Ex-Gay Watch

A number of British conservative evangelical leaders have written to the Daily Telegraph to express their support for Lesley Pilkington, the Christian therapist found guilty of professional malpractice for offering a “gay cure” to an undercover journalist.

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is among the 70 signatories of the letter. Also joining him are the former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali, the current Bishop of Chester the Right Reverend Peter Forster, the Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham — and several names representing the most extreme end of the anti-gay, ex-gay movement in the US. They include JONAH’s Arthur “Abba” Goldberg, PFOX’s Regina Griggs, and David Pickup, Jeffrey Satinover, Julie Hamilton and Benjamin Kaufman of NARTH.

To defend the practice of gay-to-straight reparative therapy, the signatories rattle off the names of Joseph Nicolosi, Dean Byrd, Robert Spitzer, and Jones and Yarhouse, apparently ignorant of just how limited – and sometimes outright misleading — the scope and results of such research have proved.

But Carey et al have also glossed over the reasons why Lesley Pilkington was banned from practising psychotherapy in the UK. That she offered to help journalist Patrick Chapman to change his sexual orientation is almost beside the point — she insisted, despite his denials, that the roots of his homosexuality were in low self-esteem, (non-existent) childhood sexual abuse and (also non-existent) a family history of freemasonry. Lesley Pilkington was guilty of sheer quackery.

It’s no surprise that Lisa Nolland and Chris Sugden of the ultra-homophobic Anglican Mainstream would support Pilkington. But that leading Church of England evangelicals such as Lord Carey and Bishop Michael Nazir Ali would not only support her but throw their weight behind the anti-gay pseudoscience of NARTH is indefensible.

[Edited to reflect the fact that Michael Nazir-Ali is the former Bishop of Rochester.]

A conference taking place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, today offers ways for conservative Christian churches to minister to “the lepers among us” — namely, gays and lesbians, or those who “struggle with same-sex sins.”

Astonishingly, Core Issues, which organized it and an identical conference taking place in London, England, tomorrow [correction: next week], failed to foresee the offence the “leper” label would cause.

A press release issued yesterday said:

The conference organisers recognise that the event’s title “The Lepers Among Us” has caused some misunderstanding, being taken as a call for the church to treat LGBT people in the way that lepers were treated by society in biblical times – shunned and regarded as untouchable. In fact the intention is the opposite. This conference criticises the church for behaving in this very way – treating LGBT people as “outcasts” – and calls upon it to help end prejudice wherever it is found, especially within the church.

So what can we expect of a conference organized by Core Issues? Their dubious choice of speakers in the past, including Lesley Pilkington, David Pickup and Arthur “Abba” Goldberg, of JONAH, shows a strong identification with the type of anti-gay, ex-gay conservatism promoted by NARTH in the US.

Core Issues Trust’s claim that it does not offer conversion therapy is somewhat disingenuous, for while it doesn’t directly offer therapy at all, it clearly stands for the NARTH approach. The homepage currently links directly to an article by David Pickup promoting “authentic reparative therapy” and decrying Exodus International for rejecting it. To support its claim that gay orientation is unnatural, the Core Issues website links approvingly to a PFOX article labelling homosexuality a “public health crisis” and citing the discredited “gays die at 41″ claim. The science section of its websites offers links to articles by Neil Whitehead and Jeffrey Satinover, both of NARTH. The latter is a Core Issues board member.

Core Issues promotes a “compassionate” approach to the “same-sex attracted,” but ultimately its message to gay Christians is that they need healing, and it is clear that by “healing,” they mean healing NARTH-style:

There is a growing body of research evidence indicating that sexual preference is neither immutable, innate nor chosen. As a consequence of our basic sinfulness we all have desires that we do not choose to have but we do have choices with respect to what we do about them. As a consequence our sexual identity can be reinforced or altered by either gender-affirming or gay-affirming lifestyles or therapies. CORE works with people who voluntarily seek to change from a “gay” lifestyle to a gender-affirming one. This is sometimes referred to as a “sexual re-orientation” process.

