I’ve just had the incredible privilege of working with TVNZ (our national Television network) on a current affairs feature about “gay conversion therapy” (aka reparative therapy or “pray the gay away”).
So many people have expressed shock that it’s so prevalent. It’s not (or ever has been) the exclusive realm of cultish organisations – most of the big ones have closed down as they realised it doesn’t work anyway! However, it’s even more active “underground”, meaning thousands of churches have anything from a pastor who will happily pray with people to “cure” them, through to teams of “prayer warriors”, spiritual counsellors, and support groups that continue the destructive work in even more insidious ways.
It’s time this was exposed and the toll it’s taken on countless lives revealed. There simply is no place for this life threatening practice – and I use the term “life threatening” without hesitation simply because the largest demographic for suicide is amongst LGBT people in religion, and especially those who have experienced this so called therapy.
Sadly, so many of these “counsellors” are genuinely caring and loving, convinced they are helping. I was one of them! But that doesn’t excuse them from the deep level of abuse they are ignorantly inflicting on these people. Although I respect their desire to help people who struggle, I will do all in my power to stop them.
So here are the links to the feature on the Sunday current affairs show and the follow-up the next morning on the TVNZ Breakfast show.
They are Facebook links so they don’t have country restrictions and can be viewed internationally.
I hope to have direct links to the videos soon so we can bypass Facebook and stream direct from here. (They won’t open in a new browser/tab window so you’ll need to click the back button to get back to this page)
https://www.facebook.com/SundayTVNZ/videos/2054627811214053/
https://www.facebook.com/Breakfaston1/videos/10156338230117719/?hc_ref=ARSftqoJM61sbvRlzNML3Y9qmy8a0SAy7Uhvi1MwVRt1VsaMeMOaxFgTb6p-XE2MPSY
