Yesterday, Right Wing Watch pointed to a broadcast from Liberty Counsel and a tweet from the same group saying that the American Association of Christian Counselors is larger than the American Psychological Association. Here is the still-uncorrected tweet:
As RWW pointed out, that is simply not true. The non-profit APA has “more than 154,000 members” and the for profit AACC has said they have “nearly 50,000 members” for several years.
There is another aspect to the claims made by Liberty Counsel that should be pointed out. Mat Staver said on the broadcast that the AACC has produced “the most definitive, most recent research that’s come out that says change is possible.” I assume he is talking about Jones and Yarhouse’s study of Exodus participants (and even there the changes were minimal and not in keeping with the claims made by Staver). However, the Liberty lawyers should also know that a more recent study published in Edification, a journal of the AACC, found that a group of heterosexually married sexual minorities reported no change on average in homosexual attractions.
I pointed this out in this post.
Category: Religion
American Psychiatric Association opposes Uganda's anti-gay legislation
Over the weekend I received this from psychiatrist David Scasta:
8/14/11
Dear Warren:
I want to thank you for keeping me and the American Psychiatric Association apprised of the situation in Uganda regarding the Anti-Homosexuality Bill – which failed to make it on the agenda of the last Ugandan Parliamentary Plenary but apparently is being resurrected in a modified form for the current Plenary. As you know, the American Psychiatric Association was alarmed that there has been a credible attempt to criminalize homosexuality in Uganda with draconian punishment that includes the death penalty. While the APA likely will not comment on the religious dynamics behind the bill, the APA can comment on the psychiatric implications of the bill and the quality of the scientific pronouncements about homosexuality by Ugandan mental health organizations.
By way of context, the APA is the largest psychiatric organization in the world, numbering almost 38,000 members. On May 14, 2011 the legislative Assembly of the APA passed legislation without dissent putting the APA in opposition to criminalization of homosexuality and reiterating the APA’s longstanding positions about homosexuality that decry stigmatization and discrimination. The Assembly’s legislation made its way up to the Joint Reference Committee and the Council on Minority Mental Health and Mental Health Disparities. The Joint Reference Committee then called upon the APA Board of Trustees to direct the President of the APA to write to the President of Uganda and the Speaker of Parliament expressing the APA’s concern about the health and safety of Ugandan gay and lesbian citizens. Dr. John Oldham, the current president of the APA, sent that letter on July 26, 2011. I attach that letter for your readers’ perusal.
Thank you again for keeping all of us informed about this critical issue for the African continent.
David L. Scasta, M.D., DFAPA
Representative to the Assembly of the APA
Association of Gay & Lesbian Psychiatrists
Vice-chair, Assembly Allied Organizations Committee
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Temple University Medical School
The letter from Dr. Oldham is attached and is addressed to President Museveni, Speaker of Parliament Kadaga and David Bahati, mover of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. It also is copied to Charles Tuhaise, the President of the National Association of Social Workers – Uganda. That group has endorsed the AHB which seemed to bring motivation to the APA to go on record opposing the bill and criminalization of homosexuality in general.
Wallbuilder's Rick Green defends comments about pediatrics associations
Early last week, I pointed out that David Barton and Rick Green identified the American College of Pediatricians as “the leading pediatric association in America.” In fact, ACP is a group of around 200 members which, in 2003, split off from the real leading group, the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP commented briefly later in the week.
I also mentioned that a reader, Bernie, wrote to Wallbuilders to ask why Barton and Green identified the ACP as the leading group. Rick Green responded and defended their characterization of ACP as the leading pediatric association. Reader and commenter Bernie, included this part of the conversation and asked why they described ACP in the way they did.
David: “The American College of Pediatricians is cautioning educators about what they do with same-sex attraction or symptoms of gender identity or gender confusion in schools.”
Rick: “You’re kidding, this is the Pediatric Association?”
Later, David: “Well that’s a remarkable letter coming from the leading pediatric association in America.”
Bernie pointed out that the ACP is a tiny group compared the AAP. Mr. Green replied with this explanation.
I am not aware of anything from our broadcast that was inaccurate. Nothing in the transcript you sent is wrong or false. We may disagree on what constitutes “leading,” but neither David or I said the ACP was the largest. As often happens, the larger associations become either stagnant or politically correct and lose the leadership qualities that make an organization “leading” in their profession. Meanwhile, a perhaps smaller, but more professional and cutting edge organization begins to lead by stating facts and putting forth truthful research the older organization is afraid to release due to political correctness.
Green said they may revisit the issue in a future broadcast.
