Why do Christian "therapists" still think they can turn g-a-y people straight? It's clearly a harmful practice.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/...ic/story?id=14048691
A former patient who sought help from the Christian counseling clinic owned by GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, told ABC News he was advised that prayer could rid him of his homosexual urges and he could eventually be "re-oriented."
"[One counselor's] path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be ***," said Andrew Ramirez, who was 17-years-old at the time he sought help from Bachmann & Associates in suburban Minneapolis in 2004. "And God would forgive me if I were straight."
In the past, Marcus Bachmann has disputed the clinic has treated *** patients this way. But Ramirez's account, which was first reported by The Nation, is similar to the counseling session that appears on new undercover video shot by a *** rights advocacy group last month. That footage shows another counselor at the Bachmann clinic telling a *** man posing as a patient that, with prayer and effort, he could eventually learn to be attracted to women and rid himself of his *** urges.
The disclosures have provided fresh insight into what Michele Bachmann has called her family business -- the primary source of income for her family as she left her law practice to move into politics. The counseling center has factored into Bachmann's campaign narrative, as well -- evidence, she said, of her ability to understand what it takes to create jobs and run a small business....
The controversial practice of trying to change someone's sexual orientation was roundly discredited by the American Psychological Association in 2009 as ineffective and potentially harmful. The first-hand accounts and video evidence surfacing Monday have rekindled questions about the Bachmann family business.
Clinton Anderson, who heads the association's Office on *******, ***, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns, told ABC News that his organization did an exhaustive review and found no evidence that efforts to convert someone from *** to straight could succeed.
"The harm is that when people are already in distress, and feeling conflict about their religion and their sexuality, to tell them they can change if they work hard enough, when in fact they can't do that … just makes their distress and their shame -- their depression -- even worse," Anderson said.
Marcus Bachmann describes a gentle approach to counseling on his website, saying he believes "my call is to minister to the needs of people in a practical, caring and sensitive way." In a talk radio interview, however, he does not deny a tougher approach when it comes to dealing with behavior considered to be sinful.
"We have to understand, barbarians need to be educated," he said during a 2010 appearance on the program Point of View....
