Book Review 

 

Coming Out Straight – Understanding and Healing Homosexuality 

Richard Cohen, M.A.   Winchester, VA:  Oakhill Press, 2000.  292 pages.  

                                                                               Hard Cover $27.95

For over thirty years, I was among the mistaken who believe that homosexuality is inborn and immutable.  To advocate healing for GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) individuals seemed an idea hawked by “homophobes” who wouldn’t bother to try on GLBT moccasins, let alone walk in them. 

While attending a lecture given by Richard Cohen, I took a U-turn.  He conveyed the blend of compassion and authority characteristic of those who, having experienced homosexuality as an affliction, seek and find healing through Reparative Therapy, an approach which (unlike those of the past) works because it addresses the whole person:  body, mind, and spirit.

 In Coming Out Straight – Understanding and Healing Homosexuality, Cohen carefully deconstructs the myth of the “gay gene,” delineates a kaleidoscope of factors contributing to the formation of homosexuality, and asserts:

• “No one is born homosexual.”

• “There is no scientific data to support a genetic or biologic basis for same-sex

      attraction.”

• “No one chooses to have same-sex attractions.  They are the result of unresolved

     childhood trauma that leads to gender confusion.”

• “Anyone can choose to change.”

• “What was learned can be unlearned.”

• “When the wounds are healed and the unmet needs fulfilled, gender identity will

     be experienced and heterosexual desires will ensue,” (Preface, p. xi).

 

 Why should a GLBT individual bother changing at all?  Shouldn’t we just live and let live?  Using examples from his own experience and that of others whom he has assisted in recovery, he answers:

• “There’s nothing ‘gay’ about the homosexual lifestyle; it is full of heartaches and

     most often an endless pursuit of love through co-dependent relationships.”

• “It is not bad to have same-sex attractions, as they represent a drive to heal unmet

     love needs.”

• “However, acting upon the desires leads to frustration and pain.”

• “It’s a… lifestyle whereby the individual is disidentified with his own masculin-

     ity or her own femininity and tries desperately to fill the deficit by joining with

     someone of the same sex,” (Preface, p. xi).

 

For those of us who have lost beloved friends and family members to HIV/AIDS and other “gay-related” diseases, those of us concerned about young people who are entering this self-and-other-destructive way of being, Richard Cohen’s book comes as a vision of hope in what has seemed a hopeless situation.  Thousands of former GLBT individuals who, inspired by Scripture, turned to the love, saving grace and healing power of God, are living testaments to the viability of the true and lasting health available through Reparative Therapy.  In doing so, they have set a stellar example for all of us.  Which of us is not in need of healing?

The jacket cover reads, “Someone you know needs this book!”

 

Reviewed by: 

Evangeline L. Braaten, raised on the ALC mission field in Madagascar, child and grandchild of missionaries, is a life-long Lutheran

 

She is co-author (with Pastor Arndt F. Braaten, Ph. D.) of “Two Roads Diverged” – The Faithful in “Vanity Fair,” a treatise in response to “Journey Together Faithfully,”  Part Two:  The Church and Homosexuality,

which is Available at: 

   Two Roads Diverged

   719 Locust Road

   Decorah, IA  52101

     ph. #563-382-4846

     (cost $5 includes S&H)