Gay Conversion Therapy: should some thoughts be a fireable offence?
Israeli Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz’s recent comments about gay conversion therapy have unleashed a firestorm.
Gidon Ben-Zvi
Teachers are threatening to strike if their new boss doesn’t resign immediately, while outraged parents are vowing to remove their kids from the public school system. For a fleeting moment, even Israel’s notoriously fractured political culture came together – to castigate Peretz for believing that it’s possible to convert someone from their homosexual orientation.
The overwhelming uniformity of thought surrounding this kerfuffle brings to mind George Carlin’s line about the demise of individualism and rise of stifling political correctness: “Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name.”
There’s little to suggest that gay conversion therapy is anything other than junk science. Reparative therapy practices have been rejected by virtually every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades. But it’s worth noting that therapists in Israel are allowed to practice conversion therapy, though the country’s Health Ministry advises against it. So what fireable offence did Israel’s Education Minister commit by believing in such voodoo?
Many otherwise intelligent, broad-minded and professionally competent people continue to cling to debunked myths about human behaviour. For example, the widely-held belief that violent offenders usually have a diagnosis of mental illness isn’t backed up by science. Then there’s the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, which sought to prove that anyone of us can turn bad depending on the situation we happen to find ourselves in. But people who cite this as evidence that bad barrels trump bad apples should keep in mind that the Stanford Experiment has subsequently been proven to be seriously flawed.
The most famous instance of a once widely-accepted belief about the human condition being thoroughly invalidated is psychoanalysis. The idea that talk therapy could give people the power to treat themselves caught on like wildfire during the first two-thirds of the 20th century. The foundational principle of Freudianism is that our feelings are hidden from us, which is why we need to talk to a therapist about them. The goal of psychoanalysis is to bring those emotions to light in order to expose the destructive issues afflicting our unconscious minds.
Terms taken from Sigmund Freud’s work – mummy issues, daddy issues, arrested development, death wish, Freudian slip, penis envy, anal-retentive, Oedipus Complex, defence mechanism and cathartic release have secured his place in the popular culture. But as a research paradigm, psychoanalysis is no longer considered a credible theory of human behaviour.
Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz arrives to the weekly Cabinet meeting, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on June 24, 2019. Photo by Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90.
As such, let those same passionate civil rights advocates who are calling for the ouster of a freshly minted government minister who stated a belief in a debunked theory be consistent in their righteous indignation. Will those same Israeli politicians and cultural elites who are calling for the head of Rabbi Rafi Peretz also demand that any elected official who at some point sought or recommended psychotherapy be fired? To lift a line from Pygmalion: “Not bloody likely!”
And while there’s zero evidence to suggest that Peretz intends to impose gay conversion therapeutic practices on Israel’s public schools, the country’s thought police asserts that a government minister’s primary purpose isn’t to serve the citizenry but to avoid offending specific members of particular groups in Israeli society.
The problem with this mandated on the job sensitivity is its inconsistent application. The late Shulamit Aloni said during her tenure as Education Minister that organized tours by Israeli high school students to concentration camps in Europe were transforming Israeli youth into aggressive, nationalistic xenophobes. Aloni asserted that these young Israelis “march with unfurled flags as if they’ve come to conquer Poland.” Yet Aloni is lionized by Israel’s PC Police for her impartial dedication to human rights. Apparently, ‘impartial’ means downplaying the continued existence of the Jewish people despite Nazi attempts at their obliteration. Such a worldview tolerates Jewish survival while sneering at open displays of Jewish sovereignty.
By suggesting that their goals are noble, Israeli political and cultural elites are hiding the ball from the Israeli public. Terms like human dignity, tolerance for diversity and equality are the thin end of the wedge. Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz’ ouster is sought not because of his muddled views on a debunked psychological practise but because of his views on the issue of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. In Israel, even moral outrage is selectively refracted through a political prism.
Epilogue: Irony of ironies. Peretz has undergone an overnight conversion therapy conversion. The good rabbi reversed course and has gone on record as opposing the psychological practice. Mind control: 1, Freedom to think freely and perhaps evolve over time: 0.
Gidon Ben-Zvi is an accomplished writer who left behind Hollywood starlight for Jerusalem stone. After serving in an IDF infantry unit for two-and-a-half years, Gidon returned to the United States before settling in Israel, where he aspires to raise a brood of children who speak English fluently – with an Israeli accent. Ben-Zvi contributes to The Algemeiner, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post , Truth Revolt, American Thinker and United with Israel.
“Peretz has undergone an overnight conversion therapy conversion”
Politicians like this only reverse their position to save their political skin.
The fact is people have all sorts of crazy notions. For example there are some otherwise intelligent folk who, in all seriousness, advance the incredible theory that the world evolved all by itself or that human beings are just talking animals! Funny thing is, I don’t see many people jumping up and down and attempting to silence them. We inhabit a world of selective tolerance.
Not so incredible. There’s more evidence to suggest that actually happened than to suggest some supernatural deity magicked it up.