BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
ABSTRACT
As a counselor, I must navigate and understand the diverse clientele and be present with them
when they need it. While I may feel some discomfort when working with fundamentalists, I'm
aware of my own biases regarding them, which I am actively working on. I am comfortable and
experienced with counseling individuals in the LGBTQ+ community regarding issues of coming
out and facing anti-gay stigmas.
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
Reaction
The first statement on the attitudes and beliefs inventory that sparked my reaction was ‘A
person with fundamentalist religious beliefs.’ Given the scenario, I would not be comfortable
counseling this individual. I understand that as a counselor, I must be able to speak without
having or showing partiality and prejudice; however, as my current mental attitude is, counseling
someone who has fundamentalist religious beliefs would be a trigger for me and would not
benefit the person. As a Southern Baptist who still lives in Florida and has lived in South
Alabama, I have met too many people who could be described as having fundamentalist religious
beliefs. Without shock, these same people would consider themselves conservatives as well. My
reason for feeling for these people is prejudice with explanation and experience. The
conservative environment has been a breeding ground for the cultivation of hate groups without
reason, aggressive behavior, homophobia, and more. (2019). I did not even need an article to
know this fact! Those who have these fundamentalist religious beliefs almost act as if they are in
a cult. They claim to follow Jesus Christ in the Bible but do not. They follow some dead, light-
skinned guy with blue eyes and thin lips. They also follow a particular former president who is
reminiscent of those who have followed the beast in the book of Revelation, but that is for
another discussion in another paper. These people pick and choose what parts of the Bible they
follow, and they have been doing so for centuries. When slavery was rampant in America, there
was something called ‘The Slave Bible,’ also known as ‘Parts of the Holy Bible.’ This specific
edition of the Bible was missing all the parts that contained liberation, freedom, and being set
free from slavery. Some recognized this practice, and eventually, there began to be some public
outrage for this crime. Even going so far as to say that the act of depriving slaves of the Bible is
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
abusive. (2022). I'm afraid I must disagree with these people because they do not and cannot
follow even the secondBgreatest commandment, which is to love others.
The second statement in the attitudes and beliefs inventory that sparked a reaction for me was ‘A
gay or lesbian couple wanting to adopt a child.’ I would be very comfortable counseling a gay or
lesbian couple wanting to adopt a child because it would be the same for me as counseling a
straight couple who wants to adopt a child. I currently work as a social worker, and while my job
is to reunify families, I work very closely with our adoption team, which is down the hall from
my office. There is something called an “adoption home study,” where the person wanting to
adopt must go through many steps to be considered a qualified candidate. In one section, the
adoption case manager must ask a series of questions to the person who wants to adopt, which
include their history and thoughts on parenting, how they plan to raise and discipline the child,
and what their reaction would be if their child grew up to be part of the LGBT+ community. This
question is asked of every person who wants to adopt despite their sexual orientation. For a gay
couple who wants to adopt, I would give them encouragement and resources and empower them
to continue with what they want to do. This would be the same conversation with a straight
couple. The most significant difference is counseling the gay couple on the systemic issues with
gay people adopting. It is not a secret that, for many years, gay couple's adoption was seen as
wrong and even illegal. In 2022, gay people adopting is still seen as taboo in some places, even
though gay people are more likely to adopt than straight people. (Farr, 2018).
The third statement in the attitudes and beliefs inventory that sparked a reaction for me
was ‘A high school student who believes she is a lesbian and wants to discuss how to “come out”
to her parents.’ While I know that I would differ from my previous peers in this section, I would
be very comfortable counseling a gay youth who wants to come out to their parents. This is a
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
pivotal point in the teen’s life where guidance from experienced individuals who have seen
different perspectives is crucial to what they do next. In my experience, I have seen what
happened after my sister ‘came out’ to our parents. Thankfully, our parents accepted her and
learned to embrace all of what her sexuality entailed in public. On the opposite end, my mom’s
sisters were not very supportive, even going as far as to say that my sister better not be gay (I
guess they thought she could turn it off like a light switch) around them or their children. I was
not a great brother, but as an adult, I can recognize the multitude of emotions she must have been
going through. The relief of our parents not wanting to disown her, the relief of her siblings not
hating her (in fact, we did not care as long as she stopped being a brat), the fear of what our aunts
would do and continue to say, and even the initial fear of coming out to our parents and their
possible reactions. It is not an easy thing to be gay in this world. We are from Florida and had to
live through the crashing impact of the Pulse shooting in 2018. The Pulse shooting was a mass
shooting where a gunman went to a popular Orlando gay nightclub known as Pulse. It was scary,
especially since my sister was supposed to be there the night it happened. My sister’s anxiety got
worse when, in the wake of the shooting, the current governor, Rick Scott, did nothing to help
the gay community, going so far as to omit the language of the gay and Latinx communities.
