BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
ABSTRACT
As a counselor, it is my responsibility to tackle and understand myself regarding what kinds of
client and situation they have and will bring. For clients with fundamental religious beliefs, even
though I would not be comfortable with that situation as I know I have a bias against those kinds
of people. I know I would be very comfortable with counseling those in the LGBT+ community
with issues like coming out to their parents or adopting a child in the face of anti-gay stigma.
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
Reaction
The first statement on the attitudes and beliefs inventory that sparked a reaction for me
was ‘A person with fundamentalist religious beliefs.’ In this scenario, I would not be comfortable
at all counseling this type of individual. I fully understand that as a counselor it is my duty to not
show partiality and be open to speaking to me without prejudice, however as my current mental
attitude is, counseling someone who has fundamentalist religious beliefs would be a trigger to
myself and would not benefit the person. As a former Southern Baptist who 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 my feelings for these kinds of people is sort of a prejudice
with explanation and experience. The conservative environment has been a breeding ground, a
cultivation of hating people groups without reason, aggressive behavioral, 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 the Jesus
Christ of the Bible, but they do not. They follow some dead light skinned guy with blue eyes and
thin lips. They also follow a certain former president that is reminiscent of those who have
followed the beast in the book of Revelation, but that is for another discussion for another paper.
These kinds of people pick and choose what parts of the Bible they choose to follow and have
been doing so for centuries. When slavery was rampant in America, there was something called
‘The Slave Bible’ or 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. This
practice was recognized by some and eventually there began to be some public outrage for this
crime. Even going as far to say that the act of depriving slaves of the Bible is abusive. (2022). I
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
firmly disagree with these people on the premise that they do not and cannot follow even the 2nd
greatest commandment, which is to love others.
The second 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 in this section I would differ from previous peers of mine, however
I would be very comfortable in counseling a gay youth who wants to come out to their parents.
This is a 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 what all of what her sexuality being public entailed. On the opposite end, my
mom’s sisters were not very supportive, even goes as far to say that my sister better not be gay (I
guess they thought she could, just 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 a gay person 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 language of the gay and the
Latinx community. (2018). Now, my sister in laws (all 4) are gay and I have seen them go
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
through their own journey and how each of their situations have 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 as reassure them that they have no
obligation to anyone to share who they are sexual attracted to (or lack there of attraction in the
case of Asexuals) and if they really want to tell their parents then they should do it in their own
timing and no one else’s.
The third 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 in
counseling a gay or lesbian couple wanting to adopt a child because it would be the same for me
as counselor a straight couple who want 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 that 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 to adopt. 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 of parenting, how do they plan to raise and
discipline the child, and what would their reaction be if their child grew up to be part of the
LGBT+ community. This question is asked to every person who wants to adopt despite their own
sexual orientation. For a gay couple who wants to adopt, I would give them encouragement,
resources, and empower them to continue through with what they want to do. This would be the
same conversation with a straight couple. The biggest difference is counseling the gay couple on
the systemic issues with gay people adopting. It is not a secret that for many years, gay couples
adopting was seen as wrong and even illegal. In 2022, gay people adopting is still seen as taboo
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
in some places even though gay people are more likely to adopt than straight people. (Farr,
2018).
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 would be throughout my entire life. Before I
became a Christian, pre-2011, I believed in whatever my parents told me, what my classmates
talked about, what my 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 did see them always ready to help other people, even taking care of my
brother’s friends who would need somewhere to live for a few months. From my brother, I
learned music that was a rebel 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 listened to was confirmed to me and became a
belief. Then, once I became a Christian, I learned about the tenets of the Christian faith and all
about how I should love God and love others. It seemed like a simple task, so I was committed to
following that and all of Gods 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, acted
against them by hating people in the name of ‘conservativism’. Essentially, when the Trump
administration took office, many of the people that taught me the Bible were the same ones that
were quick to follow Trump and eventually show their prejudice to marginalized groups. I wish I
could say that my beliefs are a product of some indoctrination or ignorance, but I believe it is the
BENCHMARK ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REFLECTION PAPER
opposite of those things. My beliefs have been a product of what I logically have produced to be
the explanation and the truth to what is going on in the world. My foundation basis for belief is
what is written in Gods word.
Action
The professional work I need to do surrounding these issues is education and sensitivity
and the personal work I need to do is self-reflection.
For my reaction to the first statement, I need to always have a professional repour with
clients as that is hinged upon the professional nature of the clinical counseling profession. I also
need to understand what kinds of clients I can handle regarding my own biases. I will continue to
work on my explicit and implicit biases however there is a line between working on myself and
knowing my limitations as a counselor and as a person.
For my reaction to the second statement, I need to be professional in the sense of
allowing the teenager to feel heard before I speak. It is one thing to empower the client and allow
them to reach their destination, it is another thing to tell them what to do and drive them to their
destination. The big brother in me wants to just jump out and hug the gay teen who wants to
come out to their parents, but I understand that breakthrough takes time and effort.
For my reaction to the third statement, I need to be professional by not inputting my
feelings into the situation of the gay couple adopting but allow them to talk and be heard. I have
personal ties with the idea of straight people being against gay people adopting. In this regard I
have to simply have conversation with the couple and engage in their needs and not look to them
as an outlet to vent
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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