Praying the gay away

Pray Away the Gay’ : Why Are Governments Trying to Stop It? Maria Baer Nations around the globe are pushing bans on conversion therapy, some without defining what it is

Licensed counselor Jen Simmons says she has counseled clients and walked alongside friends who are same-sex attracted but have chosen celibacy or to marry someone of the opposite sex. Ozanne hopes the conversion therapy ban in Victoria, Australia, will be used as a model in the rest of the world.

And yet, as the practice itself has all but disappeared, public campaigns to ban it are growing around the world. A government survey found that only 2 percent of LGBT people in the UK had undergone conversion therapy, but she believes it still happens widely.

In the past decade, however, even that kind of conversion therapy has mostly disappeared. " is a episode of the American television series Our America with Lisa Ling. The episode, hosted by Ling, profiles several people as they seek to reconcile their homosexuality with their Christianity.

While ministries including Exodus International and Focus on the Family used to preach that homosexual desire should be eliminated, most evangelical churches, pastors, and mental health professionals today emphasize chastity amid desires that might last a lifetime.

The bans that have withstood challenges have been more narrowly focused: In Virginia and other jurisdictions, the therapy is banned only for minors. " Pray the Gay Away? Jackie Hill Perry. Ed Shaw. At the same time, licenced counselors are rarely trying to change orientation.

Most bans in the US also explicitly exempt churches and pastors, though they can still threaten Christian professionals, according to Matt Sharp, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom.

Simmons said that when issues of sexuality come up, she is more likely to appeal to the science of trauma and attachment than she is to cite Scripture. Ozanne, a lesbian evangelical, says she was repeatedly told while growing up in church that God would change her orientation if she prayed hard enough.

View issue. Rachel Gilson.

Is It Possible to : Former leaders of the "pray the gay away" movement contend with the aftermath unleashed by their actions, while a survivor seeks healing and acceptance from more than a decade of trauma

There are licensed mental health professionals who practice "reparative" or "conversion" therapies designed to make gay people heterosexual, despite the evidence that it's not only ineffective but. Could you pray for me? Get the most recent headlines and stories from Christianity Today delivered to your inbox daily.

Even the Nashville Statementa point manifesto by the complementarian Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, maintains that homosexual desire may never change. The term often evokes the most extreme attempts to eliminate unwanted same-sex attraction: shock therapy, exorcisms, forced heterosexual marriages, and even rape.

In Pray the Gay Away, Bernadette Barton argues that conventions of small town life, rules which govern Southern manners, and the power wielded by Christian institutions serve as a foundation for both passive and active homophobia in the Bible Belt.

Australian pastor and writer Stephen McAlpine says the law is intended to challenge Christian teachings on sexuality. Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw. In the US, where there are lots of protections for speech, federal courts have struck down bans in two Florida cities on First Amendment grounds.

No major organization has emerged to take its place, and conversion therapy has fallen out of practice. More commonly, conversion therapy ministries have promised that people could overcome their desires through prayer, discipleship, and counseling.

Daniel Silliman.