Is there no end to this trash we are subject to? I was referred to a book called,
“A PARENTS GUIDE TO PREVENTING HOMOSEXUALITY” by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi
In this groundbreaking book Joseph and Linda Ames Nicolosi uncovers the most significant factors that contribute to children’s healthy sense of themselves as male or female. The Nicolosis provide clear insight for identifying potential developmental roadblocks and give practical advice to parents for helping their children. This book offers compassion and hope for all those parents who seek to lay a foundation for a healthy heterosexual identity in their children.
I was asked for my response, well it is Friday, my “day of no compassion”…so here is my response.
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi is the darling of the “Christian right” who is claiming to be able to “convert” one who is a homosexual to a heterosexual and now more particularly in this book that homosexuality can be prevented.
Nicolosi is the inventor of a form of therapy, which is referred to as “Reparative Therapy” and this is nothing more then a political spin of the “religious right” as a cover for the dismal failure of the “ex-gay” movement.
According to Jeffry G. Ford MA, LP
“Its roots stem back to the work of a British theologian and self proclaimed psychologist Elizabeth Moberly. Morberly wrote a couple of books in the early 1980’s that the early “ex-gay movement” found very intriguing. Her research involved no subjects! She simply did an extensive literature review of the outdated works of Irving Bieber, Lawrence Hatterer and Sigmund Freud and came up with a relatively minor reinterpretation of their findings.”
In order for reparative therapy to work, one must assume that “homosexuality” is a disorder of some kind or a personality defect to be corrected. These assumptions are:
1. We are called to love gay and lesbian people “struggling with sexual orientation”
2. Homosexual orientation is chosen or is the result of bad childhood experiences; and
3. People cannot condone this “sinful” behavior that was chosen by their loved ones, and therefore “cannot accept their gay, lesbian and bisexual family members”.
This is pure trash and an out and out lie. Here are some pointers as to why:
1. Sexual orientation is not a disease. In 1973. The American Psychiatric Association removed the term “homosexuality” from the list of mental and emotional disorders. Therefore, it does not need to be cured.
2. “Reparative therapy” doesn’t work. In 1990, the American Psychological Association stated that scientific evidence does not show that conversion therapy works and that it can do more harm than good.
3. “Reparative therapy” is dangerous. In 1998, the American Psychiatric Association stated it was opposed to reparative therapy, stating, “Psychiatric literature strongly demonstrates that treatment attempts to change sexual orientation are ineffective. However, the potential risks are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior…”
4. According to the American Medical Association, “most of the emotional disturbance experienced by gay men and lesbians around their sexual identity is not based on physiological causes but rather is due more to a sense of alienation in an un-accepting environment. For this reason, aversion therapy is no longer recommended for gay men and lesbians.”
5. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior (2001) asserts that homosexuality is not “a reversible lifestyle choice.” (Information supplied from: “Reparative” Therapy or “Ex-Gay” Ministries page of the National P-Flag website)
I would like to note for the record that “struggling with sexual orientation” is the “key” card in the “house of cards therapy”. This comes from the same idiocy, which we know about concerning the American Indians: who had no idea they were savages till the arriving Christians told them they were. To this I will offer this. I am 52 year old, gay man who is the Pastor of an inner-city Christian Church, own a home, pay my taxes, contribute to the national economy, vote in every election, and live a full, loving, and exciting life with my same gender partner of 25 years.
I assure my readers it has not been a struggle but rather an incredible blessing! Further the people who struggle with this issue do so because they have been told they are some sort of “abomination of God”
We struggle with this issue because the morally frozen and hypocritical heterosexuals tell us too. When my Father, caught me masturbating at the age of 12 or so…he told me God would kill me for doing that and quoted scripture and said: “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so he put him to death also.” (Genesis 38:9-10)
It should also be noted this whole idea of “reparative therapy” or conversion therapy is a religious question trapped inside a psychological costume.
Since the “religious right” no longer has a strong theological argument for condemning homosexuality…they have turned to the secular world to help them.
“Reparative Therapy” is based upon several religious lies or more correctly “Christian” lies. Some of which are:
The Book of Leviticus expressly forbids homosexual sex.
The purity laws of the ancient priesthood are a code of ethics rooted in a time and culture that is far removed from today’s world. Among other things it forbids shaving, wearing clothing made of two different materials, eating rare meat, and many other things. The edict against homosexual sex is part of this code, no more or no less important than the verse that forbids harvesting an entire field of grain or piercing an ear. It is important only as a historical document, not as a set of rules to follow in this time.
Sodom was destroyed for the sin of homosexuality.
Sodom and homosexuality were not connected until the Middle Ages. In Biblical days it was acknowledged that Sodom was destroyed for greed and inhospitality. While some believe that it was probable that the men of Sodom were bent on raping Lot’s visitors, this was an act of violence, not an indication of the sexual preference of the male population of the city. There are many references of Sodom in the Bible (Ezekiel 16:49; Mark 6:11; 2 Peter 2:6-8, among others) but none of them mention homosexuality.
There are scriptures affirming the Biblical condemnation of homosexual sex.
(Romans 6: 26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy) “There is no doubt this is a condemnation of homosexuality. Yet there is a twist. Paul, as well as other authors of scripture, understood the practices they contemned as perversion, to be acts committed by heterosexuals. Modern considerations of sexual orientation were not considered by Biblical writers.” (Rev. Guy Kent “questingparson.org” “Homosexuality and the Church” essay)
It should be pointed out that because a few verses either show favorably or unfavorably towards a subject, does not mean the “Bible” supports or doesn’t support something.
The Bible is a collection of sacred writings that come from different time periods and are written by different authors trying to explain from their point of view who God is and how we as humans relate to and journey with God. The views of each of these authors are as varied as the authors themselves. One must always remember that the Bible is a history and guide to a faith. The Bible is not the end- all and be-all on any subject of faith. It may be divinely inspired but hardly divinely written.
One’s psychological sanity and safety should never be set aside for the sake of a particular religious belief, particularly when there is on going evidence for one’s sexual orientation being formed at an early age and having far more to do with genetics then religion or particular behaviors.
The “religious right” and Nicolosi have spent so much time trying to eliminate the gay community, they have missed the vast majority of people in the LGBT community who lead wonderfully wholesome lives.
Maybe one day there will be research done in this part of the gay, lesbian bi or transgendered community that is whole, healthy and happy, but until then we will have to endure the lies and misinformation of the religious right and the fraudulent psychological “equine fecal matter” being set forth by people like Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.
This guy and his ilk are wolves in sheep’s clothing looking to make a buck at the expense of people’s mental and emotional well being.