Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) is a Jersey City-based Jewish “ex-gay” ministry. The organization adheres to NARTH’s archaic reparative therapy model and promotes the work of the International Healing Foundation’s Richard Cohen, a discredited fundamentalist Christian therapist and former Moonie who was expelled for life from the American Counseling Association in 2002.
JONAH perpetuates the unwise idea that gay people should marry, even if they are not attracted to their opposite-sex spouse. According to an article by Rabbi Joel Beasley posted prominently on JONAH’s site:
“But even if their innermost desires remained unfulfilled, it does not matter. It may never become clear why some people do not feel predisposed to marrying someone of the opposite sex. The obligation remains. Marriage is meant to teach people how to rise above their own selfish needs in order to give to a partner who is both psychologically and physiologically different.”
This idea of marriage at all costs is cruel and unfair to the gay individual struggling to accept his or her sexual orientation. But, it is just as harmful for the spouse, who will likely find an unsatisfying marriage that may end in heartbreak and divorce. JONAH is so wedded to its interpretation of doctrine that it seems to have little regard for the feelings and legitimate needs of people – including children - who would suffer inside such catastrophic marriages.
In the same article by Rabbi Beasley, crass stereotypes are used to oppose same-sex unions and promote heterosexual marriage:
“Same-gender marriages might have been too easy. As one essayist put it, male couples would have been able to sit around and watch ballgames all day; female couples would have been able to sit down and really talk about one another’s feelings. But marriage is meant to challenge each of the partners.”
Perhaps, the biggest concern that most Jews have about JONAH is that it appears to be a front for converting Jews to Christianity. While there are a few obligatory Jewish resources on the organization’s website, the majority of the books recommended to readers are written by born again Christian authors.
Works offered on the site by Richard Cohen, Joe Dallas, Jeff Konrad, Alan Medinger and John Paulk are deeply sectarian and consider believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior a crucial component in “overcoming” homosexuality. JONAH even pushes a book co-written by Wheaton College’s Stanton Jones and Pat Robertson University’s Mark Yarhouse entitled, “Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church’s Moral Debate.” For Jews who attend Synagogue, not church, this reading list may seem a bit peculiar, if not downright offensive. It is debatable whether JONAH’s real mission is to create ex-gays or ex-Jews.
Like other ex-gay organizations, JONAH keeps no statistics and offers the promise of change without any documentation of success. The group relies on anecdotal stories and promotes a therapeutic approach that is not supported by any mainstream medical or mental health organization.
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