Supreme Court to Decide Case Concerning Christian Counseling, Part 2

Why the LGBTQ movement is wrong about human sexuality

Yesterday, I explained the crucially important religious liberty case that’s soon to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, Chiles v. Salazar. That case is a challenge a Christian counselor is bringing over a Colorado law which codifies the radical theories of the LGBTQ lobby as accepted “science,” and bans therapists from helping clients who wish to change their sexual orientation — with no exemptions for conscience or religious liberty.

The Colorado law — like those passed in other deep-blue states — is based on a theory of human sexuality on which the LGBTQ movement has spent many years and hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention vast cultural coercion, in order to impose it as the “scientific consensus.” But that theory is a recent, unproven, and deeply flawed model generated by a political movement, not the result of unbiased research.

Science and Scripture Agree: Sexual Orientation Is Not an Immutable Trait

The “born gay” theory does not reflect the best, most recent scientific evidence.

In 2019, an important study was published in the authoritative journal Nature, showing definitively that there is no “gay gene” — or even a combination of genes that produces homosexuality. Additionally, numerous studies of identical twins cast serious doubt on the “born gay” theory. This body of scientific work is consistent with the Christian worldview.

The Christian tradition holds that every person is born with Original Sin. This includes a serious tendency to commit personal sins of all kinds. But God doesn’t “make people gay,” as if this particular set of temptations were an intrinsic part of a person’s  identity. Rather, it explicitly says that homosexuality is a sin (Genesis 19:1–11; Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10; and Romans 1:26–27). It also explicitly states that the salvific work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit can set anyone free from this sin and transform them from the inside out (1 Corinthians 6:11).

So if people aren’t “born gay,” why do some people develop persistent same-sex attraction and others do not?

The Pathway to Gay

Growing from boyhood to mature manhood, or from girlhood to mature womanhood, is a developmental task. Something happens to disrupt the developmental path. Recurring patterns observed among many people with persistent same-sex attraction include:

• An absent, unattractive, or abusive father figure makes it difficult for the boy to identify with mature manhood or for the girl to be attracted to adult males.
  

• An overbearing, unattractive, or psychologically manipulative mother figure thwarts the boy from detaching from childhood and entering the world of men and dissuades the girl from identifying with womanhood.
  

• Sexual abuse can derail mature sexual development in all sorts of ways, including being unable to respond to a person of the opposite sex. Early exposure to pornography can be a kind of sexual abuse that also creates confusion and distress.
  

• A boy who is teased or bullied for being “gender atypical” sometimes responds by retreating from the world of men, thinking that he doesn’t have what it takes to become a man. He might also feel safer among women. “Gender-atypical” traits can include being lightly built, unathletic, or slow to develop physically.
  

People Change Sexual Orientation All the Time

What the modern world calls “sexual orientation,” many Christian therapists would call a pattern of thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and self-understanding. These patterns can and often do change.

In one study conducted in the United Kingdom, people were asked to make a binary choice between calling themselves “heterosexual/straight” or “Gay/ Lesbian/Bisexual/Other.” Yet some of those who chose the “heterosexual/straight” label –2.95% of the men and 4.25% of the women — reported that they had had same-sex partners at some time in their lives. However, only 2.7% of the men and 2.8% of the women currently described themselves as gay or lesbian. In other words, in that study, there were more “ex-gays” than people who currently described themselves as “gay.”

Obviously, the idea that people are “born gay” and never change is far too simplistic. And extrapolating from this study’s sample sizes, that means there must be millions of these people around the world. 

The Christian worldview holds out the possibility of hope, redemption, and change. As Bible-believing Christians, we think all clients deserve the right to seek the services of a sensitive therapist who respects their religious values and aspirations.

No, Christian Counselors Don’t Drive Their Clients to Suicide

You may have heard that “conversion therapy” makes people suicidal. But an important review article recently showed that the studies on which this claim rests generally have two major flaws that make them inconclusive. First, existing studies measure a correlation between going to therapy and experiencing suicidal tendencies without taking into account when the therapy took place in relation to the suicidal tendencies. Did the therapy come first and then the suicidal tendencies? If so, the therapy is certainly suspect.

But what if the suicidal tendencies came first and then the therapy? This is a possible scenario: The people who are the most highly distressed are also the ones most likely to seek therapy.

More recently, evidence took account of the therapy’s timing. When this is accounted for, we see that going to therapy is associated with a decline in suicidal tendencies. (To be fair, this study has generated controversy. You can read the entire discussion here.)

The other flaw in most of the studies is that the sample is drawn only from people who identify as LGBT. People who went to therapy and no longer identify as LGBT could be classified as having benefited from the experience: They achieved their therapeutic goal. But these people and their experiences have been systematically excluded from the analysis. 

At the same time, it is possible that people who don’t change their self-identification might still obtain some benefit from an open-ended conversation about same-sex attractions with a sensitive therapist. That seems to be the case in a study that asked a sample of LGBT people about their current psychological functioning, including substance abuse and suicidal tendencies.

People who reported going to some kind of therapy to alleviate their same-sex attraction scored better on these mental health indicators than those who did not. And keep in mind: These people still self-identify as LGBT. That means the therapy did not “cure” them of same-sex attraction, but they did seem to feel better overall than those who did not seek therapy. This result supports the Christian worldview more strongly than it does the “born gay” narrative.

What Can We Do?

The Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments about this case sometime this fall. Between now and then, we should try to flood the airwaves with as many stories as we can about people who have benefited from open-ended therapy that explores the causes of same-sex attraction, as well as people who have journeyed away from an LGBT identity (with or without therapy). The Ruth Institute has a whole series of interviews with people who have already made this journey.

Maybe you have, too, but are uncomfortable talking about it. I can imagine all kinds of reasons you might feel that way. You want to leave that part of your life behind. You don’t want to embarrass other people who may be implicated in some way.

Whatever your situation may be, I urge you to take a step outside your comfort zone. Maybe you aren’t ready to make a public statement on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. But perhaps there is someone in your life who needs to hear about your journey — maybe someone who is struggling themselves, or perhaps their parents. Maybe someone who thinks no one like you exists. Please, now would be a good time for you to speak out. As long as people like you remain invisible, we can expect more assaults on the Christian religion and freedom of speech.

There is more at stake than you might think.

You can stay informed about this case by following either the Ruth Institute or the Alliance Defending Freedom. And you can get more information about the research, including links to the studies cited in this article, at the Ruth Institute’s Counseling Freedom for All page.

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse is the founder and president of The Ruth Institute , a global nonprofit organization leading an international, interfaith coalition working to defend the family and build a civilization of love. She is also the author of The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives and Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village.