Republican Vision and the Harmful Support for Reparative Therapy

Today marks the beginning of the Republican (GOP) Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and the next phase of this protracted election season. There are many reasons that America will tune in and tune out of convention coverage in the coming weeks. Many of us are hopeful and seemingly more feel as gnawing sense of hopelessness, at least in the parties themselves.

For Christians, this election has been particularly difficult. The dialogue over the two candidates and the issues raised by them have revealed fault lines in the church. The revelation has not helped the church come together, and from my perspective, we now see a significant portion of the church demonstrating a preference for political power over and above a commitment to justice, character, and decency. However, that is for another day and another post. Here, I want to draw your attention to elements of the GOP vision for America and the unhelpful role parts of the Christian community are playing in the process.

This week the GOP platform committee met in Cleveland to stake out the Republican vision for America. The platform is a political parties tool for communicating their vision. Most of this goes unnoticed by the American people. Only party insiders and those who have a penchant for being tuned into the process could tell you what the platforms say.

However, platforms are important! They reveal vision and vision becomes reality when matched with power.

It is no surprise that the GOP platform contains an emphasis on key social issues, including some stances on sexuality and gender. This past week Log Cabin Republicans, the party’s largest openly gay organization, called the platform “The most anti-LGBT platform in GOP history.” A real dialogue should take place on the efficacy of this vision and the church’s role and responsibility as we encounter it.

The issue of most importance to those who put the Gospel forward and believe in the centrality of the church is the inclusion of support for conversion therapy.

Many are unaware of what conversion/reparative therapy is. Simply put, reparative therapy begins with the assumption that childhood experiences have emotionally damaged the gender and sexual identity of young men or women and have effectively encouraged effeminacy or masculinity not typical to one’s gender. The result of these experiences is same-sex attraction or gender identity malformation, in which the individual is unconsciously seeking to compensate for damaged emotions through attraction to the same sex.

The founder of Reparative/conversion therapy is Dr. Joseph Nicolosi. Dr. Nicolosi leads an organization called the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). The organization is not faith-based, and it certainly is not Gospel in its perspective. I have personally counseled with parents who turned to Dr. Nicolosi in desperation and were given hope that they could “make sure they raised heterosexual kids by following his steps.”

This view of therapy propagates so much harm to LGBT young people, and many states are banning the practice. I do not want to question the motivations or foundations of those who practice reparative therapy, but I do want to condemn the practice as lacking in dignity and largely hurtful to so many.

The church should not be endorsing such a practice! We should be encouraging those living with unwanted same-sex attraction to seek Biblical community, Gospel-driven Biblical counseling and discipleship relationships that focus upon wholeness for all people in Jesus Christ. Church ministry that is homosexual specific is not what is needed, and we definitely should not be sending people out to get therapy rooted in debunked psychology that puts orientation change front and center and puts young people in a position to regard their holiness by their heterosexual potential. Jesus is not in this!

Back to the GOP platform. Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, sought the inclusion of “conversion therapy language.” This should break our hearts! A member of the Evangelical elite (no compliment intended) in this country and the head of an organization that claims to represent Biblical issues of the family, has put forth strong support for this damaging therapy.

Thankfully the language was softened, but it still includes a vague (but obvious) reference to conversion therapy.The platform committee passed a resolution affirming “the right of parents to determine the proper treatment or therapy, for their minor children,” a reference to state laws barring ex-gay therapy from being practiced on young people.

The platform language should be a wake-up call to all of us who want a church that demonstrates a posture of grace and enduring love towards our LGBT neighbors. When the church (in any way or any part) marries itself to a harmful agenda of a political party, we should speak up and work for justice and dignity.

Standing up to our evangelical elders and political party visions that claim to speak for family values while they dehumanize and harm  the marginalized created in his image, is our convictional duty before the Lord.

Education is needed, perspectives must change, theology can be demonstrated as compelling, but the voices calling for these realities must get louder, and action must go forward. The Identify Network is committed to the Gospel, the church, the marginalized, and justice. None of these are opposite and more needs to be done in ourBiblical communities to support this. Help us, get the word out and help us create a new culture and posture in the church surrounding the conversation on sexuality and gender.