Category: I’m Registering an Opinion Published: Sunday, 27 December 2015 Written by The Kiwi
Well, I’m glad to say that Denny Burk and Heath Lambert finally said something more about their rejection of Reparative Therapy. After Heath put out a little article called, What’s Wrong with Reparative Therapy?, Denny’s consistent fall back was to merely link to the article. (Lambert’s article has now moved here). I was glad, then, when they set up a debate with the title, Reparative Therapy: Is It a Valid Approach to Helping Homosexuals? at the 2015 ETS. Apparently Robert Gagnon was the only person available to take up the challenge, but, as you can hear someone say in the background at the beginning of Denny’s talk, “he served ably”.
So, the debate (which you can purchase for US$16.00) was organised like this:
1st talk: Robert Gagnon, Why Christians Should Not Throw Reparative Therapy under the Bus. (Transcript here on Joseph Nicolosi’s website; I made very similar points made here)
2nd talk: Heath Lambert, Why Reparative Therapy Is Not an Evangelical Option.
(My review).
3rd talk: Denny Burk, An Anthropological Perspective on Sin, Desire, and Sexuality.
(My review).
Then a panel discussion involving all three plus questions from the floor.
Denny Burk and Owen Strachan were the moderators, though how that worked I’m not sure. Owen Strachan was the only one introducing speakers and moderating the panel discussion.
As I commented on Denny’s blog, Robert Gagnon’s presentation raised very similar points to my review of Heath’s article, but I was looking forward to hearing Denny’s and Heath’s talks in order to give their opposing arguments a fair hearing. Finally, they became available and now, in the next few posts I hope to discuss those arguments, and a couple of important questions that arose out of the debate. Due to time constraints, I’ll just refer you to the recording of Robert Gagnon’s talk or transcript (see above) since I generally agree with it.