Help with web site links on Christianity and Homosexuality

[Faramir]

My eldest is doing a paper for her intro pych. class at school. She needs some links to sites that address the interaction of Christianity and Homosexuality. Please keep in mind that she goes to a Christian college.

Thanks,

:sig:

[Piebald]

I would like to help you Faramir, but I haven't really explored the Internet for this kind of resource. I do know that NARTH.org is a pretty big website that explores Homosexuals and the ability to change/cure the condition.

[anthrogirl]

She might have some luck with some of the gay news sites--offering insights on the schism from a queer perspective.

http://www.expressgaynews.com/
http://www.365gay.com/

[themuzicman]

www.leaderu.edu I believe is a mental health research site that has info about treating homosexuality. Look for NARTH.

[Gaytheist]

Here is a link to Metropolitan Community Church, a mainstream Christian church with a ministry to the gay community: Metropolitan Community Church (http://www.mccchurch.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home)

[gharfish]

Faramir,

I don't have a web site for y'all, but can I recommend the comprehensive medical text: "The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy" ?

It is a well-known, widely used book published by Merck Research Laboratories. (division of Merck & Co., Inc. Rathway, NJ) It's first edition dates back to 1899 ! I predict it's probably in it's 18th edition by now. Any college library should have it, I'll bet.

It doesn't address Christianity, naturally, but it does have some good information on psychosexual issues, from a scientific POV.

It does not regard homosexuality as a mental disorder, in keeping with the change of status made by the American Psychiatric Association a number of years back. It's probably still pretty straight-forward about what would perhaps otherwise be considered 'politically incorrect' kinds of facts--unflattering statistics and the like.

("Interestingly," Paraphilias: including fetishism, transvestism, exibitionism, voyeurism, and S & M, are spoken of as mental disorders)

Maybe "Merck Manual" as a keyword(s) might bring-up some of it's text on homosexuality ...bisexuality...(?)

V.

[Faramir]

Faramir,

I don't have a web site for y'all, but can I recommend the comprehensive medical text: "The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy" ?

It is a well-known, widely used book published by Merck Research Laboratories. (division of Merck & Co., Inc. Rathway, NJ) It's first edition dates back to 1899 ! I predict it's probably in it's 18th edition by now. Any college library should have it, I'll bet.

It doesn't address Christianity, naturally, but it does have some good information on psychosexual issues, from a scientific POV.

It does not regard homosexuality as a mental disorder, in keeping with the change of status made by the American Psychiatric Association a number of years back. It's probably still pretty straight-forward about what would perhaps otherwise be considered 'politically incorrect' kinds of facts--unflattering statistics and the like.

("Interestingly," Paraphilias: including fetishism, transvestism, exibitionism, voyeurism, and S & M, are spoken of as mental disorders)

Maybe "Merck Manual" as a keyword(s) might bring-up some of it's text on homosexuality ...bisexuality...(?)

V.

Thanks for the info garfish and gaytheist, but the paper was last semester. However, she may have future need for these sources, so I will pass this on.

[Donotbeafraid]

www.leaderu.edu (http://www.leaderu.edu) I believe is a mental health research site that has info about treating homosexuality. Look for NARTH.
Since when has homosexuality been a mental health issue?

[XaositectCrayon]

the condition need not be cured... it's just if you are a Christian, it is against your religion, you become celibate. If you are not a Christian than you should give a naughty word

[quetzalphoenix]

I'd suggest going to exgaywatch.com for the other side of Exodus and NARTH. You can go to wthrockmorton.blogspot.com for a professor from a Christian college interacting with gays and ex-gays on this topic.

Gayspirituality.typepad.com has some info, but not much. There are some bloggers on both sides--rising-up.blogspot.com is an ex-ex-gay with quite a few links.

I would suggest that the student check out some actual books, such as the most recent "Ex-Gay Research:Analyzing the Spitzer Study" which has quite a collection of psychological viewpoints and the study by Robert Spitzer which many groups such as Exodus use to demonstrate that "change is possible."

[Dee Dee Warren]

Since when has homosexuality been a mental health issue?

Umm it is only recently that it hasn't been considered one.

[quetzalphoenix]

Sorry, D, I'd have to disagree. "Mental health" as we consider it today is a relatively new phenomenon. That follows also, that considering "homosexuality" to be a mental health "disease/disorder" is also relatively new.

Sinful, aberrant, yes. Sourced to problems with same-sex parents or eroticizing one's same-sex peers--new stuff.

