| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"johac" |
| Date: |
25 Jun 2005 03:37:47 AM |
| Object: |
FOF Claims to 'Heal' Gays |
More lunacy from Dobson, et al.
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Healed by God
Evangelical group sponsors conference on nature of gays
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 2:34 p.m. ET June 23, 2005
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - When activists for gay and lesbian causes gather
outside a church near Seattle this weekend, they will have many critical
things to say about how conservative Christian institutions have treated
them.
Inside Northshore Baptist Church, where Focus on the Family will be
preaching that homosexuality can be healed by the power of Gods love,
Christian counselors will be making much the same point.
In addition to powerful stories of ex-gay men and women, people
attending the Love Won Out conference will hear a challenge to the
church, said Dr. Bill Maier, a child and family psychologist who is one
of the events main speakers. Another is the Rev. Nancy Heche, the mother
of Anne Heche, the actress who famously married a man after living a
widely publicized lesbian life with comedian Ellen DeGeneres.
Leaders of Love Won Out are very forthright in stating that the church
has often fallen short when it comes to the homosexual community, Maier,
vice president and resident psychologist of Focus on the Family, said in
an interview.
To be sure, Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based ministry run
by James Dobson, perhaps the most influential evangelical figure in the
nation today, would agree with detractors of Love Won Out about very
little else. At the one-day event, which is held a handful of times a
year, ministers, psychologists and counselors who say they have left
homosexuality behind them make the case for reparative therapy the
hypothesis that homosexuality is not innate and can be repaired.
The latest conference sets up shop Saturday in suburban Bothell, Wash.
amid Seattles annual Gay Pride Festival, which drew more than 120,000
people last year. Needless to say, gay rights activists plan protests,
and they will follow up July 9 with their own Love Welcomes All event.
Participants will attend seminars about homosexuality and counseling
sessions. There will also be advice for families and how they should
deal with gay or lesbian relatives.
External factors said to determine sexuality
Maier cautioned that human behavior is pretty darned complicated, so
each individual is going to have a different experience. But in general,
he and others notably psychologists Warren Throckmorton of Grove City
College in Pennsylvania, Stanton Jones of Wheaton College in Illinois
and Joseph J. Nicolosi of the National Association for Research and
Therapy of Homosexuality argue that homosexuality is not immutable.
It may not be a choice, as many conservative religious leaders maintain,
but it is a response to family and other external conditions, these
researchers say. Nicolosi, who will speak Saturday at the Love Won Out
event, teaches, for example, that early family relationships and
inappropriate sexual seduction at a young age are key determiners of
sexual identity.
You are not born gay, in other words, and you can stop being gay.
Because many of Americas gay activist organizations have promulgated
this myth that homosexuals are born gay, many Americans have been
misled, Maier said. There are many research studies that clearly show
that gender orientation is changeable.
Debating ex-gays
Activists for gay and lesbian causes unreservedly denounce Love Won Out
as twisting science for a conservative religious cause. Love Won Out and
other advocates of reparative therapy what has come to be known
popularly as the ex-gay movement are selling sham science, in the view
of Barbara Menard, director of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Gay rights advocates point to the position of the major medical
professional organizations. In recent years, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American
Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the
National Association of School Psychologists have all declared that
homosexuality is not a mental disorder that can or should be cured.
Dr. Brad Bullock, a pediatrician in Nashville who is gay, said he had
found the language used by Maier and others to be astounding, noting
that the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its
list of developmental disorders more than 30 years ago. Last month, the
association called for recognition of same-sex marriages.
Its remarkable to me that [the ex-gay movement] can make any headway,
Bullock said in an interview here during the annual meeting of the
Southern Baptist Convention, several of whose most prominent figures are
associated with Focus on the Family, which vigorously opposes
homosexuality. The message of reparative therapy is counter to the
message of Jesus, he said.
Bullock called the ex-gay movement hurtful, but Maier invited protesters
to venture into a session at the Love Won Out event Saturday. They might
be very surprised to hear a message of hope and healing and challenge to
the church, he said.
Maier said he endorsed the evangelical position that homosexuality was a
sin, but he said that did not influence his reading of the scientific
data. If nothing else, he said, he hopes protesters will take the time
to give it a fair hearing.
Were not talking about forcing our views down someones throat, Maier
said, adding that it would be ethically wrong to even try because the
only opinion that really matters is that of the person undergoing
therapy.
Many gays and lesbians simply want to live their lives and be left
alone, and thats fine, he said. We believe in client autonomy and
self-determination. The client should have that right.
2005 MSNBC Interactive
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8234503/
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: FOF Claims to 'Heal' Gays |
25 Jun 2005 07:33:18 AM |
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In our last episode <jhachm-9F5C04.01374725062005@news.giganews.com>,
johac pirouetted gracefully and with great fanfare proclaimed:
Joseph J. Nicolosi of the
National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality argue that
homosexuality is not immutable.
But when pressed admit they've never "changed" a single person...
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
Alt-atheism website at: http://www.alt-atheism.org
--------------------------------------------------
"Come to think of it, there are already a million
monkeys on a million typewriters, and the Usenet
is NOTHING like Shakespeare!" -- Blair Houghton
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| User: "johac" |
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| Title: Re: FOF Claims to 'Heal' Gays |
26 Jun 2005 01:55:55 AM |
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In article <rJOdndgvvt-T0iDfRVn-gA@megapath.net>,
"Mark K. Bilbo" <alt-atheism@org.webmaster> wrote:
In our last episode <jhachm-9F5C04.01374725062005@news.giganews.com>,
johac pirouetted gracefully and with great fanfare proclaimed:
Joseph J. Nicolosi of the
National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality argue that
homosexuality is not immutable.
But when pressed admit they've never "changed" a single person...
Of course not, but they wouldn't let a little thing like the truth get
in the way of spreading GAWD's word, would they?
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"
-Voltaire
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