Christian Legal Centre tries slightly new tack in ongoing quest to set any kind of legal precedent for Christian discrimination
The Christian Legal Centre, who seem to run all those cases of alleged discrimination against Christians who have actually discriminated against gay people, which they eventually lose, is now backing Lesley Pilkington, a psychotherapist who claims to “cure” gay men and who faces being struck off in a disciplinary hearing this week after being stung by an undercover gay rights campaigner. Pilkington in turn accuses the campaigner/patient, Patrick Strudwick, of entrapment.
The case will expose the growing use of hugely controversial therapies, from the United States, which attempt to make homosexual men heterosexual.
The therapy has been described by the leading professional psychotherapy body as “absurd”, while the Royal College of Psychiatrists said “so-called treatments of homosexuality” allow prejudice to flourish.
A small group of counsellors believe all men are born heterosexual but that some choose a homosexual lifestyle which can then be changed through counselling.
… Mrs Pilkington says her method of therapy – Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) – is legitimate and effective. The therapy is practised by a handful of psychotherapists in Britain.
Mrs Pilkington, whose 29-year-old son is homosexual, said she was motivated by a desire to help others. “He [my son] is heterosexual. He just has a homosexual problem,” she said last week.
Other cases supported by the Christian Legal Centre include that of Gary McFarlane (who refused counselling to a homosexual couple) and Lillian Ladele (who refused to act as a registrar for homosexual couples). Both cases were eventually lost. We should point out that the Christian Legal Centre is not homosexual. It just has “a homosexual problem”.
Christian Legal Centre tries slightly new tack in ongoing quest to set any kind of legal precedent for Christian discrimination,6 Comments
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She doesn’t just need to be struck off. She also needs psychotherapy.
Sexual conduct is a matter of moral choice, in my book. We are moral creatures who can decide our conduct, not prisoners of in-born, genetically-determine behaviour. Why not change one’s conduct if one senses a call to conversion to a different way? And why not help someone who asks for it, to do just that? Surely this is what freedom is about…
I suppose sexual ‘conduct ‘ could be an issue of morality if you are thinking about rape, child abuse etc. I can’t see how one’s personal sexuality could ever been seen as a moral issue though. It would certainly be immoral in my view to make another person feel ashamed of their (very likely genetically determined) sexuality though.
There is an article on the internet that is written by a James Pilkington (originally) from north London. If it’s the same one who may be Lesley Pilkingtons son, it tells a rather different story…
The relevant link is
:
http://www.ylgc.org.uk/ylgc/news_and_views.html
Interesting for the following quotes:
“I grew up in a fairly conservative church , and I’d always believed that being gay is wrong. My parents hated gay people with a passion, and used to write regularly to their local MP to tell him to make homosexual sex illegal. My mum even used to do ‘straight’ counselling for the church, before she gave up through lack of success.”
So, whoever this is referring to “hated gay people with a passion” and used to do “straight” counselling but found that it didn’t work. (What a surprise!) A counsellor hating people is is person not fit to be called a counsellor or indeed, a christian! Hypocrisy at it’s very best.
Then click on the James Pilkington link.
…and some more relevant info:
Try doing a search for Lesley Pilkington in Hertfordshire on 192.com. You’ll see that a James Pilkington lived there sometime between 2002 and 2009.
Other rlevant links are:
http://www.livingitout.com/?page_id=197
A James ‘N’ contributed to the above book.
http://www.peekyou.com/james_pilkington/28048303
Shows that a James Pilkington went to Dr Challoners Grammar School in Amersham (i.e. Not far from Rickmansworth)
http://www.myspace.com/ocean_views/photos/393980#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A1292048%7D
Photo, which if I’m not mistaken, has Lesley Pilkington in the background.
The quote that I found very sad was:
“They told me I had been brainwashed by gay propaganda, that I wasn’t really Gay. They told me I had ruined their lives, that everyone at their church would find out. That they could never smile again because of what I had done. That they would have to leave, that their lives were over. They told me I couldn’t come home and that they didn’t want to speak to me again.”
It is a testament to James (if it is Pilkington’s son) that he managed to survive such pernicious homophobic attitudes that he experienced from his parent. Many young gay people may not have come out of such a situation without severe psychological trauma. I don’t know the effect that this may have had on James, but I for one, wish him well and hope that he has a long and happy life. Travelling to Australia obviously has it’s advantages.
…and I have to agree with jamesjones950 above. Somebody desperately needs psychotherapy and it ain’t James.