Few subjects offer more opportunities for missteps by Christian-oriented professionals than discussions of male and female homosexuality. It is a credit to the integrity and the ability of those who produced this special issue of the journal of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists that they avoided such missteps. One misstep would have been to produce a parochial apology for LDS views. The second most tempting misstep would have been to give undue space to the politically driven views of homophilic clinicians. Instead they have brought under one cover useful articles about the ongoing biological debate, secular clinical approaches that apply to Latter-day Saint clients, historical perspectives on policies of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and insights from people who personally have struggled with homosexual thoughts and behaviors.
This volume is a necessary tool for any responsible student of the subject, any competent therapist, and perhaps most usefully, for those who have experienced homosexual emotions.
The effectiveness of this edition underscores a larger need, however. Those who insist on using the term “homosexual” as defining a complete human being and “homosexuality” as a functional culture betray the hopes of so-called homosexuals who would reorient themselves to a full range of life-giving emotions and relationships. Homosexuality no more defines the complete person than does heterosexuality!
One anticipates the day when LDS social scientists address the far larger subject of human sexuality and its encompassing ramifications.
