Gays Can't Change - or Can They?
By Heather Sells
CBN News
September 14, 2007
CBNNews.com - A ground-breaking new study challenges the idea that homosexuals cannot change and that attempts to change are harmful.
Its authors, Stan Jones, provost at Wheaton College, and Mark Yarhouse, a professor at Regent University, are taking on the very power centers of the mental health industry.
Their new book Ex-Gays? followed 98 people who went to Exodus Ministries, seeking Christian help to change their homosexual orientation.
Over three years, Jones and Yarhouse found about one-third were able to change.
"This is a very difficult path to take so we're not suggesting it's easy," Yarhouse said.
Of the one-third, 23 percent were able to substantially decrease their same-sex attraction. Fifteen percent were also able to develop opposite-sex attraction.
These findings directly contradict the views of major medical groups like the American Psychiatric Association.
"Efforts to repathologize homosexuality, by claiming that it can be cured, are often guided not by rigorous scientific...research, but sometimes by religious and political forces opposed to full civil rights for gay men and lesbians," the APA said in a recent statement.
But Jones and Yarhouse say they've used sophisticated research methods and that groups like the APA must recognize the homosexuals who want to change.
"The reality is there's some people who for personal or religious reasons really feel conflicted about that," Yarhouse said, "and so they're going to come either to a mental health professional or religious ministry and they're going to say, 'this is a conflict for me. This is distressing.'"
Ken Tombley says it took him five years of intense work to become heterosexual.
"Homosexual attraction didn't emerge in me suddenly and so it didn't go away suddenly," he said.
Now, as a pastor ministering to gays, he recognizes just how hard the journey is.
He said, "It isn't just about changing your behavior, it's about changing how you see yourself. And you don't just see yourself differently one day because you want to. You understand who you are as you reflect against your family, your culture, your faith."
It would probably be hard to over-estimate the importance of the church in supporting someone who wants to leave a gay lifestyle. And if the church can begin to understand the difficulty of the journey, it will no doubt be better equipped to help.
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