In what some are calling ground-breaking research, a new four-year study concludes it is possible for homosexuals to change their physical attractions and become heterosexual through the help of Christian ministries.
The data was released Sept. 13 at a news conference in Nashville and published in the book “Ex-Gays?” (InterVarsity Press, or IVP) by psychologists Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse. Thirty-eight percent of the subjects in the study said they had successfully left homosexuality, while an additional 29 percent said they had had only modest successes but were committed to keep trying. In another significant finding, Jones and Yarhouse said attempts at conversions do not appear to be psychologically harmful.
Experts in the field call it the first scientific study performed on a sample of individuals undergoing Christian counseling, monitoring their successes and failures from the beginning. A follow-up study is being conducted and will be released in the future.
“These findings contradict directly the commonly expressed views of the mental health establishment that change in sexual orientation is impossible, and that if you attempt to change it’s highly likely to produce harm for those who make such an attempt,” Jones, professor of psychology at Wheaton College in Illinois, said at the news conference.
The research is certain to be criticized, particularly by homosexual activist organizations. Yarhouse, professor of psychology at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., said their literary agent tried for 10 months to find a secular publisher but “no one would touch it.” IVP is a Christian publisher.
The study followed 98 subjects — 72 men and 26 women — over a period of between 30 months and four years. Interviews were conducted three times, although by the third interview several subjects had quit the study, leaving the sample with 73 subjects. Some quit because they believed they had changed and didn’t want to participate anymore, while others quit because they no longer wanted to change, the study said. All the subjects were being counseled by various ministries of Exodus International, a Florida-based organization that seeks to help people leave homosexuality through faith in Christ.
At the end of the study, the subjects were placed in six categories, in order from success to failure:
- 15 percent reported their conversion was successful and that they had had “substantial reduction” in homosexual attraction and “substantial conversion” to heterosexual attraction. They were categorized as “success: conversion.”
- 23 percent said their conversion was successful and that homosexual attraction was either missing or “present only incidentally or in a way that does not seem to bring about distress.” They were labeled “success: chastity.”
- 29 percent had experienced “modest decreases” in homosexual attraction and were not satisfied with their change but pledged to continue trying. This category was labeled “continuing.”
- 15 percent had not changed and were conflicted about what to do next.
- 4 percent had not changed and had quit the change process but had not embraced the “gay identity.”
- 8 percent had not changed, had quit the process and had embraced the “gay identity.”
[Malfunctions in the taping of interviews account for the remaining 6 percent.]
Yarhouse said it’s difficult to understand why some people are more successful than others in changing. He speculated it could be because some people are “making the decision in isolation.” Although such a homosexual would be embraced by their own community, “when they turn to the Christian community they often don’t feel the same embrace of, ‘We’re going to walk alongside you.’”
Jones and Yarhouse also said skeptics should not dismiss the research simply because the researchers are Christians. Much research in the field, they noted, is conducted by researchers who are homosexuals and is nonetheless considered reputable. (Baptist Press)
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