This is a pertinent question in the current debate and it is highlighted by the holding of a conference this weekend in Belfast by an organisation called Core Issues.
Core Issues, is a controversial Lisburn-based counselling and advocacy organisation which teaches that homosexual practise is sinful. It has been associated with controversial techniques including claims to be able to change sexual orientation in certain circumstances.
Core Issues is “a Christian initiative” run by Mike Davidson, a married man who describes himself as “in conflict with unwanted homosexuality . . . before finally seeing the light”. The organisation has brought a series of high-profile ex-gay speakers from the US to Ireland.
The title of this year’s conference is “The Lepers Among Us”. Not surprisingly, there was a furious reaction from gay people and others, who objected to the apparent implication that homosexuals are as one journalist described it “scabby outcasts”.
To such people Core’s idea of healing what it calls ‘sexual brokenness’ come across unavoidably as an insult, an implicit condemnation of their sexual identity. It was a clumsy choice of title and Davidson of Core tried to explain it was not meant to be a call to shun LGBT people, but a challenge to the church to stop ostracising them. That emphasis was drowned out by the ongoing roar of condemnation for which Core can do no other but accept responsibility for an ineptness similar to that which it states it was challenging.
Fionola Meredith had some pertinent remarks to make on Core and its so-called therapy in the Belfast Telegraph on Wednesday 18th. (See below)
A more in depth approach was taken by the long-established and highly regarded news-ccomment web site Slugger O’Toole which also highlighted the role in Core of controversial Belfast psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Miller, who was recently sanctioned by the General Medical Council.
Miller is a member of the Board of Reference of Core Issues, the controversial Lisburn-based counselling and advocacy organisation which teaches that homosexual practise is sinful and has been associated with controversial techniques including claims to be able to change sexual orientation in certain circumstances.
Patrick Strudwick, who is openly gay journalist, complained to the GMC after receiving therapy from Dr Paul Miller, who worked for Mrs Robinson when she chaired the Stormont Health Committee and made her controversial comments claiming homosexuality was an “abomination”. (See below)
The sanctioning of Miller may prove particularly controversial as Core Issues’ Board of Reference is stated on the organisation’s website to be an “accountability link” in the context of how its counselling is regulated and approved. (See below)
There are those within the Church of Ireland General Synod whose stance is similar to that of Core Issue in the belief that techniques can change sexual orientation.
A report posted on the conference of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans on Human Rights, the Bible and AIDS in Durban South Africa on Friday November 4th, stated:
Dermot O’Callaghan, a member of the Church of Ireland General Synod, surveyed the battle against AIDS in which he demonstrated how an end to multiple sexual partners would bring an end to the epidemic. He also critiqued the report in the Anglican Communion’s book on Sexuality edited by Philip Groves on the Nature/Nurture debate. He argued that same-sex attraction was neither a choice nor an innate condition, but overwhelmingly attributable to factors experienced during childhood.
There are those, including myself, who would disagree respectfully with Dermot.
Houston McKelvey
Notes:
Fionola Meredith: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/fionola-meredith/i-tolerate-everyone-except-politically-correct-leftists-16105240.html#ixzz1jw6kJJ8k
Robinson adviser:
MONDAY’S BLOG – C of I bishop’s view of civil partnerships