Posted on 10/25/2011 6:07:26 PM PDT by Graybeard58
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- A major seven-year study published in a mainstream journal is challenging the secular notion that gays and lesbians cannot change their sexual orientation.
The longitudinal study followed 61 subjects for between six and seven years and found that 23 percent of them reported successful conversion to heterosexual orientation and function and another 30 percent reported stable behavioral chastity with a significant dis-identification with gay orientation. Twenty percent of the subjects had given up and embraced a gay identity.
It is believed to be the first study of its kind -- that is, one that followed people over a series of years and monitored success or failure. The study followed subjects who voluntarily were taking part in Christian ministries affiliated with Exodus International, the nation's largest ministry devoted exclusively to reaching out to homosexuals.
Partial results of the study were released in 2007 and 2009 but now are being published in a peer-reviewed journal, which its authors hope gives it more credibility to those who had criticized it. The study is published in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Volume 37.
"The results that we report in our study suggest that change is definitely not impossible, and it's probably not uncommon, either," coauthor Stanton L. Jones, a psychologist at Wheaton College, told Baptist Press. "That doesn't mean that change is easy. We think that these results need to be taken into account as a way of respecting the religious freedom of individuals."
Baptist Press reported on the earlier findings in '07 and '09. Having the study published in a peer-reviewed journal, Jones said, is significant.
"It signifies that the methodology meets the basic requirements for being taken seriously as a piece of scientific literature," Jones said. "Critics still dismiss the study. They say, 'Well, it's only one study,' or they say it's not a large enough sample. But I think the study stands as a significant challenge to the reigning views on this matter, especially given that the major mental health organizations say in alternate voices that change of sexual orientation is impossible or that change in sexual orientation is highly unlikely."
A statement on the American Psychological Association's website says that promotion of change therapy "contributes to a negative climate for lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons."
"All major national mental health organizations have officially expressed concerns about therapies promoted to modify sexual orientation," the APA statement says. "To date, there has been no scientifically adequate research to show that therapy aimed at changing sexual orientation ... is safe or effective."
Changing attitudes on the subject isn't easy, Jones said. Stories about gay people who tried but didn't change tend to get more media attention, he said. Also, he noted, the issue has become political. When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in February that the Justice Department would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, part of Holder's reasoning was that there's "a growing scientific consensus ... that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable." The study by Jones and coauthor Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University directly challenges that argument.
"To admit that the study has any validity is to draw into question ... the change in [public] policies," Jones said.
The study does not examine why some people are more successful in changing their orientation than others.
"We can't answer that," Jones said.
Some critics say the study was deficient because it did not record the physical responses of subjects to sexual stimulus. In some mainstream circles, that is done by placing pornography in front of the subjects and either monitoring the physical response or monitoring the brain for a response. But such a test, Jones said, would have gone against what Exodus strives to obtain -- sexual purity in both thought and practice.
"Christians and others who are pursuing a moral framework for change don't look at that as a benign interaction," Jones said. " ... People who are undergoing change don't want to submit themselves to exposure to gay porn as a measurement method as to whether they have changed."
Jones and Yarhouse caution against projecting success ratios based on their study. For instance, they say, it would be wrong to say that 23 percent of people can change their orientation, just because 23 percent of the people in their study did so. Nevertheless, they say, the study shows that change is possible.
"I know individuals who have been married for 20 and 30 years after coming out of the gay community," Jones said. "The claim that nobody has ever changed is not substantiated either by our study or by any number of powerful anecdotes that are out there." --30-- Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press. Learn more about the study at ExGayStudy.org.
The B in GLBT stands for bi-sexual. Well, if you can go either of two ways then by definition, you can go just one because at any given time you are making a choice to be with either a man or a woman. The internal logic of the gay rights crowd undercuts their own movement.
Hardly surprising, when one reflects that the notion of “sexual orientation” is an idiotic fiction.
“We with a free will determine or sexual preference.”
Do you think PTSD is a real phenomenon?
Homosexual researchers have looked and looked and looked and looked for biological evidence that people are born “gay” and they have not been able to find any. None at all. Tons of info on the thread and links. They cannot find an iota of evidence or proof of any kind that supports the “born that way” theory. None.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2730140/posts
Not born this way: The facts, plus help available
Ya mean addadictomy is now in a mainstream dictionary?!?
Set up a straw man and of course you can kill him.
I think there is probably a gene that makes people susceptible to being homosexual. It’s been proven that sexual abuse can do that as well, many “lesbians” have been abused by men to the point they hate/fear us all so they’re with women instead. The rest are butch freaks who are probably missing a gene. But so what? Genetic component or not it’s still something that’s wrong with you like down syndrome.
