Vanderbilt conference examines reparative therapy

Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon Issues Analyst   [2-14-04]

When Focus on the Family announced a February 7 conference on therapies that promise to cure homosexuality, to be held in Nashville at the Two Rivers Baptist Church, a mega-church near Opryland, it seemed an opportune time to examine the issue as a whole.  A different conference was held on the same day, sponsored by Vanderbilt Divinity School, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality, and the Nashville chapter of the Human Rights Campaign.  By various counts there were between 150 and 200 in attendance.

Chris Sanders of the Divinity School welcomed the group, commenting that the subject is an issue not only in "civil society" but in "public policy," entering into electoral races, legislative battles, and lawsuits.        

 Analyzing the religious context of reorientation therapies, Amy-Jill Levine, professor of New Testament and director of the Carpenter Center, suggested that the debate is not only about what the Bible says but about the authority of the Bible, for it is used in political, legislative, and legal argumentation as well as religious discourse.

 Mark Jordan, a Catholic professor and author of The Invention of Sodom in Christian Theology and other books, recalled an episode in Boston during which gay activist Charley Shively read from Leviticus and then burned the Bible, prompting other gays to protest, telling how the Bible had comforted and encouraged them. Jordan called reparative therapy "deeply anti-Christian," "theologically incoherent," and "a pop version of psychotherapy."  By setting up a moral norm that contradicts human flourishing, it makes people think that the way they are is offensive to God.  If homosexuality has negative effects, he said, these are largely created by social and religious persecution with its self-fulfilling expectations of unhappiness and destructive behavior.

James Hudnut-Beumler, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School and a historian of American religion, called the therapy movement the product of a religious culture that has obscured the central message of the Bible.  It grows, he said, out of the 1950s image of the family, which became "a stand-in for all other aspects of morality."  The family ideal was symbolized by Pat Boone, depicted in the "Ozzie and Harriet" series, and encouraged by Billy Graham's over-simplified "conversion model" of the Christian life.  It is a cultural model that lays down clear gender roles; those who do not fit are regarded as abnormal, and they themselves often internalize the same judgment.

Daniel Helminiak of the University of West Georgia, a psychotherapist, theologian, and author of What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality, surveyed the scientific literature on reparative therapy (he suggested the more neutral term "reorientation therapy," and several other participants adopted this terminology). 

Helminiak noted the difficulties of designing appropriate research projects C the need to differentiate between gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender roles; the statistical skewing that occurs when subjects are gathered through self-selection; and the unreliability of memories and self-evaluations if they are not tested against journals and other kinds of documentation.  Studies of males, furthermore, far outnumber those of females, probably because male homosexuality is viewed as more of a cultural and psychological threat, and because women tend to be more comfortable with diverse sexual expression.  There are important questions about who finances these studies.  And the public is in serious need of background information and careful analysis, while the media too often take the course of simply printing the latest press releases.

One part of the literature, Helminiak noted, tries to find causes for same-sex orientation.  Studies of twins and siblings tend to indicate that "genetic sharing" is a factor; but the highest correlation, in the case of identical twins, is only about 50 percent.  Treatment with male and female hormones tends only to intensify same-sex behavior.  Close examination of family experience indicates no significant role for bad parental relationships, unpleasant heterosexual experiences, early homosexual seduction, or labeling as "gay" or "lesbian"; sexual orientation seems to be set before adolescence, and biological bases are the most likely explanation.

More to the purposes of the conference, Helminiak examined studies of reorientation therapy.  Change is usually claimed after a period of 2 to 5 years or even longer.  In the Spitzer study (2003), about two-thirds of people who claimed to have changed reported good heterosexual functioning.  A parallel study by Shildo and Schroeder (2003), however, found that the "honeymoon" stage is often followed by struggle and lapse, with 10 percent recovering a "guiltless" gay identity and 77 percent an "injured" gay identity; about 4 percent were confident about a shift to heterosexuality, and many of these were ex-gay counselors or other persons in paid positions.  Doubt has been cast on this kind of self-report, Helminiak said, in the wake of highly publicized lapses like those of John Paulk of Exodus International; Michael Busse and Gary Cooper, founders of the same organization; and David Caliguiri of Free Indeed, who reported that many leaders were actually pairing up with each other in hotel rooms.

Carlton Cornett, a Nashville social worker and therapist, emphasized that attempts to change sexual orientation often increase shame and undermine self-esteem.  He noted the judgment of a committee of the National Association of Social Workers that many attempts at conversion therapy could more accurately be called "brainwashing, shaming, or coercion" C methods that violate professional ethics.

Wayne Besen, author of Anything But Straight, told about his experiences when he went under cover and joined reparative therapy groups.  He discovered the theme for his first chapter, he said, when he was called to Mr. P's, a gay bar in Washington, DC, where a major leader of Exodus International was said to be "hitting on" other men.  Besen accused major ex-gay and therapy organizations of being unconcerned about truth, covering up lapses and continuing their same propaganda.  Books, programs, and videotapes are marketed by exploiting the fears of gays and especially their anxious parents.

Too often, Besen said, the "therapy" makes people feel scared and unhappy about the way they are and encourages them to "bear false witness to gain favor from God."  Insofar as they succeed, he said, they do it through disciplines of avoidance and distraction, using rituals that amount to quackery.  Often the result is despair, followed by suicide or by "binge behavior" when they return to same-sex activity.  They are "actors playing a role," he said, bringing others into their play until they can no longer pretend.