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” The former president of the American Psychological Association says political correctness and homosexual ideology rule the organization, and that leaving the homosexual “lifestyle” is indeed a possibility.” [1] He called the APA ‘monlithic’ in its stance and unwilling to transcend what it perceives as political correctness to address the element of choice in homosexual behavior.
This idea is in opposition to the current APA stance that homosexuals cannot change their behavior or orientation. Cummings flatly stated that leaving the homosexual lifestyle is quite possible and that he has seen it happen. Cummings has counseled gays who have the desire to leave the gay lifestyle and has had a 20% success rate. Religious belief can galvanize a person to make such changes.
Cummings said he had to ‘latch on’ to a patient’s determination, such as that energized by their religion. But he said the “gay rights” movement and others claim these patients should leave their religion and accept their “lifestyle.” Those who push for patients to dump their desire to stop the erotopathic, he said, do not respect the patients’ psychological needs.
Christianity and Homosexuality
While some work to get Christianity to change its historical and traditional point of view that homosexual behavior is a sin, with some success in some churches. Others try to help homosexuals see the element of choice in their chosen lifestyle and urge them to make use of the atonement of Jesus Christ to help them bring their behavior in line with the commandments of Christ.
Elder Bruce C. Hafen, a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke to the Evergreen Society and addressed the possibilities of change in the homosexual lifestyle. First, Elder Hafen told those in attendance that the Lord takes into account the challenges we face when judging us. Some challenges are very difficult. He told of the experience of Mormon apostle Neal A. Maxwell:
Elder Maxwell once taught a group of people who lived with really hard daily challenges. He had been watching the Olympic diving competition, where he had learned that the judges grade a dive not just by how graceful it looks to the public, but by how difficult the dive is—which only the judges can understand enough to measure. Elder Maxwell told this group that the Lord will judge their lives by the difficulty of their dive, which He understands in every detail. And your own difficult dives are being made much harder these days by the increasing cultural confusion that now swirls around the topic of homosexuality.
He then talked about God’s doctrines:
You are literally God’s spirit child. Having same-gender attraction is NOT in your DNA, but being a child of God clearly IS in your spiritual DNA—only one generation removed from Him whom we call Father in Heaven. As the family proclamation states, “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” As part of an eternal plan, our Father placed us in this world subject to death, sin, sorrow, and misery—ALL of which serve the eternal purpose of letting us taste the bitter that we may learn to prize the sweet.
If you are faithful, on resurrection morning—and maybe even before then—you will rise with normal attractions for the opposite sex. Some of you may wonder if that doctrine is too good to be true. But Elder Dallin H. Oaks has said it MUST be true, because “there is no fullness of joy in the next life without a family unit, including a husband and wife, and posterity.” And “men (and women) are that they might have joy.”
It’s true that the law of chastity forbids all sexual relations outside the bonds of a married heterosexual relationship. And while same-gender attraction is not a sin, you need to resist cultivating immoral, lustful thoughts toward those of either gender. It’s no sin if a bird lands in your tree, just don’t let him build a nest there. The adversary will tempt you by constantly “enticing” you to “do that which is evil,” because “there is an opposition in all things.” (2 Nephi 2:11) But God will also constantly “entice” you “to do good continually.” (see Moroni 7:12-13) No temptation is so strong that you can’t resist it, unless you have already given away some portion of your agency to a total addiction. So will you choose to “yield” to temptation, or will you “yield to the enticing of the Holy Spirit”? (Mosiah 3:19) It’s up to you.
Mormon apostle Dallin H. Oaks also spoke on homosexuality:
This is much bigger than just a question of whether or not society should be more tolerant of the homosexual lifestyle. Over past years we have seen unrelenting pressure from advocates of that lifestyle to accept as normal what is not normal, and to characterize those who disagree as narrow-minded, bigoted and unreasonable. Such advocates are quick to demand freedom of speech and thought for themselves, but equally quick to criticize those with a different view and, if possible, to silence them by applying labels like “homophobic.” In at least one country where homosexual activists have won major concessions, we have even seen a church pastor threatened with prison for preaching from the pulpit that homosexual behavior is sinful. Given these trends, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must take a stand on doctrine and principle. This is more than a social issue — ultimately it may be a test of our most basic religious freedoms to teach what we know our Father in Heaven wants us to teach.
While Christian homosexuals struggle to balance faith and desire, society at large is at risk. The gay rights movement threatens religious freedom and the traditional family, and many people are blind to those possibilities. Mormon leaders try to awaken people to these realities.
In the meantime, there is more than counseling available for gays who desire to live a wholesome lifestyle in accordance with the commandments of Jesus Christ. There is the atonement. Church leaders stand ready to help, but so does the Lord, who is willing to give personal help to the believer who comes to Him in mighty prayer and seeks for God’s grace through the atonement of His Only Begotten Son.
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This post was written by
Gale is Managing Editor for More Good Foundation. She is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Tags: gay counseling, Gay lifestyle, gay lifestyle change, gay marriage, gay mormons