The American Psychological Association releases a report that says therapies that encourage homosexuals to become straight could be damaging.
The American Psychological Association released a report yesterday saying that psychologists should not tell homosexuals that they can become straight through therapy.
The APA's general council adopted a resolution with a 125-to-4 vote citing research that suggests such therapy could be damaging, the Associated Press reports.
"Religious faith and psychology do not have to be seen as being opposed to each other," the report says. It encourages approaches "that integrate concepts from the psychology of religion and the modern psychology of sexual orientation."
One of the largest organizations promoting the possibility of changing sexual orientation is Exodus International, a network of ministries whose core message is "Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."
Its president, Alan Chambers, describes himself as someone who "overcame unwanted same-sex attraction." He and other evangelicals met with APA representatives after the task force formed in 2007, and he expressed satisfaction with parts of the report that emerged.
"It's a positive step — simply respecting someone's faith is a huge leap in the right direction," Chambers said. "But I'd go further. Don't deny the possibility that someone's feelings might change."
Later this week, Mark Yarhouse of Regent University and Wheaton College Provost Stanton Jones will release findings from their six-year study the Exodus programs. (Christianity Today has reported on their earlier research here and here)
Warren Throckmorton, a Grove City College professor, praises the report for its discussion of religion and sexual orientation. The Wall Street Journal explains how Throckmorton approaches therapy.
He tells them that he cannot turn them straight.
But he also tells them they don't have to be gay.
For many years, Dr. Throckmorton felt he was breaking a professional taboo by telling his clients they could construct satisfying lives by, in effect, shunting their sexuality to the side, even if that meant living celibately. That ran against the trend in counseling toward "gay affirming" therapy -- encouraging clients to embrace their sexuality.
...The APA report mentions as one possible framework the approach taken by Dr. Throckmorton, who teaches at Grove City College and has a Ph.D. in community counseling. He starts by helping clients prioritize their values. Then he shows them stock video of a brain responding to sexual stimuli. When the clients see how quickly the brain lights up, they often feel relieved, he said, because they realize that their attractions are deeply rooted.
Over at USA Today, Cathy Lynn Grossman highlights data from a 2008 study:
-- 48 percent of Americans says homosexuality is a sin.
--If a congregation teaches that homosexual behavior is a sin, 29 percent said they'd be more likely to visit or attend that church but 32 percent said they'd be less likely to visit.
--49 percent of unchurched said teaching that homosexuality is a sin would negatively affect their decision to join a church.
Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey on August 6, 2009 10:51AM
Comments
48 percent of Americans are wrong. "Homosexuality" is an obsolete social construct now much abused by the religious-reactionaries, as straw man and scapegoat. If there is a "sin of homosexuality," it's the abuse they do to that obsolete theory/social construct to further their hateful, nakedly greedy agenda for unearned "born-again race" privilege and hegemony.
"Gay" is a current social construct and social space/community, created by and for the people who made it...and made possible by modern capitalism, by the way. "Homosexual" was of scientific Victorian coinage, an imposed by outsiders label, treating people as objects of study. It started as a theory to explore sexuality in general, and not as a personal identity, a social space, a community. The community had reached a consensus, it is the Gay community, not the homosexual community. Only people of ill will would refuse to call people by their name, to deny their identity, to constantly denigrate and abuse them as the religious right has done, Christian and other religious rights.
So, if one really, really doesn't want to be Gay, one can certainly step outside outside the Gay social space, the Gay social construct, to a certain degree, while still having same sex attractions. But, I don't really see any reason to do so, if one's sexual orientation is given to sexual exclusivity, and you're not likely to do a very good job at that "straight" thing. Go with your strengths, your best capabilities, not your weaknesses.
As Kinsey demonstrated way back in the late Nineteen Forties, sexual attraction is a continuum, on a scale of attractions, not one of the other binary "choices." Absolute exclusivity is fairly rare on both ends, but skewed to to the "usually other sex attracted," as one could expect, but with a significant percentage of people clustered towards same-sex orientations. either
So...one can leave the Gay social space, if one is 'naturally' flexible enough, can do a reasonable job at that "straight" thing, and have met an other-sex person you love... or if one is willing to accept a socially "deviant" lifestyle, one with a rigid, religious-like discipline for a lifelong celibate life.
However, why bother with the latter? Moral people don't care if you're Gay, and truly moral religion doesn't care either. Moral religion cares about the Golden Rule, not who rules in the bedroom. The Bible doesn't quite say what white conservative evangelicals say it says. It never has, not on slavery as God's law, not on race segregation as God's will, not on woman subordination to men on all things, not even on abortion, and not on "homosexuality," so why should it start now about you and me? Sure, the Bible condones this or that, such as slavery, or has an antipathy towards this or that, such as homoeroticism and poly-cotton blend shirts, but the contest is living your life in your times, guided by the Golden Rule.
So, why not try to find what is authentic, legitimate, consenting-adult love for you, but maybe not for me? I want you to be happy, a good neighbor, with love, if you can find it; not conflicted, isolated, walled off from love, unnecessarily feeling guilty, ashamed and miserable, just because CT says you should be if you don't conform to their greedy demands and bizarre delusions of religious and moral superiority.
I want that for me. Good luck with that, exclusively Gay or exclusively not-Gay or anything in between.
Posted by: Gregory Peterson at August 6, 2009
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