Vonnie Pitts (Veronica Canning)
Former Christian City Church Pastor and Living Waters Leader
I first heard of the ‘Living Waters’ ex-gay program early 1991. As a
pastor on the leadership team of Christian City Church Brookvale (in New
South Wales, Australia), I arranged to set up the program in our church
to help those struggling with homosexuality. As heterosexuals, myself
and two other pastors from the church spent 4 months going through the
tapes and manual provided in order to be trained. We then took 3
lesbians and 2 gay men through the program over a 6 month period. It was
quite intense. I supported them in their struggles and as we worked
through the teaching, we believed they had honestly tried very hard to
come out the other end ‘straight’. When we reached the final week I
asked the girls what they felt had been achieved. None of them felt the
program had changed their sexual orientation. The guys who were working
the program finished with similar results.
We
looked at additional resources like Elijah House Counselling as a way
of bringing more healing into the ‘Living Waters’ Program. There were
many at Christian City Church who heard about the program and wanted to
join but I was already beginning to have serious doubts about the
programs success. It became apparent that anyone who claimed to be
‘cured’ had just gone into denial about his or her sexuality.
At
this time, I began my own research into the causes of homosexuality and
found there was mounting evidence that sexual orientation is determined
in the womb. Now I have absolutely no doubt that homosexuals are born
gay and don’t need to change. If I were to see any of the people that I
took through the ‘Living Waters’ program again, I would say sorry. My
intentions were to help you through your struggle but I acted in
ignorance.
Read statements of others who worked with people with ' unwanted same sex attraction ' here
Labels: apology, former ex-gay leader, LGBT apology, Living Waters, unwanted same sex attraction