Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Amid Bachmann controversy, many Christians cool to conversion therapy for gays
CNN ^ | 07/18/2011 | Dan Gilgoff

Posted on 07/18/2011 10:35:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

When presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s husband, Marcus, addressed accusations that his Christian counseling business encourages homosexual clients to try to change their sexual orientation, he appeared to play down the role of so-called conversion therapy at his clinics.

"Is it a remedy form that I typically would use?” Bachmann told Minnesota’s Star Tribune newspaper. “It is at the client's discretion.

"We don't have an agenda or a philosophy of trying to change someone," Bachmann said, noting that such therapy was not a focus of his two clinics.

Bachmann’s seeming ambivalence about conversion therapy - sometimes called reparative therapy - after a week’s worth of news stories that raised questions about whether his clinics promote the practice may illustrate a broader trend in the conservative Christian subculture.

While many evangelicals once viewed conversion therapy as key way to deal with homosexuality, many of the religious movement's leaders and organizations have cooled to the practice in recent years, as more science suggests that homosexuality may be innate and as new therapeutic approaches have emerged.

“Evangelicals, in quiet ways, are shifting to this position to where there is just not a lot of support for the change paradigm,” said Warren Throckmorton, an influential voice in the world of Christian counseling, referring to so-called change therapy.

“In the late 1990s, the debate was clearly, ‘Could gays change from being gay?’ and the focus was on orientation, and it was a big part of politics,” said Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College, an evangelical school in Pennsylvania.

(Excerpt) Read more at religion.blogs.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: christophobia; conversiontherapy; dangilgoff; enemedia; gay; homosexuality; michelebachmann; throckmorton; warrenthrockmorton
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-47 next last

1 posted on 07/18/2011 10:35:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I wish everyone would stop backing down to fags and other perpetually offended groups.


2 posted on 07/18/2011 10:39:42 AM PDT by youngidiot (Hear Hear!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: youngidiot

we must accept that parading your perversions around is normal.


3 posted on 07/18/2011 10:42:10 AM PDT by MNDude (so that's what they meant by Carter's second term)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Therapy implies to me that the person is mentally ill and in need of cognitive change.

I’m not much of a fan of “therapy” for this either, although I don’t oppose it. I can certainly see that biblical counseling and accountability could help a motivated sinner.

That’s what it is. Sin. Like any other sexual sin. I don’t think sin needs “therapy.”


4 posted on 07/18/2011 10:42:45 AM PDT by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“as more science suggests that homosexuality may be innate and as new therapeutic approaches have emerged.”

What science? And if it’s innate, why is there a need for therapeutic approaches at all?

The problem is unwillingness to call a spade a spade: it’s unnatural by its very definition, it harms those involved, and it’s morally reprehensible.


5 posted on 07/18/2011 10:43:08 AM PDT by jagusafr ("We hold these truths to be self-evident...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Remember “Lesbian Chic”? It was a fad in the late 1980’s fueled by rampant Cocaine use. First the girls gave up the Blow and then they became Born Again.


6 posted on 07/18/2011 10:43:47 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“science suggests that homosexuality may be innate and as new therapeutic approaches have emerged.”

There is no scientific support whatsoever for the so called “gay gene”. Asserting that homosexual behavior is innate and the individual has no control over it denies the principle of free will and the basic difference between men and animals.

Animals have no control over their sexual desires. Human beings do.


7 posted on 07/18/2011 10:47:26 AM PDT by detective
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12825688

“Male mice bred without serotonin lose their preference for females, a report in Nature says.”


8 posted on 07/18/2011 10:51:13 AM PDT by deltaromeo11 (Luke 16:31, Gen 7:16)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: youngidiot
I wish everyone would stop backing down to fags and other perpetually offended groups.

Well, we now know why Christ warned us to "Remember Lot's wife." All she did on her way out of Sodomy was look back longingly and she became a sack of salt... Christ did say I have foretold you all things, and course He was NOT accepted then and He also said that as this flesh age winds down the majority would NOT accept Him in those days.

9 posted on 07/18/2011 10:53:53 AM PDT by Just mythoughts (Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I have limit experience with homosexuals that I know personally. (I don't go looking for them, and I don't interrogating people about their "orientation". One I used to live with (dorm suite) is currently married (hetero) with children; another died (AIDS); another is adamant - not just that we accept him (he's always welcome, open arms) but also approve (which we won't), another is also married (hetero), no children yet but expecting, I believe.
Judging by this experience - admittedly, limited - I see nothing outrageous about Mr. Bachmann's approach.
10 posted on 07/18/2011 10:54:20 AM PDT by Nevermore (...just a typical cracker, clinging to my Constitutional rights...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Why does God even bother to breathe life into these creatures?


