Hundreds of churches join group backing gay therapy
by Kaya Burgess, The Times:
Hundreds of Anglican churches belong to a group that appears to support the use of “gay conversion” therapies, despite the Church of England’s condemnation of the practice.
The government announced this week that it would ban services that try to “convert” homosexuals. Such practices often claim that a person can become gay because of trauma in their past and that they can seek treatment to become straight.
The Church of England called for the practice to be outlawed last year and this week “warmly welcomed” the government’s proposed ban. However, 351 of its UK churches are members of the Evangelical Alliance, an influential group with more than 4,000 members from different denominations. As part of its “resources for church leaders”, the group states that “homoerotic sexual activity without repentance” is an offence worthy of “church discipline” and that churches should welcome sexually active gay people, but only “in the expectation that they will come in due course to see the need to be transformed”.
It adds: “We welcome and support the work of those . . . who responsibly seek to help Christians who experience same-sex attraction. This help will involve counsel and support to live a chaste life and, as part of this process, some may seek and experience changes in the strength or direction of their same-sex attractions.”
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