Discussion on whether therapists should be allowed to offer counseling to persons wanting to rid their same-sex desires commenced Tuesday at the American Psychological Association.
The so-called reparative therapy remains a heated debate between gay rights activists and religious groups who argue that homosexuality is a sin and against the created order of God.
"There are many men and women who have unwanted same-sex attractions. Those persons should have the option to get a form of treatment or counseling that parallels their value system, their faith beliefs, their religious convictions, particularly Christians who hold to a view that homosexuality is outside God's created divine," said Tim Wilkins, a former homosexual who heads Cross Ministry and speaks at more than 120 events each year, telling Christians how to deal with the issue of homosexuality.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is currently reviewing its 10-year-old policy on counseling homosexuals. Pro-gay groups are pushing for a complete ban of any type of reparative therapy while evangelical Christians urge respect for religious diversity.
Some Christians have already expressed concern that the APA may be headed in the direction of favoring the interests of gay-rights activists considering the six-member task force that was set up to review APA's policy is dominated by gay-rights supporters, conservatives argue.
"Every individual should have a right to what is called self-determination,” Wilkins said, “in other words, the ability to incorporate one's religious beliefs into the counseling."
"And if you want to argue for diversity, that is diversity - allowing every option and alternative and venue available to a person who comes to a counselor or therapist for help," he added.
If the APA decides to adopt a ban on all therapy to homosexuals seeking change, Wilkins said that what the APA would be doing is "clearly discrimination."
For gay-rights advocates, a ban would give reason to shut down such groups as Exodus International that has claimed to help thousands of people out of homosexuality.
"If the APA does in fact ban reparative or conversion therapy, we will at long last have a solid legal argument for shutting down such groups as Exodus International and Homosexuals Anonymous," said Richard Rothstein on QueerSighted, an online gay and lesbian community. "This will also mean that under standard and existing malpractice laws, psychologists and therapists who continue to advocate and practice such therapy would be subject to license revocation, hefty fines and even imprisonment."
Such a move would mean silencing former homosexuals and those who believe homosexuals can change.
"His (Rothstein's) comment reveals exactly what his goal and purpose is and that is to take a ministry such as Cross Ministry and put duct tape over my mouth, tie the hands of Christians and those involved in this area of ministry and attempt to force us to not do what we have a God-given and constitutional right to do," Wilkins argued.
Homosexuals and those who have unsuccessfully undergone therapy say treatment to change a homosexual is harmful. The response is mixed, however. Others report successfully coming out of homosexuality and even benefiting from such counseling, as Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a noted expert in sexuality counseling, explained on CNN on Tuesday. Continue >>
RSS
Sadly, people do not always attend of their own free will and many that do are not given information about the track record of the "treatment". Exodus International's oldest and largest ministry "Love in Action", for example, has regularly accepted teenagers sent against their will. Moreover, they have even accepted a client brought to their campus in handcuffs who was administered Prozac without prescription.
Speaking without opinion regarding homosexuality (or the cause of it), I cannot imagine how courts could allow a "ban" on people receiving treatment. These people come to these clinics on their own free will. If a decision is made that this treatment is "unfair" to homosexuals, that just goes to show how radical most of these pro-gay groups have become.
The issue is not one of religious belief. Whether or not homosexuality is a sin is an issue of religious belief. However, these organisations are not simply claiming this. They say that homosexuality is a disorder which requires therapy and resort to pseudo-science and carefully distorted statistics to support their claim. This takes them out of the religious realm and into the field of Health. As such, RT should be held accountable for any dishonest and misleading claims. Moreover, the effectiveness of the "treatment" and any risks involved should be made known to the counselee at the outset.
RT theory says all gays are this way which is clearly not so. Many (most?) have no issues with their father. Among those who do RT theorists cannot say for certain if the "issues" were the cause of the homosexuality or and effect of homosexuality. In other word did dad react badly to a son who was somewhat overtly gender-nonconforming (such as claiming he were a girl). The RT theorists (Nicolosi and NARTH at that forefront) have not provided the scientific basis to prove RT works (following up on patients with questionaires). About the best guess is that about 25% of people seeking RT therapies say they now have a heterosexual outlook. But that's 25% of a highly motivated crowd seeking "change" which may not represent but 5% of all gay men. Likewise there is no information where these people are on the spectrum of sexuality, they could all be bisexuals who just ended up switch hitting. Taken together there is no evidence RT therapies really work nor does RT theory describe most (most all?) gays.
I seriously cannot believe this is being argued. You can't say all reparative therapy as harmful. It's like saying we should not allow Arabs into the country because there are a lot of Arabs who are terrorists. C'mon!! We live in America. The land of freedom. How can you ban a service that has helped (and could help) many people who want to change their lifestyle? Should we ban all drug rehab centers if there are some out there they use extreme measures to cure people of their addictions? I can understand banning the bad ones, but banning them all? Really now? What's happening to our nation?