Marriage Therapists

In class today we were talking about moral relativism vs. truth. We had to watch a CES Fireside where Elder Oaks discussed truth. In it he said that there is only absolute truth. That people have different values and cultural differences, but in the end, only absolute truth will prevail. Not to say that other cultures are necessarily wrong all the time. You can find truth in many things, and not just in the LDS church. In talking about this our teacher, Brother Williams, recounted a story where he was counseling a family. The family consisted of one boy, and the rest girls. The mom had once upon a time been in a heterosexual relationship, but after having her kids decided she was no longer interested in that, and was now with a woman. They went to counseling for the son because of problems he was having. After a few sessions, the two moms came to Brother Williams and said that they were having some marital problems and they felt like he really understood them, so would he be able to counsel them. He responded that he felt there were other therapists more qualified to help them in the surrounding area because his area of expertise was counseling man and wife. He also ended up letting them know that he believes in marriage between a man and a wife and that that is the most beneficial way in raising children, so it would be going against what he knows to be true to counsel and try to keep them together. Long story short, they didn't get upset with him and after a little while the two moms ended up breaking up and the mom of the kids was getting back together with her husband because she was more concerned with her son's happiness, and he needed a father figure in the house.

What I found so interesting about this was the way in which Brother Williams answered them. He knew what was true, and he could have lost his license by answering the way that he did. He did so however, because he knew the absolute truth. It made me really intrigued because one of the reasons I didn't want to become a marriage and family therapist or psychologist was because I was told there are certain things that have to be said regardless of how you feel. I asked after class and Brother Williams told me that when he was preparing for his license he had to take a bunch of tests and the last one was an oral one and the question he got had to do with a gay couple. He answered the same way with that question that he would refer them to someone more specialized in that area, and he passed the test. Now there are therapists that are LDS and still counsel homosexual couples and that's their decision. I'm really glad to know that as long as I'm being respectful, I can not go against what I believe to be true.