Personal Hope or Political Achilles Heel? Well, Both Actually

Personal Hope or Political Achilles Heel? Well, Both Actually

 

Although this story is not likely to be widely reported outside of religious circles a new landmark study was released late last week that challenges the recent politically-driven premises of the secular counseling word most notably perhaps, the American Psychological Association.   The study looks into whether change in homosexual attraction is possible through religious-based counseling.

 

The study was released at the national conference for the American Association of Christian Counselors, which has over 50,000 active members.  In a 414-page book entitled Ex Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, researchers Stanton Jones, Ph.D. and Mark Yarhouse, Pys.D., conclude that change in homosexual attraction is definitely possible, and attempts to change same-sex attraction are not harmful.

 

Both of these conclusions are not very popular in today's secular counseling world, but it hasn't always been that way.  In fact, before the radical gay-rights movement reached its noisy and intimidating zenith in the last decade reorientation counseling was quite common.   At their August 2001 convention the APA even admitted that there was no body of evidence to prove that reorientation therapies are harmful.

 

Homosexual activists within and outside of the APA quickly attack recent studies, showing that change is possible and that the therapies have notable success rates, like the one by Dr. Robert Spitzer, and they are seldom cited thereafter.   That may explain why there are few researchers willing to risk looking into the question with an open mind. Yet, it wasn't always this way.  Between 1966 and 1974, more than 1,000 articles appeared in medical databases on the treatment of homosexuality showing evidence that homosexual behavior is treatable and changeable.

 

The study by the AACC offers real hope for individuals with unwanted same-sex attractions.  It also is a huge threat to the gay rights political movement.  After all, if homosexuality is something many people regularly choose to leave behind; the "civil rights" argument elevating a medically-risky sexual behavior to the same legal and moral equivalent of a benign, unchangeable trait of skin color falls apart.

 

By the way, the Love Won Out Conference is coming to Indianapolis on November 3rd at Traders Point Christian Church.   LWO is in its tenth year of helping teach church leaders, counselors and affected family members about the causes of same-sex attraction, how to concurrently respond with both compassion and hope while upholding moral and Biblical truth.  LWO has already reached nearly 50,000 people.   For more information about this dynamic one-day event, visit www.lovewonout.com

 

Source: http://afain.org