October 4th, 2011
07:35 AM ET
Study supporting gay conversion challenged
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/04/study-supporting-gay-conversion-challenged/A study designed by professors from two religious universities says that some people can change their sexual orientation after undergoing years of a ministry program.
"Evidence from the study suggested that change of homosexual orientation appears possible for some and that psychological distress did not increase on average as a result of the involvement in the change process," wrote the authors of a study published in The Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy.
The authors are both psychologists who work at religious universities. Stanton Jones is a psychology professor and provost at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and Mark Yarhouse is a professor of mental health at Regent University, in Virginia Beach, which was founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.