None of what Green has to say about the ACP and the AAP is relevant to what it means to lead a profession. The ACP is hardly more cutting edge than the AAP but that even misses the point. A leading group in a profession speaks for the profession to the public and government. The leading group in a profession sets standards for training new members of the profession. The leading group in a profession provides continuing medical education for practicing members of the profession. The ACP does none of that.
While I have not checked this out, I would be willing to bet that no medical school uses any of the standards or materials from the ACP. I strongly suspect that no training programs seek approval or recognition from the ACP. The ACP is not a player in the profession.
Green’s narrative makes no sense when one considers the way David Barton led into the segment. Here is the lead:
Barton: What’s interesting is, you know medical groups do not tend to be very conservative. Any professional medical group, the American Psychiatric Association, the association of psychologists, even the American Medical Association is a particularly friendly conservative group, they’re not a pro-life group and what’s really interesting is the American College of Pediatricians; now think about that, is that a conservative group?
Green: You’d think they would be, looking out for the kids, right?
Barton: But yeah, don’t spank your kid, don’t touch your kid, you know, and think of the way pediatric stuff has gone, and you don’t want to help shape these kids, let ‘em be what they want to be. And so, all that anti-parental influence, and it’s remarkable that you have the American College of Pediatricians, who has just, they sent a letter to all 14,800 school superintendents in the United States and it’s a letter warning about what’s happening in the schools and the American College of Pediatricians is cautioning educators about what they do with same-sex attraction or symptoms of gender identity confusion in schools.
Barton leads his listeners to think that he is about to tell them some news about physicians who are not conservative, not pro-life, say “don’t spank your kid,” and are “anti-parental influence.” He names the ACP as that group, asking:
…what’s really interesting is the American College of Pediatricians; now think about that, is that a conservative group?
Yes, actually, it is a very conservative group.
The ACP is pro-life, advocates spanking as an option and is pro-parents’ rights. Go check out their policy pages (parenting issues, abortion, and sexuality) and it is clear that the ACP is a conservative, but not leading, group.
Don't bet on Perry if he prays to win the GOP nomination
Back in April, Texas Governor Rick Perry officially proclaimed three days of prayer to bring rain. Texas was already in a bad way at I suppose he and his advisors thought a little prayer couldn’t hurt. According to the US drought monitor, here is what the nation looked like on April 19, just a couple of days before the season of prayer.
It looked bad then. Now look at the map of the drought for August 9.
As the key shows the darker colors indicate dryer conditions. Since the official days of prayer, the drought has worsened significantly. The last ten months are the worst on record.
Jesus told his followers that they should always pray and not faint. So I am not faulting Perry for praying for relief from the drought. Even though lakes, rivers, and people are fainting, acknowledging God is good religious policy.
But is it good public policy? I think Perry is vulnerable politically because he has lifted up prayer as a kind of last resort for politicians when they face difficult policy questions. To promote his August 6 prayer meeting in Houston, Perry said there are some problems so big that only God can fix them. While I have no problem with asking God for wisdom, I am not and I don’t think most Americans are prepared to “let go, and let God” when it comes to the economy, or national defense. If so, then just pray for Mr. Obama and the economy and watch the charts.
On The Response website, John Adams’ call to fast and pray is cited as a precedent for Perry’s prayer meeting. However, Adams came to regret his proclamation, saying it turned him out of office. Many evangelicals already like Perry, but it will take more than common ground with that large voting bloc to answer his prayers for the Presidency.
Speaking of Texas, I wonder who has been praying for the worst-record-in-baseball Houston Astros.
Who drew more people than The Response?
Kind of a question and observation rolled into one: doesn’t it seem like some of the highly touted big Christian gatherings (prayer rallies, solemn assemblies, awakenings) have not lived up to expectations?
Last year, a big rally in MO called by Dutch Sheets was cancelled because of poor registration numbers, the various awakening meetings (Liberty Council, etc.) had smaller than expected numbers, and now The Response drew 30k in a stadium chosen because it seats 80k.
These are ramblings at this point, I might be wrong. However, along the way over the last couple of years The New Apostolic Reformation seems to have grown in influence with Christian public figures but the follow through has not been stellar. I have not looked into this carefully, so confirmation bias might be at work in me here.
I did take a quick look for events that have sold out Reliant Stadium as points of reference and found that the following filled up the place:
U2
The semi-finals of the CONCACAF (soccer) Gold Cup
2010 ML Baseball All-Star Game
Selena
2011 NCAA Final Four
The Houston Texans every week
One could see in this comparison a decline in religion, and perhaps there would be some truth in that. However, I wonder if the histrionics of the AFA and their new apostolic partners are wearing thin.
A related thought: The Response was free; none of the events above were free. In fact, they are pretty pricey.