If I didn’t know better I might think that this CNN news report (video below) was a gag along the same lines as the Donnie Davies ‘God hates a fag‘ music video.
Richard Cohen is a ‘conversion therapist.’ An unlicensed therapist in the United States who helps gay people ‘straighten up’ and become ‘healed’ of their same sex attraction in a controversial practice called ‘sexual reorientation therapy’ or ‘reparative therapy’.
Among Cohen’s controversial methods is ‘touch therapy.’ This involves Cohen basically cradling the gay person in a ‘loving parental embrace’ (pictured right and seen in the above video). This enables the gay person to relate to healthy non-sexual same sex intimacy.
Another bizarre technique Cohen employs is bio-energetics whereby the gay person smacks the crap out of an object while shouting at it at the top of their voice. Apparently this releases anger from the muscles and thereby aids the gay person to become ‘normal.’
Coming from a somewhat checkered past, Cohen is himself a former homosexual. Unsurprisingly Cohen has strong religious connections. One of his former churches, The Wesleyan Christian Community Church, was ejected from the United Methodist Church for practicing nude psychotherapy, which Cohen described as being “like paradise.”
But while it’s easy to look at Cohen and dismiss him as being just another crack-pot, the idea that homosexuality as some kind of mental disorder or consequence of a previous experience is not that uncommon, despite the fact that most health and mental health professionals have concluded that homosexuality is not a disorder and therefore cannot be ‘cured.’ The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder way back in 1973.
I can’t imagine the misery it must be to live your life in denial of a major part of what makes you who you are. For those who see their homosexuality as ‘sinful’ and ‘wrong’ it is perhaps understandable how they might turn to some kind therapy to make them straight and therefore more acceptable to others, to God, and most importantly of all, to themselves.
To me the whole idea that a persons sexuality can be reversed by therapy is utterly absurd. I’m quite sure that no amount of therapy would make me want to get down and get funky with another guy. Therefore I can’t apply any credit to notion that therapy in any form could change a persons sexual orientation.
I’m doubtful that Cohen, and others like him, have cured anybody. Instead I think they have simply taught individuals trapped in a cycle of self loathing how to behave in order to find a level of social acceptance that all of us desire.
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Wiki : Richard Cohen, Reparative Therapist
Reparative Therapy success estimates
Ex-Gay Reparative Therapy
Wrote the following comment on May 22, 2007 at 10:14 am
I agree that the idea that gay can be ‘cured’ or ‘reversed’ is disgusting, but I also agree that you should be able to choose your sexual orientation rather than have it forced upon you for unknown reasons, be it psychological or genetically built in.
Wrote the following comment on May 22, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I was actually careful not to use the word choice in connection with sexual orientation because I do not belive it is a choice we make any more than breathing is.
I didn’t sit down one day and look at the pro’s and con’s of adopting a hetrosexual lifestyle.
Wrote the following comment on May 22, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Well… i tend to think that someone should be licensed before giving therapy- that’s just asking for a lawsuit. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised at how many he’s probaby already had.
On another note, from your comments it seems you believe homosexuality is nature and not nurture. Is that basically your stance?
Wrote the following comment on May 22, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I think that homosexuality is indeed nature, however I don’t by any means rule out the possibility of sexuality being influenced by a number of factors. But I feel that a major motivation behind anyone partaking in this ‘corrective therapy’ is because they are struggling to live a lie in a community that cannot accept them for who they are.
If a therapist opened up a practice a few doors away from a church and started offering therapy to turn heterosexuals into homosexuals, how quickly do you suppose there would be a backlash?
The practice of reversing someone’s sexuality through therapy is ill conceived ridiculous psycho-babble that borders on abuse.
Wrote the following comment on May 23, 2007 at 8:49 am
I agree whole-heartedly Simon.
Sex becomes wrong when its not about love but more about power, selfishness and manipulation. I think this attitudinal thing is far more *sinful* even if one is heterosexual. Natural orientation has nothing to do with it really.
Wrote the following comment on May 24, 2007 at 11:04 pm
I think one needs to find where one’s assumptions are coming from. It seems funny that you are discusted by the suggestion that homosexuality can be cured. Can you prove that it can’t be? I don’t know if I agree with the guy’s methodes, they seem kinda funny to me but they seem to work for some people too. I know people who were gay and are no longer some of them are married and have kids on the way. They all seem like more fulfilled people. As far as I know most my frineds who “went stright” where sexually abused as children, I know it’s not “pc” to say stuff like that but it’s the truth. All the people I know who where once gay are now Christian though. This guy did seem to profess any particular faith.
