art, reading: “Democracy not theocracy” and “The separation of church and state is good for both.”
FFRF filed a Freedom of Information Act request two months ago, and appealed the denial. It is now awaiting promised records related to the planning, coordination and use of government resources connected to the event, including communications involving federal agencies and public officials who participated in the rally.
The underwhelming turnout undercuts claims that Christian nationalism represents a broad national movement, as documented by a Pew study released days before the rally showing that Americans reject efforts to merge church and state.
“The growing resistance to flagrant violations of the separation of state and church, like this ‘Rededicate 250’ boondoggle, demonstrates that Americans in this semiquincentennial year still revere secular government and religious freedom for all — not government-sponsored Christianity,” Gaylor adds.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
The post Trump-backed Christian nationalist rally falls flat on National Mall appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Mary Miller’s “In God We Trust” bill is Christian Nationalism in a nutshell
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In a symbolic move intended to promote Christian Nationalism while helping nobody, Illinois Rep. Mary Miller—one of the more bigoted Republicans in a party full of them—introduced a bill that would force all federal buildings to display or inscribe the words “In God We Trust.”
The Hitler-praising Miller, who once said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a “victory for white life,” said “We will never apologize for being one nation that places its trust in Almighty God.”
The bill itself doesn’t go into much detail other than to say this:
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of General Services shall inscribe or display in a place of prominence on every public building the national motto of the United States…
Miller’s press release is unintentionally hilarious because, while attempting to explain how the phrase is central to “America’s 250th anniversary,” she basically admits no one used the phrase until well after the country’s founding:
“In God We Trust” was first minted on U.S. coins in 1864, during the Civil War. In 1956, it was designated as the national motto after the bill was passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Exactly. This wasn’t a phrase anyone really gave a damn about until the 1950s when conservatives also shoved “Under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” onto paper money. It’s not like the Founders were saying it while signing the Constitution.
But no one would expect Miller to be a champion of religious neutrality. She’s the same person who said of an invocation last year that it was “troubling” that a Muslim “was allowed to lead prayer” in the House. “This should have never been allowed to happen,” she added, because “America was founded as a Christian nation.”
The invocation speaker wasn’t Muslim. He was Sikh. She was in such a rush to discriminate against a brown person, she bigoted wrong.
That’s the Christian who’s now trying to force religion in public spaces.
She’s the worst example of a public servant and the sort of hateful person you hope your children never grow up to become. But she thinks forcing her religion onto everyone else will somehow make everything better, all while she goes out of her way to defend Donald Trump at every turn.
There’s no indication of how much this bill would cost if implemented. Or why it’s needed. Or how this will help regular Americans with the actual problems they’re facing, largely due to her party. People are drowning in debt, struggling to afford housing, paying more at gas stations because of Trump’s unnecessary war, and wondering if their children will have fewer rights than they did. And Miller’s contribution to solving any of that is decorative theology. It’s not like she’s doing this alone, though. Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a companion bill last September; no action’s been taken on it yet.
This isn’t really even about faith. If Miller cared about convincing people to become Christian, she might spend her time feeding the hungry, helping immigrants, and protecting children. She sees faith as nothing more than political branding for her allies.
If Illinois Democrats ever decide to get strategic, they’ll gerrymander the state in response to GOP map-rigging, making it fully Democratic, pushing Miller out of office entirely. They’ll be doing a favor to everyone who respects the Constitution.
Christian megachurch founder Brian Houston shared adult content on social media. Again.
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A well-known Christian pastor has ONCE AGAIN been caught publicly sharing adult content on social media, leading him to make up wild excuses for why that couldn’t possibly have been his fault.
Is this the most important story in the world? Not even close.
Is it hilarious? Absolutely. And we all deserve some joy. So let’s dig in.
In the early hours on Thursday morning, Pastor Brian Houston reposted a video on X/Twitter from an account called “The Classic Pornostar Era 80/90/2000.”
The actual NSFW image can be seen here if you dare to click. Writer David Farrier, who documented all of this, described the incident this way:
The latest incident happened in the early hours of this morning [on] X, where Brian has 544,000 followers.
… he shared 8 minutes and 23 seconds of hardcore porn, featuring two French porn stars from the 70s. I counted six different positions, and saw a lot of semen – which is what I imagine Houston also saw at 2am when he accidentally hit the “share” button…
Chef’s kiss.
Maybe he deserves some credit. The guy wants to turn the clock back so badly, he only shares porn that’s five decades old.
The issue, of course, isn’t that the man is watching adult content. Or even that he accidentally pushed a share button (though, I would just point out, on the X/Twitter app, you need to click TWICE to repost anything). The issue is that Houston is one of those holier-than-thou Christians who would normally condemn this sort of thing as a sin.
