Editor’s note: The original version of this article was published by the Christian Post. Click here to read it.
Reparative therapy is a hot button, cultural topic that stirs deep rooted emotions for those on both sides. So we must be cautious not to reduce what Dr. Russell Moore, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty (ERLC) Commission, says about it into a sound bite.
Taken out of context, Moore’s remarks to press at the ERLC’s 2014 conference this week could very easily be used to totally denounce reparative therapy. But if you read all of Moore’s statements, nowhere do you find him downright rejecting reparative therapy. Instead, he’s putting it in its place on the hierarchy of healing.
According to Religion News Service, Moore told journalists, “The utopian idea if you come to Christ and if you go through our program, you’re going to be immediately set free from attraction or anything you’re struggling with, I don’t think that’s a Christian idea.” Moore continued, “Faithfulness to Christ means obedience to Christ. It does not necessarily mean that someone’s attractions are going to change.”
It sounds like Moore is saying that when you find out your child has same-sex attraction, your first step should not be placing them into reparative therapy. If you do, then you’ve missed the only step that’s actually going to help: yielding to Jesus Christ who calls us to love everyone without conditions. As Moore put it, “The response is not shunning, putting them out on the street,” he said. “The answer is loving your child.”
I agree with Moore that therapy is not the immediate solution. Our liberation from sin is found in Jesus Christ alone. And I will go further to say that some reparative therapy programs have done more harm than good because they are operated by mere mortals with their own flaws and who are more dependent on a 12-step course than on Christ.
My concern is that Moore’s words will be misinterpreted so that licensed Christian therapists who reach out to the LGBT community will be ridiculed or dismissed. There are Christian therapists who are ministry-minded as they work to help heal the wounds of same-sex attracted individuals dealing with trauma of sexual abuse, confusion or depression because of their attractions. These therapists are called to a special mission-field all their own and need to be supported.
My larger fear is that we will also dismiss self-described ex-gays who are no longer tempted by same-sex attractions. Through the power of an encounter with Jesus Christ, their temptation has been wiped away. Praise God for that. And we might also dismiss persons dealing with same-sex attractions who are staying committed to God and resisting those attractions through the power of the Holy Spirit. Praise God for that, too.
A friend of mine recently told me, “None of us gets to choose what we’re tempted by; we only get to choose how we respond to that temptation.” How true for all of us. We don’t have women’s Bible studies to completely erase our temptation to sin, do we? No. We have women’s Bible studies to receive accountability, gain righteous wisdom and learn more about Christ so that we can better resist whatever tempts us.
At its root, we sin out of our broken human nature— no matter the sin. And as I’ve learned, it is only the Almighty, through Christ’s sacrifice, who can restore that brokenness.
Comment by Tom Rath on October 29, 2014 at 1:56 pm
Christian counselors seeking to reach out to those who are anguishing over their sexual orientation (or are receiving anguish from other “Christians”) is a good thing.
“Reparative therapy”, however, is absolute nonsense and has been shown over and over to be, at best, ineffective and, at worst, dangerous to the point of contributing to suicide or suicidal ideation. Fact.
Comment by MarcoPolo on October 29, 2014 at 6:17 pm
There are many thousands of devout Christians that are Gay or Lesbian… or rather, there are many thousands of Gays and Lesbians who are Christian.
What needs to change in that equation? Nothing!
These are just people trying to get along.
Therapy? …Why?!
Comment by Bryan Anderson on October 31, 2014 at 12:54 pm
I went through a period of strong homosexual attraction during my adolescence. I can only say “thank God” for sound biblical counsel from my pastors at the time. If it would have been the advice given above I would be….
What needs to change is the intolerance and inflexibility of either extreme side. Its ironic that as one side (the biblical) exhibits more compassion and understanding yet thankfully doesn’t waver the other side (as represented by (“MarcoPolo”) simply pounces and relishes an ever hardening position with zeal equal to or greater than any right-wing fanatic. So sad!
Comment by MarcoPolo on October 31, 2014 at 5:29 pm
Firstly, I’m happy for you. That is, if you’re happy as you are?
Secondly, as with most adolescents, the newness of being human with raging hormones is troubling at that age. If your pastor guided you through that period, then he or she has fulfilled their duty, and you can carry on!
If however, you discovered that you absolutely could NOT maintain honesty with yourself as a heterosexual person, then what would be wrong by realizing that that is who you are?
….God will still love you regardless!
Your description of my efforts to provoke contemplation, is certainly a credit to my zeal. However, I don’t think I earned the description of “fanatic” based upon my even handed approach to life and it’s tribulations.
You mentioned “…intolerance and inflexibility of either extreme side”
By that admission, you’ve recognized that there are two sides to this issue. And you’ll discover as you age, that those “forces” only get stronger, as your convictions come up against the many things in Life that will challenge you.
Be strong, and be true!
I pray that you will follow your heart, while using your head, and always seek Truth!
No one comes out of this alive, so make this life count!
Namaste’
MarcoPolo
Comment by Jeremy Long on October 31, 2014 at 6:35 pm
I think the malice of most gays toward ex-gays is rooted in their yearning to appear as a united front to the straight world. “We’re all just fine, thanks, happy as can be, no big deal, just let us marry and everything will be fine.” Ex-gays threaten them, since their very existence suggests that gays are NOT all happy by any means.
Comment by MarcoPolo on November 1, 2014 at 8:04 am
Jeremy,
What responses do you get from your LGBT friends, when you tell them what you think?
You DO talk with them about this, don’t you?
Comment by Paul Hoskins on November 5, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Normally a “devout” Christian is someone who takes the New Testament as a guide to life, so “devout homosexual Christian” is an oxymoron. You seem to have some vested interest in convincing Christians that we ought to embrace “homosexual Christians” as brothers. which is unthinkable. Why on earth would you care? Let the gays go to the pro-gay churches, let us Christians go our own way, no reason to try to reach some kind of compromise because that will never happen. God will sort it all out in the end. I have no intention of sharing the pew with people who are openly in-your-face immoral.
Comment by Sandy Naylor on October 30, 2014 at 9:34 am
The ex-gays and ex-lesbians I know were not transformed by professional therapists but by a long incremental process in which they grew steadily more unhappy with their lot and finally, as one of them put it, “hit rock bottom,” either attempting suicide or contemplating it. There ARE ex-gays, and the fact that so many relapse does not prove it is impossible to change.