Rev. Johnson states “some believers with SSA have even developed the ability to be sexually drawn to a wife, though such attraction is not typically generalized to the opposite sex. My point is and has been that a gay-to-straight conversion has been rare. That is not a theological statement but a historical one.” This is indeed an historical claim, but one which I would contend is insufficiently supported and in fact inconsistent with some of the existing data, if “gay-to-straight conversion” is taken as a range of potential change toward heterosexual desires.

Following the recent debates in advance of the PCA GA 2021, I am noticing a repeated claim that is insufficiently supported, at least to be boldly stated as often as it has been. In a recent podcast from Preston Sprinkle and TE Greg Johnson [1], Rev. Johnson makes multiple assertions indicating that, in his words “there’s something about sexual orientation that is deeply rooted, especially with men”, and that attempts to “change orientation” are rarely successful. As for the purported rarity of change, as I noted in a previous article [2], this is a statistical claim about a population, which ought to be very well substantiated if relied upon in ecclesiastical debate, and with more than just anecdotal evidence. My point is not to make the opposite claim, that such change in patterns of desire is probable or frequent; merely that if we appeal to natural revelation in a topic of controversy, we must be clear about sources, and whether or not the evidence for our claim is itself subject to debate.

Rev. Johnson states that “for 40 years [the ex-gay movement] said that gay people could become straight if they wanted to, if they tried hard enough, prayed hard enough, went through the program”. This in itself is a controversial depiction to say the least, both in terms of which groups or ministries fall into this category, and what exactly is the intended meaning of “gay people becoming straight”. I will assume Rev. Johnson, rather than tarring every ministry aimed at helping former homosexuals with the same brush, is referring to the subset of ministries that adopted a full-blown prosperity gospel approach: “just do X, and God will certainly give you outcome Y”, where “outcome Y” is “guaranteed transformation of all sexual desires from homosexual to heterosexual”. If so, we are agreed that such perfectionism should be repudiated as inconsistent with the “remnants of corruption” mentioned in WCF 13.2, and not reflective of a biblical theology of sanctification. We do not make such promises regarding ongoing temptations faced by recovering alcoholics who turn to Christ; however, we also do not base our doctrine of sanctification on the existence of groups which falsely promise removal of all temptations to abuse alcohol, even if those erroneous claims are or were common.

Rev. Johnson goes on to state that “[gay-to-straight conversions] didn’t happen for most people. I found in terms of gay-to-straight conversions, 800,000 people went through conversion therapy, and I found 10 so far that had gay-to-straight conversion, so this very low success rate.” Preston Sprinkle rightly at this point remarks, “I’ve got to linger on that, because I’ve never seen an actual stat… How did you get that number?… Even for those ten, is that longitudinal, is it that 15-20 years after, they are loving having sex with the opposite sex? How do you even measure gay-to-straight?” Indeed, these are very pertinent questions, because if Rev. Johnson’s findings come from a probability sample, this would be a significant contribution to the academic literature on this topic. I would be very interested to read more about the methodology of the study, especially the process of recruitment of this large number of participants, and how he addresses sample bias. For instance, previous literature such as the Mayer & McHugh report [3] states, “There is now considerable scientific evidence that sexual desires, attractions, behaviors, and even identities can, and sometimes do, change over time… While ambiguities in defining and characterizing sexual desire and orientation make changes in sexual desire difficult to study, data from these large, population-based national studies of randomly sampled individuals do suggest that all three dimensions of sexuality — affect, behavior, and identity — may change over time for some people.” The studies cited in that report indicate a greater fluidity in sexual desires than apparently indicated by Rev. Johnson’s statement; however, I understand this is an informal podcast setting, and the research seems to be a work in progress (“10 so far”), so I await the final results with interest.

Rev. Johnson also states that “a study identified 698,000 people who went through either reparative therapy or ex-gay ministry, between the ages of 18-60, so… when you add people over 60 or under 18, or people who didn’t make it this far… you’re probably talking around 1 million people who went through some attempt at sexual orientation change efforts…” I believe this refers to the Williams Institute UCLA brief [4], which is based on the Generations survey conducted by Gallup (cited there). The relevant question rubric in that survey was phrased as follows: “Did you ever receive treatment from someone who tried to change your sexual orientation (such as try to make you straight/heterosexual)?” While this gives some indication of the number of people who underwent any of a broad range of interventions, it does not shed any light on outcomes, motivations, ideological or religious convictions, or many other factors relevant to the specific claim — that fluidity in men’s sexual desires, in a heterosexual direction, is rare. It gives only a rough estimate of a denominator, not the numerator in question.

An article from the Gospel Reformation Network author David Garner [5] addresses the interview with Preston Sprinkle, in which some of the theological statements made by Rev. Johnson are discussed. In a public Facebook comment response to this article [6], Rev. Johnson states “some believers with SSA have even developed the ability to be sexually drawn to a wife, though such attraction is not typically generalized to the opposite sex. My point is and has been that a gay-to-straight conversion has been rare. That is not a theological statement but a historical one.” This is indeed an historical claim, but one which I would contend is insufficiently supported and in fact inconsistent with some of the existing data, if “gay-to-straight conversion” is taken as a range of potential change toward heterosexual desires. If taken in the all-or-nothing, perfectionist sense, the point is moot, since all parties are agreed. Substituting a somewhat analogous statement: if Rev. Johnson were to have said, “alcoholic-to-sober conversion has been rare”, we would possibly dispute the rarity of such change, depending on how rarity is defined, though perhaps infer that the mortification of habitual drunkenness is difficult and often very imperfect. We certainly would not conclude that “because the only real conversion from alcoholism is perfect removal of all temptation, it must be rare”. Nor would we presume a priori that all groups attempting to help alcoholics recover also fall into the prosperity gospel error.

Finally, I am aware of smaller, non-probability samples in previous literature which indicate a range of fluidity and possible changes under the umbrella of “sexual orientation”, including for males from a homosexual to heterosexual direction. Some of these are cited by Gagnon [7] and in the Journal of Human Sexuality [8]; for a more historical overview, see also Phelan [9]. At any rate, the boldness with which this empirical claim is frequently advanced is surprising to me, given the patchy nature of the existing literature, and the reticence of expression about likelihood or possibility of “orientation change” even in secular studies. It would seem best to retain some skepticism towards universal claims about fluidity of sexual desire when the evidence to date is equivocal.

Daniel Galbraith is a recent Ph.D. graduate of Stanford University. He is a member of a PCA church in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[1] https://www.prestonsprinkle.com/theology-in-the-raw/876-greg-johnson

[2] https://www.theaquilareport.com/same-sex-attraction-a-neglected-dimension-of-the-debate/

[3] Mayer, L.S. and McHugh, P.R. (2016). Special Report on Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological and Social Sciences. The New Atlantis, 50, Available at https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/number-50-fall-2016

[4] https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/conversion-therapy-and-lgbt-youth/

[5] https://gospelreformation.net/a-response-to-greg-johnsons-interview/

[6] https://www.facebook.com/gospelreformation/posts/5637060689698483

[7] Gagnon, Robert J. (2001). The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

[8] https://www.therapeuticchoice.com/journal-of-human-sexuality

[9] Phelan, James E. (2013). Successful Outcomes of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts: An Annotated Bibliography. Charleston, SC: Practical Application Publications.