Focus on Family: Sexual orientation can change
Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based Christian media ministry, on Monday endorsed a recent study finding that it is possible, through religious mediation, to change one’s sexual orientation…. “This study bolsters our position of advocating for people’s right to self-determination,” said Melissa Fryrear, director of Focus’ Gender Issues Department, in a statement…. The results were more promising than expected, with 67 percent of study participants reporting “a change toward heterosexual orientation or … successfully continuing to work towards that goal,” Fryrear said. Study findings were first released last week in a book, “Ex‚Äö√Ñ√ÆGays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation.”…. The researchers Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University tracked men and women who had undergone a program of group discussions, counseling, journal writing, Scripture reading and prayer to change their gender orientation. Study results are comparable with the success rates for dealing with “other difficult issues,” such as depression, Fryrear said. The American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association state that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, but a normal variant of human sexual behavior.
Perhaps I’m just too damn naive for my own good, but part of me keeps hoping that we’ll just somehow magically learn to get along and to accept each other for who and what we are. Then comes along another of James Dobson’s pseudo-Christians, who seems to have taken it on as their personal mission to change everyone who doesn’t think, act, or believe exactly as they do. If it takes fake, slanted science in order to do so, so be it. If it takes two “researchers” from Pat Robertson U. Regent University and Wheaton College- not exactly bastions of open-minded intellectual agility to buttress your hatred, why not?
Despite the official-sounding, heavily-academic title, no reasonable person would jump to the conclusion that this is any sort of impartial academic study. Though Ms. Fryrear would have us believe that this was a study that met rigorous scientific standards for neutrality, there can be little doubt as to where she, the researchers, and Regent University stand on this issue. Everyone concerned has a stake in “proving” that “the gay” can be trained out of people. That this study seems to proceed from the assumption that homosexuality is some sort of “mental disorder” (a position repudiated by both the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association) ought to give you a clear indication of it’s “impartiality”.
If you still weren’t convinced of the agenda behind this study, consider that Melissa Fryrear is an employee of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, who are to Christianity what Idi Amin was to pacifism and rebuilding Uganda.
No, I don’t have a problem with Christianity. What I cannot stomach, though, are hate-filled trolls willing to use a perfectly good religion as an underpinning for their hatred, ignorance, and intolerance. If there’s a Hell, then James Dobson has a reserved parking space in the front row…and people like Melissa Fryrear will be driving him there.
So much for Christian love and charity….