[quetzalphoenix]

Oh, and I find discussing this topic with you, given your avatar, very dissonant. Xena is such a lesbian icon that it's odd...

[Dee Dee Warren]

It is funny that I just discussed that in another thread. I dispute that the character itself was intended to be that way, but I don't have a fear of lesbians or liking a show that has a female hero that lesbians admire, the reason I like the show has zero to do with sexuality, even as heterosexual Xena had terrible sexual morality. I personally think the gay crowd hijacked that character, the show's creators specifically said in the beginning they made it clear on purpose that the character was straight, and in fact worried that the opening credit scenes where Xena was approaching Draco (who has a long hair piece) might be thought to be a woman and they didn't want that impression. They then went to where the money was. Xena was a lost soul desparately seeking redemption - so if she acted out inappropriately in any sexual way it only adds to the "tragedy" of the show, that of a the chronicle of a lost soul desparately wanting to be forgiven. I am perfectly comfortable in my sexuality so I shrug off that kind of stuff. My best friend in high school was a lesbian so perhaps I got pretty secure in myself during formative years that it doesn't affect me.

[quetzalphoenix]

Sure, I think that the character was pretty much created to be ambivalent--though some of the end storylines took advantage of the lesbian subculture.

I'm not sure--okay, no I am sure that I don't--agree with Xena acting out in an inappropriate sexual way.

But I don't want to hijack the thread. I just thought, given the role that your avatar's image plays in much lesbian subculture, that the discussion seemed odd.

Of course, that has to do as much with what I bring to my interpretation as to what is there in the show. And I still think that the concept of "mental health" is modern, as is the medicalization of homosexuality.

Enough for tonight... (oh, and my best friends in school were straight, so I've gotten pretty comfortable with people who like that sort of odd sexual behavior ...)

[Dee Dee Warren]

Sure, I think that the character was pretty much created to be ambivalent--though some of the end storylines took advantage of the lesbian subculture.

Yes at the end the show definitely went to where the money was - but that is what commercial programming does. But in the beginning, no I don't think she was ambivelant at all, I have read some of the lesbian sites trying to find these themes in the beginning and it really was a stretch. In the beginning the show went of its way to paint both Xena and Gabrielle as straight - in fact it was almost too painfully obvious that they were going out of their way. Gabrielle was falling for a guy every show and thinking it was her true love. Xena was created in the backdrop of her steamy encounter with the ultimate hunk, Hercules. Straight as straight can be. But she didn't really get the attention from the straight guys that I think the show's creators wanted, and an unexpected audience became interested, lesbians, so they took advantage.

I wasn't trying to speak down to you or anything by mentioned my exposure in high school, just trying to give some background on why lesbians simply do not freak me out as they might some other straight women. And hopefully to show that my opposition to homosexuality isn't born out of some kind of ignorant fear of the unknown.

[quetzalphoenix]

Nope, not taken as speaking down at all. I was just making a joke--although my best friends really were straight.

In my experience, fewer straight women are freaked out by lesbian women than straight men are by gay men. I have guesses about that, but this isn't the place for it.

I agree with your assesment of the arc of the show. I enjoyed it primarily as eye candy originally, and later as a way to find subtext on TV (this was pre Will and Grace and Ellen never did make the cut as having good subtext).

And finally, regardless of whether she was gay or straight, Xena was, um, cute. Yeah, cute's the word.... :)

Back to the thread--I'd check out the links I mentioned for some good discussion of the ex-gay movement. XGW gets maligned by some, but I've found their writing thoughtful and not dismissive of people's experience.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Q - I read that rising-up blog introduction of Christine. She says that a big point for her was to realize that the ex-gay ministries don't change "orientation" but behaviour and that was a revelation. Admittedly I don't know a great deal about the exgay ministries, however, I have heard Sy Rogers, speak several times, and he was always very upfront about that. He never made the claim that homosexuals are "cured" in that way. He says that he still has homosexual feelings but over a great deal of time he is retrained (not the best turn of phrase, but I am tired). I know that there were many things (not speaking of sexuality but just in general) that I changed my behaviour on things, not necessarily as a Christian, but just life choices, and I wanted for years and years to revert but then one day I found that my new choices did affect my make-upl though I don't doubt if I fed the old man that I could revert to bad behaviours. So I guess I am saying in my limited experience I have found the exgay movement to be pretty upfront about that, so her words didn't ring entirely true. Just an observation.

[gharfish]

Since when has homosexuality been a mental health issue?Officially, as a mental illness; (no longer) one in the US since 1973. The international medical 'community' declassified it as such in 1992.