Merely abstaining from homosexual activity, although admirable, cannot be regarded as healing. Heterosexual preference is the goal of gender-affirming therapy and this may lead to marriage. However there will always be those who choose to remain celibate and single. Such singleness should be valued and respected.

NARTH founder Joseph Nicolosi, arguably the father of modern reparative therapy, has retracted his claim that a patient was able to change his sexual orientation through an SSRI.

In 2009, Dr Nicolosi said his client had made no progress in eight years of therapy, but after a course of Lexapro, a brand of the antidepressant escitalopram, “he discovered that he had no more sexual attractions to men.” Although his claim failed to find a publisher, it didn’t stop NARTH using it as evidence in its 2009 ground-breaking, peer-reviewed study, the notorious publication that turned out not to be ground-breaking, peer-reviewed or even a study — it was a mere (very selective) literature review, published by NARTH and reviewed internally.

Nicolosi has now said the evidence doesn’t support Lexapro as a gay cure. Writes Dr Warren Throckmorton, who reported this story:

Instead of noting that the case reported was only one success out of four tries, the authors [of the NARTH paper] only noted the one case which appeared to be a success at the time. Now, according to Dr. Nicolosi, Lexapro has not lived up to that claim.

This report can be added to others where significant questions have been raised (e.g., the Bieber study, the Kaye study, the work of Masters and Johnson, the Pattison and Pattison research).

One aspect glossed over in recent media reports about Liverpool Frontline Church and its ex-gay ministry is its roots in an American ministry, LIFE. Here’s how I summarized the issue back in July, for The Guardian‘s Comment is free:

But let’s be clear that concern over the Life connection is not a simple matter of guilt by association. Joanne Highley, a woman who teaches that homosexual orientation is a sin that can be cured by a combination of psychological therapy and prayer, personally visited Frontline multiple times to help establish an ex-gay ministry based explicitly on her teachings and methods.

Oklahoma-born Joanne Highley founded LIFE in New York City with her husband (now deceased), Ron Highley. She continues to run the ministry from her Manhattan offices — and Liverpool Frontline Church continues its ongoing association with LIFE NYC and Joanne Highley, the preacher and teacher who helped them found their own version of LIFE in the UK.

Highley describes herself as a former lesbian who was delivered from her homosexuality through, among other things, having demons cast out of her. Here’s a clip of Highley sharing her own testimony of deliverance, as shown in the 2008 documentary Chasing the Devil: Inside the Ex-Gay Movement:

In all its complaints about how the media has misrepresented its ex-gay ministry, Frontline has yet to address the question why it chose to align so closely with Highley, an obvious extremist. Frontline has failed to explain why it continues to foster such an association. Why, if the church, as it claims, is lovingly supporting gays and lesbians in a way that simply reflects the same traditional beliefs held by millions of orthodox Christians, has it decided to throw in its lot with Highley — and why is it saying nothing about that deeply troubling connection? Read more…

Local government, police and community investors have distanced themselves from Frontline Church in Liverpool, England, after details of its “gay conversion” ministry were publicized.

In July, I wrote for The Guardian‘s Comment is free about Liverpool LIFE ministry, a group patterned after LIFE NYC, an extreme, anti-gay organization founded by Joanne Highley.

Although Frontline’s defenders are quick to claim they’re only following traditional Christian teaching, Joanne Highley’s teaching goes far beyond the “orthodox” Christian view of homosexuality. Among other things, she believes and practices casting demons out of any bodily orifice that has been penetrated and received an “ungodly deposit of semen.” For Highley, gay sexual orientation in itself is sinful, and it’s something that can be completely cured through prayer, exorcism and dealing with the emotional wounds that supposedly caused it in the first place. She tells her clients to cut off all gay friends completely, as they were never true friends in the first place.

Frontline Church has said it doesn’t follow all of Highley’s teachings, but it has not explained why it made and retains such close ties with an obvious extremist.

The church’s allies in the community are evidently not impressed by the revelation of Frontline’s ex-gay ministry. According to the Liverpool Echo, Merseyside Police has asked the church to stop referring to the regional police force as an “official partner.” Housing association Plus Dane has pulled funding from the church’s Food Bank. And Liverpool Council has said it “would not fund an organisation or its activities where they contradicted our equalities and cohesion policy in the way alleged in this case.”

