Bob+ blogs on an ex-gay documentary. Peterson blogs on a conference called Deconstructing the Ex-Gay Myth (and several other posts all over his blog.) And Sheri tells of her experience in a “Modern” Orthodox Shul.
Most people don’t know enough about psychological matters to make any suggestions at all: most of us can’t tell the difference between Bi-polar and Polar Bears. When Teh Gay comes up in conservative worlds, even though most of them don’t even believe in Freud or Jung (and some would go so far as to think that psychology is demonic at all) they just say “Oh, Ex Gay Therapy!!!!”
As I wrote to Bob+ “My social circle in SF included many ex-ex-gays who were exChristians as a result. [Except for my own unfortunate period of internalised homophobia - DHR] My usual response to their tormentors was “way to Gospel, schmucks”. Having been so tortured by Christians once, they didn’t want to bother going back to even a “gay-friendly” church now.”
I was lucky enough to have clergy who imagined there to be no such thing as “ex-gay”. While I may no longer agree with their theological position, I’m blessed by a history where no one sent me away to “get fixed”.
I have never understood the “ex-gay” thing. If one believes, as a traditional Christian, that homosexual behavior is sinful, then logically “ex-gay” means “ex-sinner”.
But none of us, “gay” or otherwise, is ever an “ex-sinner” (this side of the eschaton, anyway). Redeemed, yes; “ex”, no.
To me the “ex-gay” thing means that if you’re gay you have to go “get fixed” before you can be on the same playing-field with other Christians. That is totally heterodox. We all need to “get fixed” in exactly the same way, and you don’t get fixed by going to a therapist. You get fixed by prayer, fasting, and the means of grace.
I agree, but I also think it’s a little deeper: the exgay thing adds a layer that is, really, *in support* of gay rights. Ex-gay doesn’t equal “ex-sinner” in this world view: the idea of Ex-gay therapy is that there is something wrong - beyond just the activity.
I say this is in support of gay rights because Gay Rights activists do not just believe that “gay” is a “choice” for a specific behaviour.
You are right that, by (o)rthodox Christian standards, the idea of “fixing” a sinner is totally off. But there is an implication in the idea of therapy that goes beyond simply fixing the behaviour. That’s why I wonder why, from a culture that (largely) rejects psychological insights as suspect, this one (which you and I see as errant for different reasons) comes out again and again.