Posted by Lee Russ WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A new study suggesting that religiously motivated conversion from homosexual orientation is possible and not harmful has been hailed by some social conservatives, while others are questioning the study’s motive and methodology. The study, funded by an “ex-gay” group and released in book form by a Christian publisher, is called Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. Released Sept. 17 in conjunction with a conference by Exodus International, the organization that sponsored the study, its authors are psychologists Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse. Jones is a professor at Wheaton College in Illinois, often considered American evangelicalism’s flagship academic institution. Yarhouse is the director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. Regent was founded by Christian television broadcaster Pat Robertson. The study is the first longitudinal (meaning its subjects are followed over a period of months or years) attempt to assess the success of people who enter Christian “reparative therapy” to alter their sexual orientations. The American Psychological Association, as well as several other professional mental-health organizations, have long considered sexual orientation to be immutable and considered attempts to change it via therapy prone to causing psychological harm. The study followed 98 participants in Exodus groups over periods varying from 30 months to four years. Of those, 72 were men and 26 were women, with an average age of 37. However, by the end of the study, more than a quarter of the original participants had dropped out or disappeared. Only 73 completed the series of three interviews that researchers used for data. Of the remaining people, researchers determined that 15 percent had experienced a “significant” decrease in same-sex attraction and a similarly significant increase in heterosexual desire. Another 23 percent felt they had undergone a significant reduction in homosexual attraction but had not developed heterosexual desires sufficient enough to enter into relationships with the opposite sex. Jones and Yarhouse defined that 38 percent of the sample as successes in altering their sexual orientation, although they admitted that many of the successful participants still experienced occasional same-sex desires. A third category, comprising 29 percent of those who completed the study, said they had experienced insignificant amounts of reduction in their same-sex attractions but were committed to continuing therapy. Another 15 percent said they had also experienced no reduction in their homosexuality and were confused about whether they would remain in therapy but had not entirely given up on the idea. The study considered as “failures” another four percent who had given up on therapy but had not embraced a gay identity and eight percent who had given up and considered themselves gay. Just out of curiosity, I wonder what the results would be if a gay group convinced 98 heterosexuals to undergo reorientation therapy aimed at increasing their homosexual desires? And exactly why would the results be of much interest to anyone?
on 9/29/2007, 5:44 pm
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From Associated Baptists Press news: New ‘ex-gay’ study hailed by Right raises methodological questions
By Robert Marus
Published September 21, 2007
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