A number of British conservative evangelical leaders have written to the Daily Telegraph to express their support for Lesley Pilkington, the Christian therapist found guilty of professional malpractice for offering a “gay cure” to an undercover journalist.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is among the 70 signatories of the letter. Also joining him are the former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali, the current Bishop of Chester the Right Reverend Peter Forster, the Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham — and several names representing the most extreme end of the anti-gay, ex-gay movement in the US. They include JONAH’s Arthur “Abba” Goldberg, PFOX’s Regina Griggs, and David Pickup, Jeffrey Satinover, Julie Hamilton and Benjamin Kaufman of NARTH.
To defend the practice of gay-to-straight reparative therapy, the signatories rattle off the names of Joseph Nicolosi, Dean Byrd, Robert Spitzer, and Jones and Yarhouse, apparently ignorant of just how limited — and sometimes outright misleading — the scope and results of such research have proved.
But Carey et al have also glossed over the reasons why Lesley Pilkington was banned from practising psychotherapy in the UK. That she offered to help journalist Patrick Chapman to change his sexual orientation is almost beside the point — she insisted, despite his denials, that the roots of his homosexuality were in low self-esteem, (non-existent) childhood sexual abuse and (also non-existent) a family history of freemasonry. Lesley Pilkington was guilty of sheer quackery.
It’s no surprise that Lisa Nolland and Chris Sugden of the ultra-homophobic Anglican Mainstream would support Pilkington. But that leading Church of England evangelicals such as Lord Carey and Bishop Michael Nazir Ali would not only support her but throw their weight behind the anti-gay pseudoscience of NARTH is indefensible.
[Edited to reflect the fact that Michael Nazir-Ali is the former Bishop of Rochester.]
Nazir Ali is no longer Bishop of Rochester – he retired early a few years back. The current serving bishop of Chester is on the list of signatories though
Here is an illuminating and quite entertaining interview with Lesley Pilkington on LBC Radio:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/woman-who-can-cure-gay-men-speaks-to-james-50465
@robert
Oh yes, Peter Forster, who said some years ago that gays should see a doctor to get themselves straightened out.
@robert
Thanks, the post has been corrected.
Good article Dave, I found it very informative. Dunno, but does it seem to you that NARTH is doing a little saber rattling lately? I am new, relatively, to studying this topic but within the last year to 15 months I don’t remember them being this chatty as they seem to be lately.
Dave, I have clicked around the internet to find the actual letter but have come up empty. I think it would be good to see the full letter.
@StraightGrandmother
StraightGrandmother, for some reason the link won’t allow itself to be posted, but if you google “Christian Concern for Our Nation” +”Lesley Pilkington” for the past week, you should be able to find it.
@StraightGrandmother
The full letter is here.
I didn’t see it anywhere else and was loath to link to that website, to be honest.
@StraightGrandmother
Yes, NARTH and other anti-gay, ex-gay groups are definitely getting louder. They can see they’re losing the battle as support for LGBT people and disdain for homophobia becomes increasingly normal.
Well let’s hope so Dave, Let’s hope so. I could really use a Hand at this website, there is only me and Elizabeth who stick up for Sexual Minorities. They run an anti gay article every few days.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/unstable_behaviour/
Thanks for raising this Dave.
George Carey was my vicar for three years, back in the days before he was quite so outspoken. I’m sad but not entirely surprised to see him add his name to this.
The whole issue has been whipped up by a group of evangelicals who can only see themselves as victims of anti-Christian sentiment, and seek to publicise any event where they are criticised. Perhaps they haven’t really engaged with the specific arguments about the harm that these therapies cause, and the inappropriateness of Lesley Pilkington’s approach.
Unfortunately, many English vicars may not really know too much about the therapies. I suspect they send their parishoners off elsewhere to be “fixed”, and only hear of the supposed results from the small band of evangelicals promoting the therapies. Not long before I left my last church I came out to my vicar, who informed me “you can be cured of that”. I had to educate him on the fact that after seven years in one of the UK’s larger Christian groups for those “struggling with homosexuality” I was no more straight than when I entered, and I hadn’t seen anyone “cured”. He was genuinely surprised.
It is very disingenuous of the letter writers to say so unequivocally that “such therapy does not produce harm” when so many people, and respected groups, say otherwise. It suggests that they only want to hear what suits them.
I think the general public in Britain are more enlightened, and in supporting these therapies these letter signatories can only do more harm to the cause of Christianity in the UK.
I was just reading in the LATimes about patients preferring atheist doctors to respect their religious exclusion of receiving blood transfusions. I know that adults CAN refuse certain medical procedures, regardless of religious reasons. But physicians are required to first do no harm, but at the same time, can simply give their patients every amount of options for an informed decision.
Just as some Jewish patients won’t use the pig parts that replace human skin and arteries, doctors know and respect this for their patients. This isn’t anything new.
But these are instances where the ailment and result are ACUTE and discernible. There is no undue time, or financial pressure. Only the quacks, with no credentialed, psychiatric or medical training can come at gay people with the most specious of corrective measures and claims.
This is where I’ve wondered about quality control rules and regs, outside of prescribed peer diagnosis and applications.
Doctors pay a great deal of money into malpractice insurance. Psychiatrists are required oversight and peer review to PREVENT misdiagnosis and abuse.
Yet, despite the sensitivity and depth of affect and RISK on gay people, the ex gay industry is exempt from investigation, oversight or accountability.
Typically, there is a lot leading up to seeking such services in the first place. CLINICAL mental disorders, have measurable physiological changes and distortions, that aren’t exclusive to gay or straight people.
Let me say, that those who engage in unlicensed, non credentialed or activity that hides from review or investigation that affects an individual, usually is considered the kind of fraud the police goes after. Especially if money changes hands.
I don’t understand how the ex gay industry gets away with it. But it’s high time there was some oversight by the FEC and other entities that investigate truth in advertising and the efficacy claims and provable result.