I heard an interview with Dr. Michael Bussee today on Sirius OutQ. I am concerned that he has endorsed a therapy model, wherein people who are religiously opposed to homosexual relationships could be counseled to embrace celibacy as a mechanism for dealing with their orientation. For the record, I believe in God, and I believe that certain people are gifted with the ability to be celibate. Not everyone has this gift, however. With that said:
Organizations like Exodus are religious authoritarians with a tendency to prescribe 'one size fits all' solutions to their clients. With that in mind, I fully expect groups like this to take advantage of Dr. Bussee's endorsement to advertise and sell this therapy model to the masses of people who seek a 'remedy' for their homosexual attractions.
Thus, this therapy model is equivalent to Catholic Priesthood Redux. We have witnessed the effects of dogma-based suppression of sexual attraction already. The result is unhealthy, sometimes criminal manifestations of those desires.
I believe that Dr. Bussee's endorsement of this therapy model was naive at best. The organizations with which he brokered this compromise have no intention of applying this therapy model on a case-by-case basis. They will instead package and market it as an alternative to Coming Out, and sell it to the political action committees of the religious right for the purpose of defeating gay rights legislation.
I am deeply disappointed in this setback. While Dr. Bussee's heart may have been in the right place, certainly his head was not. These groups are not interested in compromise, but rather the highest bid they can get from James Dobson for their shill.
Sincerely,
Larry Seiferth Jr.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment