 |
Evergreen International is the most complete resource for Latter-day Saints on same-sex attraction. |
 |
| home | learn about same-sex attraction | courses | internet support | conferences/workshops | articles | newsletters | languages | bookstore | about us | ||
Evergreen Update Newsletter
November 4, 2007
Article in Christianity Today About the Ex-Gay Movement
The October 2007 issue of Christianity Today has a great article titled "An
Older, Wiser Ex-Gay Movement: The 30-year-old ministry now offers realistic hope
for homosexuals."
You can read the whole article at
http://www.ctlibrary.com/49778
Two interesting points in the article are that (1) research shows positive outcomes and (2) the ex-gay movement is clearer about what it has to offer.
1. Research shows positive outcomes.
Excerpt:
"Since its beginnings in the 1970s, the ex-gay movement has engaged gay advocates in a battle of testimonies. Transformed ex-gay leaders are the best argument for their movement. Likewise, those who've left the ex-gay movement in despair and disgust are the best counterargument. The debate continued this June, when Exodus International held its 32nd annual conference in Irvine, California, featuring dozens of speakers and seminar leaders who have quit homosexuality. Down the road outside the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, a news conference featured three former Exodus leaders saying "ex-gay" is a delusion.
"New research may change the terms of debate. Psychologists Stanton Jones of Wheaton College and Mark Yarhouse of Regent University released today a book detailing their findings from the first three years of an ongoing study. They are investigating participants in 16 different ex-gay programs associated with Exodus, the largest ex-gay ministry group.
The results show that some participants experienced significant change, though the change was usually partial, not complete. Furthermore, participants showed no additional mental or spiritual distress as a result of their involvement in the ex-gay program. This study is the first to use multiple interviews and questionnaires over a period of years, assessing participants from near the beginning of their involvement in an ex-gay program.
"Jones and Yarhouse launched the study to try to resolve differences between their professional community, which warns that "reparative therapy" for homosexuals is both impossible and dangerous, and testimonies they have heard from those involved in ex-gay movements. Though critics of ex-gay movements sometimes cite research findings in warning against reparative therapy, Jones and Yarhouse found that published research did not actually bear out their claims. The existing research about homosexual change, though mostly dated, indicated some possibility of change. New research meeting contemporary research standards was needed.
"Some of Jones and Yarhouse's key findings:
- By most measures, the average participant experienced statistically significant change in his or her sexual identity and sexual attractions.
- Such changes were generally modest, though, with decreasing homosexual attraction more significant than increasing heterosexual attraction.
- Exodus can describe 38 percent of its programs' participants as successes, changing to either a "meaningful but complicated" heterosexuality (15 percent) or a stable chastity (23 percent).
- Surprisingly, a "truly gay" subpopulation showed the clearest changes in sexual identity and attraction.
- No evidence of increased mental distress was found."
2. The ex-gay movement is clearer about what it has to offer.
Excerpt:
"An older, wiser ex-gay movement is certainly clearer about what it has to offer. Early hopes for instant healing have given way to belief that transformation occurs through a lifetime of discipleship.
"Which sums up much of ex-gay ministry today. No hype. Limited faith in techniques. No gay bashing. No detectable triumphalism, religious or political. Just serious discipleship. This may be the only group in America that realizes all the way to the bottom that when you decide to follow Jesus, you don't always get to do what you want to do.
"The ex-gay movement runs against the cultural tide. Given adverse public opinion, the ambivalent support of conservative churches, and the common assertion that ex-gays condemn themselves to a life of frustration, you would think the movement would shrivel. Yet Exodus affiliates have doubled in number over the last 18 years. Many of its leaders have been in the public eye for 20 to 30 years. They show every sign of stability.
"They live by radical ideas about sexuality--that we are not, as our culture would have it, defined by our desires, heterosexual or homosexual. Rather, we are defined by our Creator and Savior. Our attractions, always disordered to some extent, must be submitted to Christ, who alone can redeem us. For those who feel strong same-sex attractions, that task is especially difficult. But it is the same basic struggle every Christian must face."