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 12:54 am
But Bob, in fairness you are coming from the belief that homosexuality is a disorder. See, I’m not. I think that it is entirely possible to be born gay. However I am not foolish enough to discount the notion that life events can and do have huge effects on many facets of what makes us who we are.
If we are to assume then the Christian notion that homosexuality is a disorder, then how come there appears to be no medical evidence anywhere that would back this up? Furthermore, if having down syndrome is also a disorder, how come Christians aren’t helping people become cured of that too?
Imagine the outrage of a CNN news report that showed some crazy nut-job therapist curing people with down syndrome by cuddling and caressing them gently or having them whack the shit out of a pillow shouting at it.
Though I can’t find exact figures, evidence would seem to suggest that in the vast majority of cases anyone who attempts to reverse their sexuality fails. So while your happily married friends may indeed be blissfully happy, they are nonetheless the exception and not the rule.
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 1:17 am
Simon, in fairness you shouldn’t put words in my mouth or… on my key…board..or whatever because I’m typing. Just like I said, peole make assumptions. I’m guilty if that I’m sure. But anyway I don’t think homosexuality is a disorder. Just like I don’t think alcoholism is a dieses. It is result of sinful nature. It’s a result of man kinds fall from God. I’m a sinner too, I just have different struggles, but like my friends I’ve given my sin to God, and have been given freedom from it through Christ. It may be harder from some than others. Sin is bigger than us, but the Lord is bigger than sin. I don’t mean to sound “preechy” but if I do I guess it doesn’t really matter. People will agree or not. The Lord gave us free will.
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 1:21 am
I so wish I could open a clinic next to a church that helps make hetrosexual people homosexual. I’d like to reverse the role and see how many people who are willing to accept this practice would be equally willing to accept it in reverse.
Wrote the following comment on May 28, 2007 at 8:59 am
I think the issue of sexual orientation is a complicated matter that resists easy responses and solutions. I have known a few people who have come out of the homosexual lifestyle (or stated another way, who used to be homosexual, or another way still, had a homosexual orientation). I have also known people who I think sincerely sought to change their sexual orientation, but never really did. Among the latter, some have stopped trying to change, and embraced their homosexuality; others have stopped trying to change but instead lived a life of celibacy, as a kind of unmasking of the god of sex. In other words, they sought fulfillment that transcended sex as a testimony that sex is not the-be-all-end-all of human existence. Of course, many heterosexuals have adopted this lifestyle as well. Regarding the homosexuals who had a change of orientation, it seems to me that they propose a challenge regarding the nature of sexual orientation (regardless of how few of them there may be) which can only be resolved by calling them liars (either they are lying to us or to themselves). Regarding the homosexuals who tried to change but didn’t, it seems to me that the temptation is to say that they weren’t sincere enough, or that they didn’t try hard enough. Regarding both those who did change and those who didn’t, I think it would be wrong to tell the first group they are liars and the latter group that they weren’t sincere enough.
To complicate this matter further, when pedophiles are asked about their sexual desires, they would say that they desire children, and yet we as a society don’t deem their desire and practice as acceptable. In other words, their deep down sexual inclination, their orientation, is towards children, and yet this being the case does not justify such desire and practice in the eyes of society. This, to me, means that sexual orientation is not the trump card of legitimacy. Moreover, even if it was proven that pedophiles were born that way, that it could be traced to a specific gene even, that would not mean that all of a sudden we, as a society, would be all right with adults having sex with children. Now please understand that I am not saying that homosexuals are in the same category as pedophiles; rather, I am only using the example of pedophilia as a means of looking at the issue of sexual orientation (and how we relate to it and talk about it) from another angle. The point being that just because something is “natural†or inborn or congenital doesn’t necessarily mean that it should or would be all right. We as human beings, and as a society, make moral evaluations using both natural factors and factors that go beyond the natural.
All this leads to my final point, which is that according to the Xian tradition, all of creation is subject to the Fall, which means that the biological order of the world, its current system of operation, no longer reveals God’s original plan. Instead, the whole thing is, to some degree, malfunctioning and thereby not revealing or expressing its original design and glory. This, connecting to my previous point, would further mean that even what is currently natural would not be natural in the original sense.