With the gay men same thing. We know if boys get molested that can mess them up. For the rest, something is just wrong with their brain to have sexual attraction to something they shouldn’t. Mental illness can be mysterious.
Many are in the closet, somehow their wives end up pregnant. Obviously some of them at least maintain the capacity for being heterosexual. Elton John has admitted he likes women.
No one that I know of is working on any treatment. It’s all prayer-based stuff that sorry, doesn’t work. You can’t pray away a mental and/or genetic illness. Those with strong enough faith are able to resist their urges, for the rest it fails.
Transgender is even worse. That’s a damn serious mental disorder. But if they visited a mental health professional they’ll be told it’s a-ok, embrace it, don’t like your genitals? Go ahead Chazz Bono, get them changed through unnecessary surgery cause the problem is with them and not your mind.
It’s a sad thing that liberals have dominated mainstream psychology.
I have a 'urge' to tell this very attractive 26 year old woman at work that I am hot for her, even though she has no interest in me. Federal sexual harrassment law forces my employer to restrict my urges to enage in free speech on that subject with her. But No one is marching for my civil rights to express my urges.
I will march with you SOL!! :-D
I’m way sick of “gay rights” protesters. I wish they would just go about their business in private like everyone else. So do some conservative gays I’m sure. It must be embarresing to them to have people prancing around in parades and such.
But their underlying disorder will remain and I think it can be treated if only the medical community didn’t look on it as a-ok. Churches alone aren’t getting it done. Often people will look at perverse sexual stuff as primarily a moral failing, sometimes it is and churches could help with that. But I think gays are wrong in the head and can be treated medically.
Of course they can change, ask any homosexual who has now got their life together and are now leading a productive life in a normal society.
And I wasnt kidding either.
But their underlying disorder will remain and I think it can be treated if only the medical community didn’t look on it as a-ok. Churches alone aren’t getting it done. Often people will look at perverse sexual stuff as primarily a moral failing, sometimes it is and churches could help with that. But I think gays are wrong in the head and can be treated medically.
It is like a little brat screaming for attention. Because they are "gay" they think they need special treatment. They at one time say they want to be treated the same as "straight" people but that is total BS. They want to be treated like Superman on steroids!
They are like the cry babies in the #OWS who now suddenly have no attention and because the temp is below 60 degrees they suddenly all went home like rats running for cheese. I guess the weed ran out. Or George Soros decided to spend his money destroying America another way after all the negative press from the drugged out hippies making fools of themselves and even rat mayors threw them all in jail!!!
They certainly look and act like it. Something went awry during the sperm milkshake-egg interaction.
“I’m way sick of “gay rights” protesters.”
Has there every been a scenario where something goes from immoral and criminal to a condition to a civil right? Money talks and bullsh*t walks.
As far as “gay rights” go, Dice said it best: “Here's 10% off Vaseline. Now get the f**k back in the closet!”
Well! You won’t be allowed to teach in public schools, or hold elective office, or work for a arge corporation with views like that! /s/
Way back when, I was single and dating, I dated a woman who was divorced and she had an 8 year old son. That little kid sat my "gaydar" off from the gitgo. all his actions and mannerisms were effeminate. I dated her off and on for about two years and he continued to display all those mannerisms.
Several years later, she called me and told me that her son, Matt, was getting married and she was in shock that he was "marrying" a man and wanted to know if I ever suspected that Matt was homosexual. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I saw that coming for years and didn't know how she could have missed it. I just sympathized with her and advised her to keep on loving her son and not lose him completely.
At age 8, I believe he was already homosexual, I didn't know him before that age but assume it went back even farther than that.
Genetic or learned behavior? I don't know perhaps some of each.
Mmmm - I was replying to you and Westbrook since you were exchanging comments, and he appeared to be saying there was a biological or genetic component by saying that identical twins had a higher chance of both being homosexual. Which statement I don’t know if it is a fact or not.
I did not set up a straw man. I was providing info that might be of use to him, and I included you since you were engaged in the discussion with him.
Take a look at the link I posted above, tons of info about the causes of homosexuality.
The boy may very well have been molested in the past. Boys without a father in the home are particularly vulnerable.
> he appeared to be saying there was a biological or genetic
> component by saying that identical twins had a higher
> chance of both being homosexual.
That was little jeremiah’s premise, NOT mine (Westbrook).
I stated that clinical evidence indicates that alcoholism has a genetic component, not homosexuality. No genetic component for homosexual behavior has been found.
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