The story has also been picked up by national newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail. Also, check out Ex-Gay Watch’s previous coverage of the backstory on Liverpool Frontline Church’s promise of a gay cure.

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Correction (11/17/11): The original article incorrectly stated Plus Dane would continue to fund the church’s Food Bank. Plus Dane has, in fact, withdrawn all funding from Frontline.

A psychologist and one-time Exodus* counsellor has told the Brisbane Times, Australia, has denounced the ex-gay movement, saying he walked away 25 years ago because it forced gay men into “living an even greater lie” that hurt themselves and their families.

Paul Martin, now an equal rights activist and head of the Centre for Human Potential in Brisbane, spoke out after Queensland Member of Parliament Fiona Simpson was criticized for her ex-gay views. The politician had lent public support to Exodus in 2002, praising the organization for giving homosexuals “the freedom to grow into homosexuality over time.”

Here are Paul Martin’s own words, from the Brisbane Times article:

“We’d parade men who went through the program and got married around like they were champions, and they’d all say their lives were better since they committed to God and enjoyed the sort of relationship God intended – with a woman, having children,” Mr Martin said. “But you’d then have a conversation where they admitted their lives were far more painful now they were living this even greater lie – they were burdened with guilt because they were hurting the woman they were married to, or engaging in desperate sex acts in public toilets or bushes that were even further from their belief system [than committed same-sex relationships].”

Mr Martin said such interactions, coupled with his own struggle to meld his fundamental Christian beliefs with his homosexual orientation, eventually gave rise to his decision to walk away from the ministry, its church, and move to Brisbane.

Read the full article here. An accompanying video features an interview with Paul Martin.

* Exodus Global Alliance is the worldwide branch of (the confusingly named) Exodus International.

Correction: Fiona Simpson was incorrectly identified as “Australia’s Community Services Minister” in an earlier version of this article.

During the years from 2005 to 2007, IRS records show Exodus designated over $1 million for “various education programs and publications that explain how to change sexual orientation…”

Exodus International Form 990 for year 2007

This period begins several years into Alan Chambers’ tenure as Exodus President, and covers what might be called their pinnacle.  While those of us who study Exodus may not find this particularly startling, we must remember that they have vehemently denied ever having this as their goal.  To have an official record stating those intentions is important.

Of course, Exodus’ history is littered with evidence of their emphasis on change.  Their motto, Change is Possible, has been plastered on billboards across the country.  They have routinely claimed a 30% to 50% success rate in changing from homosexual to heterosexual (a laughable figure), and even paid $100,000 for a study intended to substantiate that figure.  To this day the Exodus bookstore features books on reparative therapy by Joseph Nicolosi and others which promote pseudo-scientific theories on causation and conversion of homosexuality.

Exodus representatives repeatedly deny the idea that they seek to bring sexual orientation change to anyone.  In a symphony of semantics, they deflect responsibility for most anything they do.  In a particularly sarcastic article written in 2009 when Exodus could still afford professional PR people like Julie Neils, she wrote:

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the words, “Exodus International” and “religious group that claims to cure gays” in a sentence I’d be rich . . . and in Tahiti right now.

Exodus International Form 990 for year 2006

Exodus also makes a big deal of the claim that they only exist to help those who seek them out — those “400,000 phone calls and emails” we are always hearing about.  Until 2006, Exodus put the following expense claim on the same form to the IRS:

Missions and outreach projects allow Exodus to reach individuals not actively seeking help who may be open to change.

Again, hardly a surprise to those familiar with Exodus but basically we have here evidence of their intent — ironically enough — to recruit those not “actively seeking” their help in the first place.  This directly contradicts their own claims, but Exodus has a way with words that enables them to say one thing and mean another.

Perhaps equally significant is the fact that this verbiage has been removed in years since.  Clearly Exodus still does these things yet they don’t wish to make that fact so obvious as they once did.  What kind of message does all this double-talk send?  Perhaps it is just this kind of mixed-message that sends churches like Willow Creek in the other direction.