Wrote the following comment on May 28, 2007 at 3:21 pm
OK, Simon, I just read your response to Bob, and I have to add a little more, even if it does make me a long-winded, wind bag. I don’t understand your rationale regarding Down Syndrome. This is a genetic disorder that impairs healthy cognitive, social and physical development to a varying degree in each individual that has it, some being mild and some severe. Some unfortunately have Down Syndrome so severely that they don’t make it to adulthood due to a shortened lifespan. In light of its obvious negative effects, it seems to me that if there was a cure for Down Syndrome people would want it, both society at large and the individuals who suffered as a result of having it. Homosexuality, by contrast has effects that are debatable as to weather they are negative. Some would say that there are no negative effects that come with being a homosexual, others would say that there are. This is the reason that the idea of a cure for homosexuality is controversial. Consequently, even if both homosexuality and Down Syndrome are “natural” they are not for this reason in the same category.
Wrote the following comment on May 29, 2007 at 1:56 am
My point with the poor comparisson between downs syndrome and sexuality is not that they are related but that the methods by which these people who claim they can heal a homosexual person are not then also applied to healing someone with downs syndrome.
Sexuality is complex and, like most things in life, by no means a black and white issue. I do not believe under any circumstances that a homosexual person can be cured of their sexuality anymore than I believe I could be ‘made gay’ by counselling. The notion is rediculous, idiotic, utterly flawed and completely devoid of all validity.
Those who claim to be ‘cured’ are, in my opinion, mislabelling the fact that they simply made a social/moral choice with the support of people who wanted them to take a certain path. And because there is a whole world of sexuality between hetrosexual and homosexual, some people will find making such choices easier than others.
Play it out in your own mind. Imagine for a moment that you’re attending gay therapy class to help you become the gay person you were always meant to be. Boobs are out, balls are in! Yay!
It’s laughable in its ridiculousness!
However, some people are so unhappy, so guilty, so outcast, that they are simply desperate enough for acceptance that they will do damn near anything to be what their social network want them to be. This is a truly awful position to be in I have no doubt.
Wrote the following comment on May 29, 2007 at 4:28 am
I know it is ironic of me to say this, but getting to the point, you are basically saying that those who claim to have been healed/delivered of/from their homosexual orientation are lying to themselves. Yes, no?…
It seems to me that you are interpreting these peoples claims of healing according to your presupposition that orientation is a fixed and stable reality, and that nothing on earth can shake it. This doesn’t seem very open to possibilities as you usually are.
I’m sure you got this, but I am open to the possibility of change in these peoples lives on the basis that both the incarnation and the resurrection mean that something beyond the norm, something supernatural, has opened up possibilities that don’t exist within the natural course of things.
Wrote the following comment on May 29, 2007 at 4:28 am
Oh, by the way, what happened to Rachel’s response??
Wrote the following comment on May 29, 2007 at 4:04 pm
There was some confusion in my response as i thought he mentioned the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in his post with his reference to the removal of homosexuality in 1973- but he didnt. SO i referred to the DSM for most of my response thinking it was understood that I was referring to the manual and it was not- my fault as a Psych. major. So, basically it needed to be deleted so i could edit it. I decided not to put it back up because it seemed to be a little bit of a bunny trail plus it fell out of progression.. but it seems that’s where this conversation is going anyways :) so maybe i’ll rework it and put it back up.
but hey, i’m just glad someone noticed!
Wrote the following comment on May 29, 2007 at 6:27 pm
To clarify, I do not believe sexuality is an entirely black and white subject. There is a whole world of grey between and it is in there that I believe the majority of people fall.
Those people who claim to have been healed may indeed believe that they are healed. I would however, suggest that they were simply making a lifestyle choice with the support of the counselor and the motivation of the fact that the ‘normal’ heterosexual lifestyle was more pleasing to God. A serious motivation I would assume.
There has been very little actual study done into the notion of people being healed of the sexuality, mainly because there would appear to be almost no scientific sense behind it. However I would venture a guess that of those who claimed to have been healed most are male and most were no more than about 25 when they were ‘healed.’
The point there being that sexuality is something that I think is still being experimented with heavily when you are younger. I myself know guys who are now married but have done stuff with other guys. No healing took place, they simply just decided after dabbling that they liked lady lumps more than man bits.