(2018). Now, my sisters-in-law (all 4) are gay, and I have seen them go through their journey and
how each of their situations has played out. These personal experiences have equipped me to be
very comfortable with being able to counsel a youth who wants to come out to their parents. I
would do things to reassure them that they have no obligation to anyone to share who they are
sexually attracted to (or lack thereof attraction in the case of asexual individuals). If they want to
tell their parents, they should do it at their own pace and no one else’s.B
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
Response
I would say where and from whom I learned my beliefs reflected in my answers to the
statements in the ' reaction’ section would be from pop culture, my friend and familial
environment, and the Bible. When it occurred, it would be throughout my entire life. Before
becoming a Christian, pre-2011, I believed in whatever my parents told me, what my classmates
and brother talked about, and what I saw on TV. My parents did not raise me in a Christian
household, but my mom was raised Catholic, and my dad was raised Jewish, so there was a
confusing mix of who and what God was, so they just taught the basics on how not to be a jerk to
people. I saw them always ready to help others, even caring for my brother’s friends who needed
somewhere to live for a few months. From my brother, I learned music that was a rebellion
against authority, and even though he did not believe what he listened to, I did. I grew up
listening about being anti-government and anti-law enforcement, and then, through personal life
experiences, what I heard was confirmed and became a belief. Then, once I became a Christian, I
learned about the tenets of the Christian faith and how I should love God and others. It seemed
like a simple task, so I was committed to following that and all of God's word, as I still am to this
day. The problem arose in my mind when I would see the same people who taught me about
those important biblical principles act against them by hating people in the name of
‘conservativism.’ Essentially, when the Trump administration took office, many of the people
who taught me the Bible were the same ones who were quick to follow Trump and eventually
show their prejudice toward marginalized groups. I wish I could say that my beliefs are a product
of some indoctrination or ignorance, but I believe they are the opposite of those things. My
beliefs have been a product of what I logically have produced, which is the explanation and truth
of what is happening in the world. My foundation for belief is what is written in God's word.
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
Action
In my reaction to the first statement, I need to ensure a professional relationship with the
clients, as that hinges upon the professional nature of clinical counseling. I also need to
understand what kinds of clients I can handle regarding my biases. I will never stop working on
my explicit and implicit biases; however, I recognize that those things take time, grace, and
forgiveness to work on continuously.
For my reaction to the second statement, I need to be professional by not putting my
feelings into the situation of the gay couple adopting but allowing them to talk and be heard. I
have personal ties to the idea of straight people being against gay people adopting. In this regard,
I must converse with the couple and engage in their needs, not look to them as an outlet to vent.
For my reaction to the third statement, I need to be professional and allow the teenager to
feel heard before I speak. It is one thing to empower the client and enable them to reach their
destination; it is another to tell them what to do and drive them to their destination. The big
brother in me wants to jump out and hug the gay teen who wants to come out to their parents, but
I understand that breakthrough takes time and effort.
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
References
Bill L. Smith (2022) “Open jaws of this monster-tyranny”: abolitionism, resistance, and slave-
hunting canines, American Nineteenth Century History, 23:1, 61-92, DOI:
10.1080/14664658.2022.2077611
Farr, R.H. and Goldberg, A.E. (2018), Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Adoption Law.
Family Court Review, 56: 374-383. https://doi
org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1111/fcre.12354
Heiden-Rootes, K., Wiegand, A., & Bono, D. (2019). SEXUAL MINORITY ADULTS: A
NATIONAL SURVEY ON DEPRESSION, RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM,
PARENT RELATIONSHIP QUALITY & ACCEPTANCE. Journal of Marital and
Family Therapy, 45(1), 106-119. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12323
Nolan Kline, & Christopher Cuevas. (2018). Resisting Identity Erasure after Pulse: Intersectional
LGBTQ+ Latinx Activism in Orlando, FL. Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts,
and Cultures, 2(2), 68–71. https://doi.org/10.2979/chiricu.2.2.06
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