Re: [asa] science and homosexuality

This list is discussing whether we ought to encourage those who have
homosexual temptations to be chaste or not. While this is the heart of
the issue this is not at all what the evangelical ministries to
homosexuals are focusing on. They focus on attempting to change the
sexual orientation of people. The ministries are based on two dubious
scientific claims:

1. So-called origin stories of sexual abuse are the only or dominant
reason for homosexual sexual orientation. We've discussed this to
death now so I don't want to focus on this other than to note in
passing that the Bible does not contain such an explanation.

2. Sexual orientation can be changed for more than just a handful of
people. Or to put it into Biblical terms that we can make this
particular temptation go away through psychological therapy even
though temptation for other sins doesn't necessarily disappear in
believers. This is what I want to focus on.

Note this in the conservative journal, National Review:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmM0ZThlNThiYjc2NjVjZTRlOTkzOTYyZWJmYzhlNzg=

Homo No Mo'?
A report from the June 10 Love Won Out conference.

"During the entire nine hours of the conference, none of the speakers
I heard discussed how to live chastely while experiencing same-sex
attractions. The focus was entirely on the goal of switching sexual
orientations."

This approach can produce devasting results:

Peterson Toscano, creator of a performance piece ("Doing Time at the
Homo No Mo' Halfway House") based on his experiences as a
self-described "ex-gay survivor," spent 17 years seeking to change his
sexual orientation. Toscano recalled that in the ex-gay programs, "I
felt very much cared for and comforted in my struggles. In the midst
of it, it didn't feel like something horrible was happening."

Nonetheless, he said, "The vast majority, and I am not exaggerating,
of the scores and scores of people I know through these organizations,
are out now, accept themselves as gay, and look back on that time as
very traumatic and difficult. …Many of them have walked away from God
and any sort of faith tradition because they were so disappointed —
they'd been lied to over and over again by people speaking in Jesus'
name."

At Love in Action's residential program, Toscano said, "You could not
spend more than 15 minutes a day in the bathroom with the door closed
— you had to break that time up as best as you could. You were not
allowed to wear Calvin Klein [underwear]; they didn't want us to have
facial hair; you couldn't wear aftershave. It was very controlling. If
you were in the early phase of the program you couldn't be by
yourself. You couldn't watch television, listen to anything but
Christian music; you had very limited access to people in the outside
world. …The rules were inconvenient; but what makes it worse was the
moral stigma: 'You cannot be trusted.' It eats away at a person, it's
very detrimental."

While he was in the program, one of his friends attempted suicide.
"Miraculously, he survived," Toscano said, "but he was ready to put
himself out — he was so tired of failing."

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Received on Fri Jun 16 09:31:50 2006