And the countdown…5….4….3….2….1….
Repairing Same-Sex Attraction
Experts Question APA Report
Mental-health professionals should avoid telling same-sex-attracted clients that therapy can change their sexual orientation, the American Psychological Association advises.
The organization, which represents 150,000 psychologists nationwide, also issued a report during its annual meeting in early August saying the latest research on “change” or “reparative” therapy was inconclusive and therefore the APA could not recommend it.
No therapist should “promise outcomes they can’t deliver,” Judith Glassgold, the task force’s chairwoman, said. “We were concerned clients were being misled by promises of change. We don’t want clients’ expectations to be so high that they can’t reach their goals.”…
…According to the APA, the one thing recent research does show is that “sexual orientation identity” — versus sexual orientation — can “shift and evolve in some individuals’ lives.”
“Sexual orientation is underlying attractions and desires. You can’t choose who you fall in love with,” Glassgold said. “Sexual orientation identity — who you identify with publicly and in groups — can be controlled.”
NARTH disagrees that change is limited: “Some people can and do change, not just in terms of behavior and identity, but in core features of sexual orientation such as fantasy and attractions,” according to a press release.
Angelo S., a spokesman for Courage, agreed change in both sexual orientation and identity is possible. He cited programs such as “Journey into Manhood” retreats that have “helped men reduce feelings so that they’re not in the homosexual lifestyle anymore. Some say they don’t experience same-sex attraction at all anymore,” he said.
Persons with same-sex attraction are invited to unite “whatever sufferings and difficulties they experience in virtue of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord’s cross,” according to “On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,” a 1986 pastoral letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In the letter, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger pointed out that “homosexual activity prevents one’s own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God.”
I believe the Courage people are on the right track here. We are human beings – we are not slaves to the flesh unless we choose to be so. Just as some men – with the normal inclination towards attraction to females – can eschew sex completely so other men can choose to change from attraction to men to attraction to women. There are plenty of men out there who will testify that they were once completely gay in attraction and lifestyle and are now completely straight – attempts to shove this under the rug, as the APA does with this recent report, doesn’t change the facts.
We Catholics hold that those with a deep-seated attraction to the same sex are not negligible in number and must be treated with respect and love – but because we are to tolerate doesn’t mean we are to support. Just because some gay people have chosen to do what they do it does not follow that we have to congratulate them on it, nor pretend there’s no way for them to change their mind, and their lives, at a later point.
If we are to be genuinely reasonable, we must keep our mind open to the full truth. Homosexuality, as a field of scientific study, is fairly new, and our knowledge of psychology is still limited, even under the best of circumstances. It is absurd to say there is no way to alter one’s way of living – there may, indeed, be ways whereby gay men and women can decide to change. If one does in any way believe that human beings should have a choice, then the only way to go with this is with a willingness to discard propaganda points and see what is really out there. No one is going to force gays in to religion camps where they are to be brainwashed in to being straight – but if going from gay to straight can be done (and it looks as though it can) then gay people have a right to know the facts about it.
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