NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Claims that homosexuality can be cured through
religious faith will be examined at a conference on Saturday, Feb. 7,
at Vanderbilt University, the same day another conference is scheduled
at a Nashville church to promote the concept.
The Vanderbilt conference is titled "Psychology, Religion and
Homosexuality: Critical Responses to Reparative Therapy." Three panels
are planned, and participants include scholars from Vanderbilt and
Emory University and a man who accepted his sexual orientation after
undergoing therapy to cure homosexuality.
The conference will be held in Room 103 of Wilson Hall on the
Vanderbilt campus from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It is sponsored by the
Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Vanderbilt, the Human
Rights Campaign and Vanderbilt’s Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender
and Sexuality.
The Vanderbilt conference is free and open to the public. Parking is
available in the Terrace Place Garage and costs $3 for the day.
The other conference, sponsored by Focus on the Family, is called "Love Won Out" and is scheduled at Two Rivers Baptist Church.
The Vanderbilt seminar was planned after Christopher Sanders of
Vanderbilt happened upon the Focus on the Family event on the Internet.
"I thought it would make an interesting contribution to the debate if
the University would host an event on the same day and give a different
take on reparative therapy, a critical understanding of it," said
Sanders, director of development and alumni relations at Vanderbilt
Divinity School.
"If you believe that religion and the gospel are about issues of
abundant life, then you have to address the issue of sexuality," he
said. "If ministers are going to address it competently, then those who
train them have to think through these issues in a systematic way. I
think that Vanderbilt can make a real contribution to this debate."
Here is the schedule for the Vanderbilt conference:
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., "The Theory and Practice of Reparative Therapy,"
sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, with
panelists Dr. Ralph Roughton, clinical professor of psychiatry at Emory
University; and Carlton Cornett, a Nashville psychotherapist whose
practice serves the gay community.
12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., "The Religious Context of Reparative Therapy,"
sponsored by the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality,
with panelists Mark Jordan, the Asa Griggs Professor of Religion at
Emory University and author of The Invention of Sodomy in Christian
Theology; James Hudnut-Beumler, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School and
Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious
History; and Amy-Jill Levine, director of the Carpenter Program in
Religion, Gender and Sexuality.
2 p.m. to 3 p.m., "Strategic Activism and Reparative Therapy,"
sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, with panelists Wayne Besen,
author of Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind
the Ex-Gay Myth; Don Schlosser, who embraced his same-sex orientation
after trying reparative therapy; and other members of the local chapter
of the Human Rights Campaign.
More panelists may be added.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu