Suing Conversion Therapists.
Slam-dunk case, if you ask me. Imagine some crazy therapist telling some gay kid he can make him straight? Conversion therapy doesn't work unless the subject is highly motivated, deeply religious and mortified and resolutely determined, and is either well insured or rich. Therapy is expensive - which is why religious counselors probably shouldn't recommend it unless they are willing to fund it. Otherwise only those with money, or insurance, can be healed - right? Not always.
To be sure - nothing is impossible with God - but making a business out of changing people from gay to straight has nothing to do with God - unless you are a scam artist or born again healer/miracle worker. Conversion is God's work, it is called grace - reparative or reversion therapy is man's work. I think it unwise to try and convince a subject they can change, or worse - as a therapist, tell them you can change them if they do this or that.
So today we now have the first case of gays suing therapists for promising to make them straight. I think they have a case.
(CNN) -- Before Sheldon Bruck told his orthodox Jewish parents he was gay, the teenager looked for a way out of homosexuality.Of course, if the clients were like St. Augustine, "Oh God give me chastity, but not just yet!" Aspects of the therapy might not have been as traumatic as they claim. It might even have been ...
His search led him to JONAH -- Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing -- which claimed on its website to help people "struggling with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions."
JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg promised Bruck, then 17, that "JONAH could help him change his orientation from gay to straight," according to a consumer fraud lawsuit filed Tuesday against JONAH, Goldberg and a JONAH counselor. - Gays sue...
The conversion therapy techniques included having them strip naked in group sessions, cuddling and intimate holding of others of the same-sex, violently beating an effigy of their mothers with a tennis racket, visiting bath houses "in order to be nude with father figures," and being "subjected to ridicule as 'faggots' and 'homos' in mock locker room scenarios," the suit said. - CNNWhat?
Seriously, thank God Catholics do not buy into that crap. Remember, the Church does not require SSA persons to become straight, rather they are called to chastity and holiness. The Church does not even require you to go to Courage meetings.
Most people can stop 'acting out' but many can't change their sexual attraction. If they want to try, God bless them - but they don't have to. Anything is possible however. If you go for it, chances are it will be a long and painful process as well. Give alms instead.
Isn't the headline a little accusatory? Some of these people experienced- and still do today- "therapy" that is comparable to torture. They have every right to sue, as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteReally? They are litigating, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm actually on their side, so I don't really see a problem with the title.
Sure, fine. It's ok. But the word carries negative connotations. No worries.
DeleteThat's life in the United States.
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ReplyDeleteI guess I lead a sheltered life. Most of the Catholics I know do NOT believe attraction to any evil is a sin. It's the actions we take on our sinful attractions that are evidence of either vice or virtue.
DeleteI never heard of Cyril Koob and I'm not that familiar with Fr. West, but calling them "freakin' insane" comes across as freakin' uncharitable to me and perhaps a tad self righteous as in "thank God I am not like other men" - crazy, demented and freakin' insane.
The part I don't get is why go if it's nuts? Any time you partake of professional services, be it haircuts, therapists, lawyers, acupuncturist or whatever, if you're uncomfortable, hate your haircut or whatever, you're at liberty not to go back. Is his problem that the therapy options were totally nuts or that they didn't change him?
ReplyDeleteThey want the therapy option off the table.
DeleteYes, of course they do; heaven forbid it would work on someone, negating their claims that gay is genetic! But why is it okay for people to all of a sudden become gay? Always a one-way street with the libs.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about temptations being simply temptations, and not sinful acts. But I wouldn't be so dismissive of reparative therapy. There is reparative therapy, and then there is reparative therapy. The kind described above is unlikely to be effective. But, I know of people whose sexual attraction did change once they understood the deep-seated origin of their same-sex attraction. Father Harvey did good work in this area.
ReplyDeleteMary Ann:
ReplyDeleteYou kind of had to be there. I was on the receiving end of a tidal wave of insane, bitter, nasty uncharity from Fr. Peter and a battalion of lunatics for remarking that a SSA guy I knew was, I thought, a saint. More than a thousand bitter threatening crazy and insane comments were vomited at me and my friend for the crazy notion that a SSA person could be living in fidelity to the Faith. So no. Not uncharitable. Deadly accurate.
And yeah, Terry. I figured you were speaking tongue in cheek. ;)
I was there and remember the discussion.
DeleteI won't stand by while a good priest's words are mischaracterized. Nowhere did Fr. West say or imply that merely having SSA is "damnable."
And I hardly see how calling Father "freakin' insane" is charitable of "accurate."
Besides, from what I remember, Fr. West very humbly apologized and rectified the situation in a public way. Why are you still rehashing it in public? Are you incapable of forgiving?
As someone who provides counseling to men who struggle with SSA, I can testify that what is reported on CNN and other outlets about what happens on these weekends are lies. Pure lies. I have been on a weekend such as the one these men were on, and there is nothing that happens on these weekends that is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, nor a promises of change from gay to straight. In fact, I found the weekend to be incredibly steeped in Catholic principles. This is an example of angry, bitter, gay men who want everyone to hail the virtue of their sinful lifestyle. I believe Mark Shea uses a phrase that I would use to describe what is happening here. They are "Gay Brownshirts on the march!"
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