But this isn’t even the first time this has happened.
In 2024, Houston was called out after he posted a bizarre tweet reading simply “Ladies and girls kissing.”
It might have gone unnoticed if Houston wasn’t the sort of person with over half a million followers. He’s the founder and former global senior pastor of Hillsong Church—an evangelical megachurch that began in Australia and has a number of affiliates worldwide. It’s also extremely controversial.
There were the “moral failures” of hipster pastor Carl Lentz of their New York affiliate. And the financial and leadership failures of Reed and Jess Bogard of their Dallas affiliate. And the COVID-related death of a church member who happened to be an anti-vaxxer. And the 60 Minutes Australia segment that documented even more allegations of sexual abuse by Hillsong leaders so egregious that reporter Tom Steinfort said the church was guilty of “indifference to the victims’ suffering so heartless it would surely make Jesus weep.”
In 2021, Houston was arrested on charges that he concealed child sexual abuse that he supposedly knew about… because the alleged culprit was his own father. In 2023, however, he was acquitted of those charges.
Anyway. Back to “Ladies and girls kissing.”
That tweet remained up for about 16 minutes before it was deleted and Houston tweeted that his account had been broken into:
(If the timestamps looks strange, it’s because those screenshots are coming from different sources, but the actual time difference was 16 minutes between tweets.)
That was later followed up by a different statement from one of his assistants clarifying that, yes, Internet Haters, this was totally a hack:
“Please disregard anything that seems out of the normal” was a very strange request when so much of Houston’s behavior had been abnormal.
With all that in mind, though, did anyone really believe this was a hack? Who goes through all the trouble to hack someone’s account, only to post those four words? Why not change the password? Why not post a more scandalous image? (If you wanted to make a prominent pastor look bad, there are far more troubling things you could do.)
And who recovers from a hack in 16 minutes? I’ve been hacked before. It took days to full regain access to my account.
And why was he allegedly following a salacious account on Instagram?
And why, when he attempted to “prove” he was hacked, did this (now-deleted) tweet point to a totally different account?
The alternative theory here was that Houston was doing an online search late at night… without realizing he was making it public. (In a very Ed Balls sort of way.) It was certainly plausible. Houston was 70 at the time. No one was accusing the guy of being tech-savvy. He wouldn’t be the first person who didn’t realize his private thoughts were actually public—Ted Cruz beat him to it. Hell, a former Australian politician used the same excuse in the very same month.
Also, you’re far more likely to be careless when you’re typing with one hand.
But even if we assumed Houston was performing a search, it raised more disturbing questions. Like: What the hell sort of search is that?! If you’re searching for two women kissing, why would you search for “ladies and girls”? Is that overly formal or just plain weird? Should we have been more disturbed by the inclusion of “girls”? Was this the sort of guy who visited PornHub and searched for “boob”?
His style was almost as awkward as trying to sext someone by saying “I’d like to kiss and cuddle you”… which happened to be exactly what Brian Houston once texted to a staff member:
The Hillsong Global Board on Friday afternoon sent a letter to church members, leaked to the ABC, about complaints made about Mr Houston’s conduct in 2013 and 2019.
…
The first incident, detailed in the letter and by Pastor Dooley, involved “inappropriate text messages” sent to a female staffer which led to her resigning.
Pastor Dooley, in an emotional video conference, said the texts were along the lines of: “’If I was with you, I’d like to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature”.
The Hillsong Global Board said Mr Houston at the time was “under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence”.
“He immediately apologised to the person. We also worked with Pastor Brian to ensure he received professional help to eliminate his dependency on this medication, and this was achieved successfully.”
Beyond the words themselves, that whole incident was even more jarring because Houston is openly bigoted against LGBTQ people. In 2015, he said of his church, “we do not affirm a gay lifestyle” and that Hillsong did not “knowingly have actively gay people in positions of leadership.” His church also advocated “conversion therapy.”
Houston didn’t think it was okay to act on one’s homosexuality. Unless, I guess, you were a lady (or girl) and wanted to kiss another lady (or girl)… in which case Houston was not only okay with it, he wanted to watch.
(Allegedly.)
He shouldn’t have used the hacking excuse. It would have been so much easier to just tell everyone he pressed “tweet” too soon when what he meant to write was “Ladies and girls kissing… is a sin.” (See? So much cleaner.)
Anyway, back to present day.
The morning after Houston was caught sharing that adult video, he posted (and then soon deleted) his latest excuse—”This account was compromised overnight. Any odd posts, links or messages shared earlier were not legitimate and have been reported and deleted”—which was even funnier because he posted that without deleting the adult content.
People were quick to point out the problem:
By Thursday afternoon, after someone asked how he overcame his latest hacking so quickly, Houston insisted he wasn’t hacked at all. Someone had just gotten onto his account. Somehow.
