Core Issues Trust, NARTH and Dr Joseph Berger: LGBT Mental Health Issues
An article on Anglican Mainstream caught my attention entitled: ‘Beyond Critique’ – LGBT Mental Health Issues.
It’s advertising an upcoming Core Issues Trust ‘Briefing Seminar’ in London in association with Christian Concern. The seminar is rather boldly called: Beyond Critique: The Misuse of Science by UK Professional Mental Health Bodies.
Media Statement from Core Issues Trust
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is a highly respected institution which is trusted by the nation, as are the UK’s largest counselling and psychotherapeutic professional bodies, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the UKCouncil for Psychotherapy (UKCP). The latter have issued professional practice statements and guidelines forbidding their members to assist clients to reduce homosexual feelings, under any circumstances. All three organisations promote a biological causation of homosexuality, sidelining significant research findings which suggest the profound influence of environmental experiences in childhood on an individuals’ sexuality.
A 2007 submission by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to the Church of England is a debatable document which may mislead the Church and the general public. It goes beyond science in identifying societal discrimination as the primary cause of the high incidence of various mental health issues experienced in the LGBT community. We call on the Church to reconsider this document, together with its likely consequences for counsellors, psychotherapists, and their clients who share traditional values, in the light of the best scientific research.
One consequence of the position taken by the professional bodies is that vulnerable individuals seeking to reduce unwanted same-sex attractions are now denied professional help to pursue their legitimate therapeutic goals. Although these organisations criticise attempts to “pray away the gay”, they are now making it more likely that amateur therapists and informal church-based ministries will be the only way open to people who want to reduce same-sex attractions, even if they are seeking to protect their marriage and family. Such therapeutic approaches will not be supported by professional competencies, protection, regulation, supervision or professional indemnity insurance. This is analogous to promoting the practice of back street abortion, which society has striven so hard to eliminate.
I’ve made my position clear on ‘Reparative Therapy‘ or whatever you want to call it, and that is quite simply I know that no amount of ‘therapy’ would alter my hard-wired sexual proclivity, so why should it anybody else? However, if a person seeks treatment for an unwanted sexual attraction, I feel they should be free to do so, and psychotherapists should be free to offer this service privately.
Again, personally, I don’t think Christian organisations or Churches should be promoting ‘gay conversion therapy’; however, they should be free to do so. This said, I do have a problem with importing Canadian extremists to support this endeavour.
On this link you can view the seminar flyer in PDF and you will note the involvement of this guy:
Dr Joseph Berger
Consulting Psychiatrist in Toronto, Canada, doubly certified as a Specialist in Psychiatry by both the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has been an Examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology for 25 years in the Oral portion of the Board Certification Examination, and at one point in his career, taught and supervised as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He remains in practice.
Professor Berger has seen many clients with same-sex desires, fantasies and behaviours, and has successfully treated a number of such people who have become heterosexual, have married, and have had children, in fulfilling relationships. He has published in this area of work. Dr Berger has served as a scientific advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality (NARTH). He has been a past President of the Ontario District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association, and was a representative to the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association for 8 years for the Ontario District Branch. He is author of the book “The Independent Medical Examination in Psychiatry” Butterworth Lexis Nexis 2002.
I had a an urge to find out more about this chap and it turns out that in 2006 NARTH went into a tailspin after they published Dr Berger’s article within which he advocated:
“I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the opposite sex – but not counseling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings…On the contrary, don’t interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world. Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary…It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant, and biased busybodies to try to “counsel” the other children into accepting the abnormal. It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is healthy and what is sick.
So Dr Berger advocates the mechanism of bullying by a child’s peers for the purpose of behaviour modification. I’m not alone in finding these comments morally abhorrent.
The irony of inviting this man to take a key role in an seminar that seeks to address “the high incidence of various mental health issues experienced in the LGBT community” is bloody palpable. In fact, this seminar shouldn’t be called: ‘Beyond Critique’ but ‘Beyond Irony’.
