REFUSAL OF ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN COUNSELLORS TO RENEW CORE ISSUES TRUST’S ORGANISATIONAL MEMBERSHIP
The Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC) has refused Core Issues Trust organisationalmembership as of 31 December 2014. In a letter from its chief executive Rev Tony Ruddle received by email on 24th December, the ACC Executive states “your response to our request for compliance is not acceptable as it adds too many caveats”. The Trust had indicated that it would comply “for the time being” in a letter to the ACC emailed 23 December 2014. It further indicated that it would also beg into regularise its position with the Public Standards Authority (PSA) to establish its own register of professionals are so registered.
Core Issues Trust links individuals wishing to move away from homosexual behaviours and feelings with professionals equipped to work with the aspirations of autonomous individuals, after appropriate advanced informed consent. It supports the professional principlesii and statements of the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity.iii
In January 2014 the Trust indicated in a statement why it was unable to agreeiv with the January 2014 statement of the ACC’s Ethics and Practicev. In March 2014 the Trust explained its reservations aboutthe absence of research evidence and the political alliances the ACC has formed with a range of professional and campaigning bodies. This is available in the Trust’s Statement on the ‘Conversion Therapy Consensus Document’vi at that time. In December 2014 the Trust also released a Statement on a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’vii noting the ACC’s compliance with this unhelpful initiative, and once again, the absence of scientific foundations for such a position and association. The ‘Conversion Therapy Consensus Document’ was produced by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy
(UKCP) at the request of Minister of State, Norman Lamb. It is believed that the “Memorandum ofUnderstanding on Conversion Therapy”viii was crafted prior to a meeting in April 2014, attended by the Signatories, including the ACC, and Professor Michael King, former chair of the Royal College ofPsychiatrists’ LGB Special Interest group. Professor King had previously provided misleading information to both Church and State and following complaints, the College amended its statementon ‘Sexual Orientation’ to indicate that orientation is neither innate nor immutable for all individuals, thus recognising fluidity and changeability for some, but yet continuing to deny the validity of Sexual orientation Change Efforts (SOCEs) under any circumstances.
Speaking for the Trust, Dr Mike Davidson said:
“2015 marks the ongoing compliance of Christian leaders with a growing world-wide totalitarian approach to sexual ethics ultimately designed to demean, criminalise and annihilate Judeo-Christian foundations of family, fidelity, and the sanctity of true marriage. This is the triumph of the rise of the pansexual movement: it has persuaded a naive Christian leadership that its goals are egalitarian, democratic and benign.
I fear that the ACC Executive is misleading its membership into an alliance which it is unlikely to moderate, influence or change as insiders. I do not trust its leadership to represent counselling professionals who are Christian in the UK and do not believe that its 2,000members are ‘unequivocal’ in their “compliance and acceptance” of the current trajectory imposed unilaterally and without extraordinary mandate by the ACC Executive. Has the ACC polled – or even asked its membership to ascertain whether each individual and organisation both complies with and agrees to this compromise of fundamental Gospel and human rights freedoms.
Denying Gospel values in the hope of professional recognition, the retention of referrals and funding from the NHS, all at the expense of those who are ‘ex-gay’ who are maligned by an aggressive secular state, is in essence the pragmatism that is fuelling the steady emergence of totalitarian control in Britain. I wish the ACC Executive would reconsider its direction.”
It is with regret that Core Issues Trust is no longer welcome to hold orthodox Christian values in the company of the current Executive of the Association of Christian Counsellors, and the membership it claims to represent in the UK.
Further information
Mike Davidson PhD
Director, CORE ISSUES TRUST
07833098998
i Response to ACC 2013 Statement.
ii NARTH Institute Practice Guidelines
iii Statement from ATCSI on Faith and Therapy for Unwanted Same-sex Attractions
iv Response to ACC Statement, 10th January 2014 http://www.coreissues.
org/uploads/CIT%20Response%20to%20ACC%201013%20Statement%2010th%20January%202014-FINAL.pdf
v 10th January 2014 ACC Statement to Membership
vi CIT Statement on Conversion Therapy Consensus Statement
http://www.core-issues.org/uploads/Statement_3_March_2014_UKCP_Consensus_Statement_%28Feb_2014%29FINAL-1.pdf
vii CIT Statement on Memorandum of Understanding
http://www.core-issues.org/uploads/Statement_by_Core_Issues_Trust%2018th%20December%202014.pdf
viii “Memorandum of Understanding”
h