So Houston’s argument here is that someone with access to his phone (no passcode?!) got onto X/Twitter, shared a very specific kind of adult video, and did nothing else whatsoever.
Make it make sense.
At this point, the excuses are so much worse than just admitting the truth. A wiser person would just laugh this off and move on, but Houston is a Christian hypocrite who thinks acting on homosexuality is a sin and presumably believes pornography is a scourge… unless he’s the one privately enjoying it. And then publicly sharing.
If he had a healthier outlook on sex, this wouldn’t be nearly as embarrassing for him.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
Very Normal Stuff Happening This Weekend
Tags:American Atheists, Politics, Religion
America’s Founders weren’t hostile to religion. They were opposed to tyranny, and they understood a government powerful enough to impose one creed is likewise powerful enough to punish anyone outside it.
Christian Nationalists also understand this, but they actually like the idea of religious tyranny so long as they’re the ones in charge.
The post Very Normal Stuff Happening This Weekend appeared first on American Atheists.
FFRF co-president’s op-ed on Trump theocratic celebrations published in The Hill
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
In an op-ed featured in the prominent Washington, D.C., newspaper The Hill, Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor fights back against the current administration’s theocratic America 250 narrative with a constitutional history lesson.
“When the federal government organizes and promotes religious observance, it is no longer neutral. It is using the machinery of the state to elevate religion itself and, in practice, a narrow slice of it,” Gaylor writes. “Presidential initiatives like this sideline nonbelievers and non-Christians.”
You can read the full op-ed here.
(Photo of Annie Laurie Gaylor by Chris Line.)
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 41,000 members and several chapters across the country. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
The post FFRF co-president’s op-ed on Trump theocratic celebrations published in The Hill appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
California judge bans Kars4Kids ads for hiding Orthodox Jewish agenda
This newsletter is free and goes out to over 24,000 subscribers, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can subscribe via Patreon or the Subscribe button below! You can also make one-time donations through Venmo or PayPal.
A California judge has just banned all Kars4Kids ads from being broadcast in the state, which means residents will no longer hear that catchy-yet-annoying jingle:
Given the ruling, it seems like a great time to remind everyone of how this ad is actually a religious scam and why multiple states have tried to remove it from their airwaves or at least punish the company.
The commercials tell people to “donate their cars today” by calling the number for “Kars 4 Kids” (which is more than 7 digits but whatever). But maybe you’ve asked yourself some questions whenever you see or hear the ads. What do they do with the cars since kids can’t legally drive? If I trade in my car, does the cash go to kids? How much cash? And which kids? Seriously, what is this a commercial for, exactly?
In the final frames of that 30-second ad above, you see this screen which only says “Because kids are our future!” and “Learn how you can make a difference in the life of a child”!
Notice it never says how you can make a difference. They just want your damn cars. With a K. Now donate and shut up.
Why do we get so few details in those commercials?
To find that answer, you have to go to the actual website for Kars 4 Kids, but even then, you have to know where to look.
Here’s how the general process works: You give them information about your car, pledging to hand over your keys and the title to it. If everything checks out, they’ll send a tow truck to your home to pick it up, at which point they’ll try to sell it for the best possible price. If they’re successful, they’ll send you a receipt so you can get a tax break for your donation. (They’ll even throw in a voucher for a couple free nights at a hotel.)
There’s nothing inherently weird about any of that. If you want to donate your car, that’s certainly a way to do it.
But that still doesn’t explain how the donations are used.
Here’s what the ads don’t tell you: Donations to Kars4Kids go to a non-profit group that works to promote Orthodox Judaism.
The website even says donations support the non-profit itself along with their “sister charity” Oorah, which is a Jewish group that runs summer camps and religious education programs for kids with the goal of making them devout Orthodox Jews… and turning secular Jews into what they would consider observant ones.
The head of a non-profit oversight group called CharityWatch once said this about Kars4Kids:
“They ought to [say] you are helping proselytize to secular Jews so they can become orthodox,” said Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch, who said he is Jewish. “What’s even worse is their ad makes it out that they are helping kids in general.”
They are not helping kids in general. They’re not even really helping all Jewish kids. They’re focusing on helping one specific kind of Jewish kid remain in the fold while trying to get all the other ones to join their club.
To be sure, if people want to donate to a religious charity that works to indoctrinate or convert kids, that’s their business and their right. (Let’s not pretend Orthodox Jews are any different in that regard from other religious groups that do the exact same things.) But the charities should at least be open and honest about that in any solicitation. How hard would it be to say, in those ads, that donations benefit children of Jewish parents or that the mission of the charity is religious in nature?