And you know what, the truth is, I only checked this guy out on a curious whim.
The ever thickening alliance between the UK Christian Right and their extremist overseas counterparts is troubling. And if you need evidence of this I suggest you follow Richard Bartholomew who charts this in forensic detail.
Tags: Christianity, Mental Health, Religion Society, Science & Medical
January 21st, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Not surprising. s someone once said “follow the money” as that’s where the truth is likely to be found.
Does Mind and Soul have anything to say about this?
January 21st, 2013 at 5:06 pm
There are many reasons why I find such blatant homophobic bleating both obnoxious to common decency and fatally flawed from an intellectual perspective.
I was particularly intrigued by this paragraph:
‘A 2007 submission by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to the Church of England is a debatable document which may mislead the Church and the general public. It goes beyond science in identifying societal discrimination as the primary cause of the high incidence of various mental health issues experienced in the LGBT community. We call on the Church to reconsider this document, together with its likely consequences for counsellors, psychotherapists, and their clients who share traditional values, in the light of the best scientific research….’
Which seems to be saying ‘We don’t agree with this at all – our own disproportionate interest in all things gay, in the manner in which we go out of our way to find salacious or misleading titbits from the media or misquote and misrepresent scientific data, is not something we either want or desire as being identified as a causation factor in any mental problems that homosexuals may suffer as a result of being the constant, disproportionate focus of our hatred and self-righteousness.’
What is ironic is how ‘science’ is used to further the homophobes’ case – highly selective science of course. Ironic given that if science is used on aspects of the Bible that these seem folk hold dear, they would dismiss it immediately! I seem to remember ‘science’ has been used by various oppressive and (Far) Right Wing ideologies to give power to the few. A rather limited ‘science’ was used to prove that the disabled, mentally ill, homosexuals, Jews, Gypsies, Slavs etc. were scientifically inferior human beings that initially were denied the same rights as everyone else, and then were seen as vermin that should be rightly exterminated.
I was laying the bath last night, listening Radio 4’s Film Programme – and heard how phrenology – now a disproved branch of science – was used to justify slavery in the US in Quentin Tarantino’s new film ‘Django Unchained’ – a little hunting around the internet proved that it was indeed (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pw397 & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism).
All rather dangerous stuff… But I think lamenting the advancement of a nasty, Right of Centre Christianity, obsessed with establishing an easy righteousness that sees the wrongs of the world as located in various communities or minorities or ideas etc. (contrary to Jesus’ thinking, as he located the causes of the problems in life as within our own hearts, and that none of us is blameless or able to establish a hierarchy of righteous and unrighteous… where anyone is ‘better’ or more virtuous than their neighbour) – is okay, but I think care is needed not to get sidelined into conspiracy theories and their kin (even tho’ there is evidence to support some of these…).
I think the role of decent Christians – and people of all and no faiths – is to keep questioning this unhealthy and disproportionate interest in sexuality on the part of some of our Christian brethren – particularly since homosexuals make up no more than 3% – at a generous estimate – and 1% of the population at a conservative estimate. Whereas the Bible itself is rather silent on the issue… There are around 31,200 verses in the Bible – a handful of these pertain (or could pertain) to homosexuality. The likes of Anglican Mainstream and its likeminded chums need to challenged.