11 posted on 07/18/2011 10:55:00 AM PDT by stuartcr ("Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

If it is not being forced upon the gays then the left should shut the heck up about this. I thought they were “pro choice” and all. If someone who is gay wants to choose not to be gay then it this decision. Or course this runs against the whole left paradigm of “We are always right and you are too stupid to run your own life”.


12 posted on 07/18/2011 10:56:58 AM PDT by GraceG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I read the title as: they were 'cool with it', not that they were 'cooling to it'.

I'm really not sure what they are saying. Everyone of us was born with a sin nature. Some to theft, lying, lust, adultery, drunkeness, homosexuality, etc... Are they saying Christians shouldn't try to help people trapped in the chains of sin to break free?
Freedom comes through the work of God.
God the Son said, 'he who the Son sets free will be free indeed'.
And God the Holy Spirit works with the repentant sinner to enable him to be clean.
What did God mean when He said, 'Be ye Holy for I am Holy'? Do we get a pass because of our sin nature?
What did the Holy Spirit, working through Paul, mean in His exhortation in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Should His last verse have been: 'And such ARE some of you. You were born that way ... fuggetaboutit...'?

These people (if they are truly presenting themselves as 'Evangelists' -- or are merely inventions of the Satan owned Media) are just encouraging people to take the wide road to hell.

13 posted on 07/18/2011 11:03:28 AM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Bachmann’s are not roaming the streets, rounding up gays, and forcing them to repent.

They merely offer help to those seeking it.

I know of some instances where gays were born again, and while some may have continued to struggle with temptations, they were able to live happy, healthy lives free of homosexual acts.

I don’t think this media witch hunt will hurt Michelle.


14 posted on 07/18/2011 11:09:16 AM PDT by Retired Greyhound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I think this is an absolutely fatal mistake for any candidate to make and no one should vote for Marcus Bachman for president.


15 posted on 07/18/2011 11:11:33 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing an idiot)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Homosexuality was listed as a disorder in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) of the APA until l973 when it was declassified as a mental disorder. This declassification was totally due to political pressure and not scientific research.

So, as far as I am concerned, homosexuality is a disorder akin to alcoholism, an eating disorder, OCD, etc. Until proven (scientifically) otherwise.

So in that sense it is treatable, but just like any disorder the person has to want to change.

I am saddened by the rhetoric sometimes on this board. I don’t see the point in calling people who have a disorder “sinners”... we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. If someone has an eating disorder, they are sinning when they eat too much (gluttony), but so what? If someone is a homosexual, so what?

The issue is not with homosexuality and the homosexual, the issue is that our society seems to REVERE it now. And in that reverence is going so far as to pass laws to the detriment of society. Homosexual marriage means the State is legislating that children be denied either a mother or a father. Legislating it.

My point is that MB seems to have a heart to want to help people who want to be healed from the disorder called homosexuality. Good for her. We can’t allow the media to excoriate her for doing so. But we also can’t keep up the name calling and rejection of people who are homosexuals. It’s pointless and damaging to us and them.


16 posted on 07/18/2011 11:12:06 AM PDT by Reddy (B.O. stinks)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GraceG
GraceG - Agree with you 100%. If someone wants to change, then why all the hysteria? It's a one way street from their prospective - no way out.

Of course, at the base of it, is desperate fear. If someone successfully escapes the "happy" life, then they must look at themselves and ask the question, "do I actually have a choice?" If so, then the house of cards that is the victim mindset comes tumbling down and the person become responsible for their life choices.

That is a terrifying proposition to most -- much easier to try and expand the "closet" and force others to accept your lifestyle through laws and intimidation than look in the mirror...

17 posted on 07/18/2011 11:12:06 AM PDT by FightforFreedomCA (It starts here! It starts now! Mr. President, game on!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr
Why does God even bother to breathe life into these creatures?

As we're all sinners to a greater or lesser degree, God apparently chose them to live as well.

18 posted on 07/18/2011 11:17:07 AM PDT by jimt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This is one of the many compromises Christians have made since they traded their sword (KJB) in for a garden tool (NIV NKJV etc.)


19 posted on 07/18/2011 11:21:22 AM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: demshateGod

RE: This is one of the many compromises Christians have made since they traded their sword (KJB) in for a garden tool (NIV NKJV etc.)

_________________________________________________________________________________

What does the NIV and/or NKJV say about Homosexuality that the KJB does not say?

Put it another way, what NIV or NKJV say that is DIFFERENT from the KJB?


20 posted on 07/18/2011 11:27:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-47 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson