Results of a controversial US study addressing two of the most debated questions on "ex-gays" will be announced this week in Nashville.
First: "Is change of sexual orientation possible?" And second: "Is the attempt to change harmful?"
Researchers Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University, both of whom are evangelical Christians, conducted "A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation," asking the two questions which have been long debated by mental health professionals and Christian counsellors.
"We are evangelical Christians committed to the truth-seeking activity of science," Jones and Yarhouse said in a joint statement, addressing skeptics of Christian researchers on a matter of science. "In conducting and reporting this study, we took seriously the words of one of our heroes, C. S. Lewis, who said that science produced by Christian persons would have to be 'perfectly honest. Science twisted in the interests of apologetics would be sin and folly.'"
Many professional organisations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, are critical of what some call "reparative" or conversion therapies. The American Psychological Association is currently revising its 10-year-old policy on counseling homosexuals after years of pressure from pro-gay groups that say such therapy is harmful. Evangelicals meanwhile are calling psychologists to respect religious commitments and allow those who are seeking change out of same-sex desires to be offered the help.
"For many years, mental-health professionals have taken the view that since homosexuality is not a mental disorder, any attempt to change sexual orientation is unwise," said prominent psychiatrist Dr. Robert Spitzer, according to the Los Angeles Times. "But for healthcare professionals to tell someone they don't have the right to make an effort to bring their actions into harmony with their values is hubris."
There are no scientifically rigorous outcome studies to determine either the actual efficacy or harm of "reparative" treatments, according to the American Psychiatric Association. However, there are numerous reports of individuals who have claimed to change, those who claim that attempts to change were harmful to them, and others who claimed to have changed and then later recanted those claims.