I heard on the Radio 4 or World Service news the other day that the world’s hundred richest people earned enough money last year to end extreme poverty in the world four times over http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21094962. And elsewhere that the richest 2% of the world own 50% of its wealth. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6211250.stm. Many Western nations have just had a close shave (and one that is by no means over) with economic disaster because of the unbridled excesses of Capitalism, in addition to governments and many citizens spending money they don’t have. Yesterday, today and tomorrow children will die for want of food in the world
But do we hear much about these moral issues from the likes of Core Values or Anglican Mainstream, Catholic Voices, the Christian Institute et el? Try doing a Google search, such as “Anglican Mainstream” and “world poverty” or “world poverty” in combination with the other (diseased?) organs of ‘Christian conscience’ I’ve named. You find little mention of such an issue on their sites – save the wonderful comments of the great ++Desmond Tutu (http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2008/09/07/archbishop-desmond-tutu-speaks-on-tearfund-platform-to-accuse-anglican-church-of-being-obsessed-with-resolving-differences-on-homosexuality/). Yet replace “world poverty” with “homosexuality” and see what you get…
It is a very sad state of affairs at present. If only there was as much attention given to such Bible verses as John 13:34-35, James 2:14-17, Matthew 25:31-46, Philippians 2:4, Galatians 5:14, Luke 6:31, Leviticus 19:34, Exodus 23:11, Deuteronomy 15:7, Deuteronomy 15:11… as there is to Lev 18:22… The list of challenging Scripture verses concerning the poor, how employees are treated, employers behave, how business should be done, societies governed etc. are not endless, but they are certainly far, far greater in number than a few (often ambiguous verses) concerning homosexuality. Until the balance of emphasis is redressed Christianity is on a highway to nowhere… And will repeat, if we’re not careful, the same crimes and atrocities that political Christianity has had a habit of committing through the ages…
January 21st, 2013 at 8:53 pm
@Peter D,
“I think the role of decent Christians – and people of all and no faiths – is to keep questioning this unhealthy and disproportionate interest in sexuality on the part of some of our Christian brethren – … “
The unhealthy interest and disproportionality is of the equality and diversity political cadre that promote homosexuality.
January 22nd, 2013 at 12:28 am
@Goy: Of course you are completely correct, how stupid of me to ramble on defending the indefensible. What was I thinking, even to suggest that hundreds of millions of dollars and pounds spent on pushing a Christian Right anti-gay agenda in the US and here in the UK is money wasted? I must be mad! For Christians and wider society (excepting the ‘gays’ of course!!) shouldn’t be challenged about the way they lead their lives or spend, make or borrow their money? Who really wants to think about all those tedious Bible verses that say when we’re sued for our shirt we should offer our cloak as well… B&B owners shouldn’t have to worry about what the Bible says then should they…? Or all that rot Jesus comes out with about one’s faith having a cost – no, if I’m doing a job that includes tasks against my Christian conscience (albeit, these seem limited to things jewellery and homo related) then why should I pay the cost – let the state accommodate my beliefs… (or excuse my prejudices… the jury’s still out on that one…) (tho’ of course if Pilate and the Jewish leaders had done that, the New Testament would have been somewhat truncated…). And really, who wants to push ideas from the Bible about social justice, helping the poor, avoiding the temptations of wealth… All a little too close to home – best to keep to nice, ready-to-wear, off-the-peg righteousness, that has little personal cost – Leviticus 18:22 spells it out, clear and simple and we all know that if we disproportionately condemn the homos, we can instantly feel better about ourselves – and here’s the brilliant thing – without having worry about our own righteousness. So children die because of the life we lead in the West (yes, it is odd that it is mainly in Christian societies where many of the world’s wealthiest people reside… But there are rich Muslims, so we don’t need to beat ourselves up about it… And I always put a fiver in the Christian Aid envelope each year, so I do my bit). But it’s a downer to have think about things like that – no one wants to hear the Christian media or Christian leaders telling people how they should lead their lives… except poufters of course… Christians have every right to tell them what to do, whom to love and what they should do with their wing-wangs and lady-gardens. So I think you are quite correct – Christian pressure groups are right to spend vast sums of money and time lobbying, fighting ‘discrimination’ and spreading their message around the social media that a massively disproportionate interest should be taken in stopping the promotion of homosexuality (and of course smearing, deriding and abusing homosexuals as much as possible in the process…).
How could I be so stupid as to contemplate otherwise, Thank you Goy once again, for your clear, unambiguous words of wisdom. Well done!