There are plenty of criticisms you can make about those commercials, but at the top of the list should be the intentional omission of how it’s connected to an Orthodox Jewish group.
How connected are we talking here? The music—the extremely annoying music—was even taken from a song called “Little Kinderlach,” by an Orthodox Jewish singer named Country Yossi. That song is all about how the little kinderlach—the little children—are going to help the Messiah return by being good little Orthodox Jewish boys and girls.
Why doesn’t Kars4Kids say any of this? Because they don’t really want you to know. It might drive away donations. (Pun intended.) After all, would evangelical Christians or atheists or Muslims want to donate their cars through Kars4Kids if they knew the primary goal of those donations was to create more observant Orthodox Jews?
In fact, in 2009, Kars4Kids had to pay $65,000 fines in both Oregon and Pennsylvania for misleading people about where the money was going. But those fines were pocket change for this group. Between 2012 and 2014, Kars4Kids raised $88 million. That’s a lot of cars. But only about half of that money went to charity (by which I mean bringing kids into their religion). It’s a horrible ratio. A big chunk of the rest of that cash was used to get that commercial on TV and radio. (Also, they once lost over $9 million in “failed real estate projects controlled by a second cousin of the charity’s president.”)
Turns out the adorable kids not even playing their own instruments weren’t the only things in the commercials that were misleading.
Those money problems, by the way, infuriated Minnesota’s former attorney general so much that, in 2017, she filed a 300-page report with the IRS explaining why they should revoke the group’s tax exemption. She also pointed out that Minnesotans donated $3 million in cars to Kars4Kids from 2012 to 2014, but only $11,600 went back to helping kids in Minnesota. Less than 1%. The charity literally helped three kids in the state. Not great. Unfortunately, the IRS did not act on the complaint.
In response to that complaint, though, Kars4Kids tried to justify their spending this way: “Since we are headquartered in the northeast, many of our programs and recipients naturally come from this area. We believe Minnesota residents… appreciate that their generous donations to Kars4Kids help children both in and out of state.”
Nope. Not appreciated. Speaking on behalf of all Minnesota residents, all we want is honesty and transparency about the nature of our donations.
And that’s the heart of what the California judge just said.
In that case, a man named Bruce Puterbaugh sued the charity in 2021 after donating his 2001 Volvo XC (only worth about $250) because he saw the Kars4Kids ad and wanted to help “underprivileged kids from all over the U.S.” He only learned after giving the car away “that the funds were directed to a Jewish organization in New York.”
During the trial, the COO for the charity admitted that the ads say nothing about the true nature of their mission and that the word “Jewish” doesn’t appear anywhere in the commercials. As Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian explained:
[COO Esti] Landau explicitly testified that the organization’s primary purpose is not to help economically disadvantaged children. She testified that Oorah’s programs include “matchmaking” for young adults and “gap year” trips to Israel for 17- and 18-year-olds (averaging 250 participants per year). She also admitted that Kars4Kids operates no functional programs in California. Their local activity is limited to “small grants” consisting of approximately 1,000 backpacks bearing the corporate logo, distributed to any child regardless of financial need. She also testified that Kars4Kids is not involved in how the money is spent once transferred; those decisions are left entirely to Oorah.
… Ms. Landau testified multiple times that the advertisement “does not mention anything” and contains “no details” about what Kars4Kids does. She stated that while the ad features children aged 8–10, she confirmed the funded programs often target young adults (17–18) and matchmaking as well as Jewish families.
The bottom line? The government has every right to regulate “misleading” commercial speech, and these “fraudulent omissions” don’t fall under any kind of free speech protections.
The Court finds the message that the charity helps “needy” children is not “inherently vague.” In the context of a charitable appeal, “needy” implies socio-economic disadvantage. Using funds for “gap year” trips to Israel for 17-18-year-olds or a $16.5 million real estate acquisition contradicts the “needy child” persona cultivated by the ad.
The name “Kars4Kids,” the 8-10-year-old actors in the advertisement, and the repetitive jingle all serve to reinforce the belief that donations are used exclusively for the benefit of children.
What this means is that the charity can no longer play those ads in California unless they overhaul them completely:
Kars4Kids ads are now banned in the state until there’s “an express, audible disclosure” of the charity’s religious affiliation, the region of where the money goes and a more accurate age range of the recipients. The organization also can’t use young kids in its ads anymore.
Actually, the judge used far better phrasing than that: “The Defendant may no longer use images of prepubescent children to solicit donations that support individuals who have reached the age of majority.”
At this point, the charity would have to start from scratch. Because a revised version of the current ad, with young adults playing toy instruments while talking about religious mission trips and their need to find Orthodox Jewish partners, wouldn’t be nearly as memorable. Though it’d be a great setup for a Last Week Tonight parody.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
