DiscussMormonism.com

Today in Your Health, a controversy that is both political and personal. Conversion therapy is a psychotherapy which aims to help gay men and women become straight. It's hardly new, but it's in the news again because the mental health clinic run by the husband of Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann reportedly provides such therapy.

This morning, NPR's Alix Spiegel has this look at the practice of conversion therapy, profiling the therapy experiences of two men.

What in the world was NPR doing presenting a story about gay conversion programs as a "health"-related feature?

And why in the world did NPR cut the fact that the protagonist of the story—ex-gay life coach Rich Wyler—is Mormon, calling him a "conservative Christian" instead?

Here at RD, Candace Chellew-Hodge has pointed out the failure of the NPR story to present an accurate picture of the religious and business motives of gay conversion programs, and Warren Throckmorton and Ted Cox have described the marginal, controversial practices of Wyler's Journey into Manhood program.

But to get the full story—the story NPR missed—it's important to understand Wyler, Journey into Manhood, and gay conversion programs not as a health story but as part of a decades-long religious experiment based in Mormon theology and culture.

And why in the world did NPR cut the fact that the protagonist of the story—ex-gay life coach Rich Wyler—is Mormon, calling him a "conservative Christian"