I am scheduled to be on CNN Newsroom Sunday

I will be on CNN Newsroom Sunday at 8:30am (ET) 7/24 to talk about evangelicals and reparative therapy.
I believe the focus is going to be on the recent issues relating to Marcus Bachmann’s clinic, Exodus, and Mark Yarhouse’s research demonstrating no orientation change on average in mixed orientation marriages.

Uganda appoints GLB advocacy group to public health committee

In a surprising move, the government of Uganda appointed an organization aligned with GLB interests there to an important public health committee.

In a surprising, unprecedented action, the Uganda government has appointed LGBTI lobby group, Uhspa Uganda, to a committee to mainstream homosexual’s rights in Uganda’s Public Health Policies.
The Uganda Health and Science Press Association is a registered LGBTI network of groups.
The Health, Human Rights and Gender Committee is overseen by the Ministry of Health in Kampala. It brings together high profile activists, policy makers and donors to develop a Human Rights-based approach to health programming in Uganda.
A letter signed by Uganda’s Director General for Health Services, Mr Nathan Kenya-Mugisha, on behalf of the Ministry of Health, described Uhspa Uganda as a “key stakeholder” in mainstreaming minorities rights in health programming in Uganda.

All along opponents of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill have contended that the bill would drive gays away from any health or prevention services. This press release quotes Dr. Thomas Muyunga who confirms the effect of the AHB.

There are attempts by the Ministry of Health to support health delivery to LGBTI persons through the Most At Risk Populations network clinic at the national referral Hospital in Kampala. However, the clinic is poorly funded, and since the introduction of the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009 in Ugandan Parliament, clients visiting the clinic have dropped for fear of being arrested.
According to Dr Thomas Muyunga, an activist and a medical doctor, some of the clinic’s clients, think the clauses of the Bahati Bill have already become law, even though the bill expired with the Eighth Parliament of Uganda earlier this year.

With reports that the bill may soon return, I suspect it will take time for this public health committee to engage frightened people to come in.

Willow Creek Church breaks with Exodus International

This change has been in the works for a long time but the news, coming during a renewed interest in reparative therapy, will keep the discussion going.
Bottom line is that various stakeholders are not comfortable with the change paradigm and are moving to the congruence paradigm. Exodus, at times, has articulated a congruence message but has not followed through at the level of the resources offered. Some of their ministries are quite focused on congruence and others, including some major ones, are still pretty focused on the reparative narrative as a general framework.
Mark Yarhouse said it this way:

Mark Yarhouse, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity at Regent University, agrees that the primary issue in the split is not abandonment of the gay community but simply a shift in tone toward gays.
“Churches are realizing that while there is a small contingent of the gay community responding to language like ‘freedom from homosexuality’ or ‘freedom is possible,’ the vast majority strongly disagree. They’re angry and they believe it’s impossible to change, and to hear this is so offensive that they will have nothing to do with Christians. So I think churches, in response to that vast majority who say, ‘We’re not interested,’ have decided to look at other approaches in an attempt to connect with the gay community on at least some level. That doesn’t mean that churches disagree with the language of ‘freedom from homosexuality’ doctrinally; they’ve just found that it doesn’t work on a social level.”

This is just wrong

According to this report, a group of young LGB activists raided the Bachmann clinic and threw glitter all over the waiting room.
How pranky.
While there were no clients in the waiting room, there could have been.
I hope real GLB groups condemn this kind of faux activism. One way to halt a self-fulfilling prophecy is not to fulfill it.
Now that I have seen the video (now posted at the link above), I am more sure that this is the kind of thing that will make martyrs out of the Bachmanns.