The Entreblog!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124950491516608883.html

“Dr. Throckmorton…specializes in working with clients conflicted about their sexual identity.

The first thing he tells them is this: Your attractions aren’t a sign of mental illness or a punishment for insufficient faith. He tells them that he cannot turn them straight.

But he also tells them they don’t have to be gay.”

Interesting…I agree with his point about attractions not stemming from insufficient faith or mental illness.  What’s this about not being gay or straight, though?  Doesn’t that make them…Morrissey?

“clients could construct satisfying lives by, in effect, shunting their sexuality to the side, even if that meant living celibately.”

It does make them Morrissey.  Wow.

Sorry.  Humor aside, I think this is pretty cool and jives with what the Church has been saying for a while:

“You serve yourself poorly when you identify yourself primarily by your sexual feelings. That isn’t your only characteristic, so don’t give it disproportionate attention. You are first and foremost a son of God, and He loves you.

What’s more, I love you. My Brethren among the General Authorities love you. I’m reminded of a comment President Boyd K. Packer made in speaking to those with same-gender attraction. ‘We do not reject you,’ he said. ‘… We cannot reject you, for you are the sons and daughters of God. We will not reject you, because we love you.’”

I’m glad the APA has taken a similar stance to the Church on this.  Instead of playing to the extremes of “reparative therapy” on the one side and extreme embracing of a gay identity on the other, they seem to be on the path of helping people step outside that singular aspect of themselves and embrace their entire identity: that of a child of God.

What I especially like about this approach is that it works for any identity issue.  Instead of defining ourselves as libertarians or democrats or feminists or union members or computer scientists or anything else, we’re first, and foremost, children of God, seeking to return to His presence.

Seems like a lot of problems melt away with that perspective.