Supporting Documents

Exodus Form 990 — 2005

Exodus Form 990 — 2006

Exodus Form 990 — 2007

The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexual is no longer offering continuing education to therapists in the state of California, according to SFGate blogger Susan Davis.

Although some activists had tried to have NARTH‘s rights to provide continuing education revoked on the basis of its homophobic, pseudoscientific beliefs and practices, Davis reports the actual reason is unpaid fees to the California Board for Behavioral Science. In the article, she reveals, surprisingly, that the CBBS doesn’t have the ability to remove an organization from membership for erroneous scientific claims:

As it stands now, the BBS can’t reject a continuing education provider due to its philosophy or even the validity of its scientific claims, executive officer Kim Madsen says, and “that’s been a challenge.” Instead, as long as the provider “meets the requirements as set forth in current law, we have to accept them.” (Those requirements include providing direct or indirect patient care, having qualified instructors and submitting the appropriate applications and fees.)

At its September meeting, however, the BBS will be reviewing those laws and requirements and having a discussion about what Madsen describes as “long-identified deficiencies in the continuing education model.”

In the Wavertree district of Liverpool, England, Frontline Church has a ministry to gays and lesbians. It’s an ex-gay ministry, LIFE Liverpool, that they say helps people work through childhood pain to overcome their homosexuality.

It was founded in 2000 with the help of Joanne Highley, head of LIFE New York City, whose unusual teachings and practices include exorcizing demons out of bodily cavities such as the anus, the mouth and the uterus. She says that the homosexual orientation is itself sinful and can be overcome by a combination of counseling and prayer. Writing for The Guardian‘s Comment is free last week, I described LIFE Liverpool’s relationship to Highley:

I spoke to Frontline about the Life connection. They said they were “relationally connected” rather than “formally affiliated” to the New York ministry, which had no official authority over the Liverpool ministry. They have a “positive, ongoing friendship” with Highley’s organisation, and they adapt Life materials, combining them with their own resources, to reflect Frontline’s own beliefs.

Questioned about specific statements by Highley, Frontline said as they were not aware of everything Life publishes, they couldn’t say for sure they agreed with all the teaching. Demonic influence can play a part in homosexuality, but not always, and Frontline discourages members and leaders from identifying themselves as “gay”, preferring the descriptor “Christian who struggles with homosexual feelings”.

But let’s be clear that concern over the Life connection is not a simple matter of guilt by association. Joanne Highley, a woman who teaches that homosexual orientation is a sin that can be cured by a combination of psychological therapy and prayer, personally visited Frontline multiple times to help establish an ex-gay ministry based explicitly on her teachings and methods. The church runs that ministry to this day, although it says very little about it publicly.

An Ex-Gay Marriage Machine?

I first encountered LIFE Liverpool in 2006, when I was researching an article for Third Way magazine about ex-gay ministries in the UK. I’d heard about it from someone else involved in another type of ex-gay ministry in the area, who told me of its existence in a raised-eyebrow sort of way. So I phoned Frontline Centre myself to find out more. Pastor Dan was startling in his boldness. Read more…

The ex-gay LIFE ministry, in New York City, teaches gays and lesbians that their sexual orientation is sinful and must be changed.

Homosexuality is a psychological, emotional and spiritual disorder that can be overcome with prayer, deliverance and counselling, it says. It often comes with demons attached, according to leader Joanne Highley; if you’ve had any form of immoral sex, evil spirits have infected any cavity that has received an ungodly deposit of semen, whether it’s the mouth, the anus or another orifice. Once you’ve confessed the sin of homosexuality, your repentance is a process that ends with complete healing of all your gay desires. The journey involves breaking off all contact with gay friends, as they were never true friends in the first place.

LIFE is not the kind of ministry you get involved with, as a church, without some knowledge of just how extreme its message and its ministry really are.

In the Guardian‘s Comment is free today, I shed light on a major Liverpool church whose ex-gay ministry has its origins in LIFE. Joanne Highley visited the city multiple times to help establish it — and the connection is troubling.

Read: How Liverpool’s Frontline Church ‘Struggles’ with Homosexuality