By Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
May 9, 2001

(AgapePress) - Pro-homosexual forces are condemning a study being released today which says homosexuals can change their sexual orientation.

For Christians who accept the Bible's teaching that homosexuality is a chosen sin, the findings are not particularly shocking. What is causing the stir is that the study was done by scientists at a well-known secular university.

Robert Spitzer is a psychiatry professor at Columbia University and the man who led the research. Associated Press reports that after interviewing 200 people who reported they had left the homosexual lifestyle, Spitzer concluded most of them had arrived at good heterosexual functioning.

Even before Spitzer releases his findings today at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in New Orleans, homosexuals and their sympathizers are condemning it. One group calls it "snake oil packaged as science," while others are trying to discredit it by saying some of the study's participants were referred by religious groups that condemn homosexuality. A spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is criticizing the study, saying "the sample is ... totally unrepresentative of the gay and lesbian community."

Spitzer, who says he began this study as a skeptic, is the same psychiatrist who spearheaded the APA's decision back in 1973 to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. These new findings clash with that of organizations like the APA, which say that sexual orientation is fixed and that reparative therapy may be harmful.

© 2001 AgapePress all rights reserved.

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