Published today in The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. (free subscription required):
A federal judge denied a motion Friday that would have permitted Love In Action to treat mentally ill patients who are taking prescription medication.
The order does not seem to affect LIA’s ability to counsel emotionally stable patients.
Unfortunately, the newspaper article does not ask LIA officials why, exactly, they demand the right not only to house and counsel the mentally ill with poorly educated and uncertified staff, but also to confine unstable patients on LIA property, out of reach of professional help.
The newspaper does report:
Despite Friday’s ruling, group leaders remain optimistic.
“We’re still very encouraged and we believe the court will eventually rule in our favor,” said Nathan Kellum, counsel for LIA. “There are no disputed facts, it’s just a question of the state misapplying the statute of licensure.”
Kellum refers to LIA’s clients repeatedly as “patients” and boasts that LIA patients have the freedom to self-medicate.
The newspaper reports that the state attorney general will file for dismissal of LIA’s lawsuit on Oct. 24.
This is encouraging to see. LIA is based on a false premise: that human beings can and must change their sexual orientation. It is impossible to change human physiology through psychotherapy, or religious brainwashing. LIA should not only be denied licensing, they should also be heavily fined for operating a medical facility without licence and treating patients for something that has been repeatedly put forth by the AMA and APA, that homosexuality is a natural variation in human sexuality and is not a mental illness that could or ought to be cured. Now, authorities must go after Exodus and Focus on the Family for the same type of illegal activity.
Exactly!
You can’t treat something that isn’t there. You can’t build an entire facility and discipline around something that doesn’t require any intervention except motivated by religion and not medical or psychiatric necessity.
And a refusal to acknowledge the findings within a legitimate manual for professionals is anathema to freedom from religious abuse.
Zach is an important case in this way.
His was an involuntary situation.
His parents are informed by religion, not professional psychologists who would have recommended they just go with it and not worry about Zach.
To prey on the fears of potential clients and their parents is what is in play here.
And THIS should be subject to the law.
After all, a medical doctor who tells a client they have cancer caused by demons…and in fact that person does not have cancer.
And that doctor decides the best treatment for those demons is religious discipline (lifelong in fact) or else the cancer will grow and cut the teen’s life short would be ousted as an incompetent quack and stricken from the medical board for frightening a client into bogus and unnecessary cures.
Again I say, the struggle isn’t with homosexuality, but heterosexual conceit, arrogated by holy writ.
It’s inexcusable… and a disgrace that doesn’t deserve tolerance.
And this isn’t tolerated in any legitimate medical or psyhciatric arena.