The only equivocation was that he believed there was some value in helping “some men who wished to live “in congruence” with their faith.” In other words, he did not wish to condemn the people who believed this means of resisting their sexual urges was important.

I don’t think it’s the right way to think about homosexuality, obviously, but it’s not really my place to tell homosexuals how to resolve the tensions they feel between their sexuality and their religious beliefs. That’s up to them.

I don’t see how Matheson saying he will “support the rights of individuals to choose how they will respond to their sexual attractions and identity” even remotely undermines his apology.

More to the point, it seems fairly dishonest to say Matheson “refuses to apologize” when he explicitly did apologize.

And yet, he equivocates. Context is everything.

Your comment began with “Matheson refuses to apologize…” and ended with Matheson saying, “I unequivocally apologize.”

That’s not exactly what happened between the Keyeses. Maya was working for her father’s political campaign and living with her parents in an apartment paid by the Republican National Convention. While at it, she publicly protested against Bush’s inauguration, so Alan fired her and asked to move out of the apartment due to conflict of interests. She then, moved back to Chicago and publicly came out. Btw, her parents knew that she was a lesbian but kept it private. In order words, it was political disagreements that caused this conflict and Maya, influenced by it, decided to come out publicly. Later Keyes admitted that he did not disown his daughter but as Catholic he believed what the Church teaches on homosexuality.

While the Bible teaches that homosexual lifestyle is abomination, it also teaches that we all need to love each other because we are all sinners. That does not mean that we should approve of sinful behaviors, though. Still, if possible live at peace with everybody. If there are parents who fail to understand this, then they got it wrong, too.

But people don’t learn their faith in a vacuum. Far too many gay Christians have had the misfortune of growing up listening to their pastor and/or parents) railing against the evils of homosexuality and telling them that their lifestyle is an abomination.

People like Maya Keyes, the lesbian daughter of right wing Christian pundit Alan Keyes who threw her out of their home when she came out as a lesbian. I’ve seen a couple of similar postings on Reddit in just the past few days where vulnerable Christian teens are at a loss of what to do in the face of profound hostility from their conservative Christian parents over their sexuality.

I never said that either Spitzer or Diamond supported reparative therapy and both of them said in their studies that people who have SSA do not choose them, and Nicolosi has echoed it. Quite frankly, “reparative therapy” is a very broad term. I personally support some of what can be classified so but not the other aspects of it, like aversion, for example. I believe it is reasonable to say that based on data that Spitzer and Diamond produced, not based on people’s personal opinions including of researchers themselves, that in general, SSA attracted people can change their feelings. Yet, I hear numerous stories that in America whenever students in psychology, counseling, and social work programs express such interpretations, their professors either shut them up, falsely accuse them of “antigay bigotry” and of being against diversity, or kick them out of the programs. I find it hypocritical that studies of Shidlo and Shroeder are being touted by them as supposedly a proof that all repairative therapies are harmful, and they cannot be questioned. This kind of behavior is unacceptable in the academia because it serves the needs of totalitarian leftist political ideology rather than educating people. Of course, I am not saying that you are like that, Dr. T, because I know that you have been involved in Ward v. Wilbanks.

I watched your video “I do exist” where I clearly remember Spitzer’s saying that based on his study, in general, people with SSA can change. He didn’t say how many or how often. He has not ever said that at the end of his life, he suddenly started believing all people who have SSA will have SSA forever. All he said that it was possible that participants in his study could have been lying when they said that they changed. That’s his opinion but not a fact because at this point, nobody did a thorough investigation on every one of those 200 participants and determined beyond reasonable doubt that they were all lying. That explains why Spitzer’s study is subject to interpretations.

Speaking of “I do exist”, would it be fair to say that you are retracting from it, now?

And that’s why such gay Christians get it wrong: the Bible does not say that Jesus Christ wants people to be heterosexual in order to be in God’s kingdom, Jesus said that people need to be born again.

I think the physical attraction imprints permanently at puberty.

There’s no scientific evidence of this being true. You’re probably confusing this with a child’s growing awareness of sexuality — i.e. feelings of attraction, crushes, etc. — at around that age, and there comes a point when kids realize that they’re gay, or straight, etc.

Well, when you’re taught that same sex attraction is an abomination and that God can deliver you from such an affliction, it stands to reason that a good number of gay Christians will be deceived or will deceive themselves into believing God can make them straight if only they pray hard enough.

Well, when you’re taught that same sex attraction is an abomination and that God can deliver you from such an affliction, it stands to reason that a good number of gay Christians will be deceived or will deceive themselves into believing God can make them straight if only they pray hard enough.