Regis Nicoll Christian Blog and Commentary

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The Gay Factor

Wherever universal truth is scorned and relativism reigns supreme, image and style are everything. And there is no more powerful image-maker than television.

 

Have you noticed how hard it is to watch a prime-time program without the politically correct non-heterosexual character? Is it happenstance that prominence of gay characters and themes in TV shows like Ellen, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will and Grace, and Boy Meets Boy coincides with the growing clatter of the gay rights movement? Could it be that this phenomenon is an effort to re-image gayness as normal and acceptable in a tolerant, pluralistic society?

 

In his book, What We Can't Not Know, Christian ethicist J. Budzsizewski says that we can choose to ignore what we inherently know is wrong, pushing our surface-level knowledge to deep conscience. But eventually this deep-buried knowledge re-surfaces in the form of "furies"--one of which, is the fury of reconciliation--the intense desire to fit in and be accepted, to belong.

 

If we persist in the denial of our wrong, we are left to re-image our behavior (and ourselves) as normal. Which is no problem in a society where anti-social behavior is increasingly chalked up to the environment, ignorance, or bad genes. I mean, what better way to gain a sympathetic ear than to assert, "It's in my genes?" It worked for the gay Anglican priest, Gene Robinson who left his wife and family and was later confirmed as a bishop in New Hampshire.

 

In his "coming out" Bishop Robinson claimed that his decision was based on God telling him to live as he was created (that is, gay). But despite Bishop Robinson's assertion, there is a plentitude of scientific evidence pointing to different causative factors.

 

For example, psychiatrists William Byne and Bruce Parsons, summarizing three decades of studies in the March 1993 volume of Archives of General Psychiatry, stated that homosexuality is causally associated with "overly involved, anxiously overcontrolling mothers (and) poor father-son relationships." In addition, J. R. Bramblett, Jr, et al concluded in the Journal of Sex & Family Therapy (Winter 1997),

 

 "a history of homosexual child abuse was linked both to adult homosexual orientation and to sexual attraction to children."

 

Tammy Bruce is a former NOW officer and former gay rights activist. Although a practicing lesbian, Ms. Bruce decries the moral bankruptcy of gay activists in her book, The Death of Right and Wrong. There she writes,

 

"Almost without exception, the gay men I know (and that's too many to count) have a story of some kind of sexual trauma or abuse in their childhood."

 

And yet, the frenzied search for the gay gene goes on. But the bigger question is, "Does the existence of the gay gene really matter?” Or is the whole genetics argument a red herring--a wrong question, if you will, in the public debate?

 

In the classic work, The City of God, Augustine says of Adam and Eve, whose sin contaminated the seed,

 

"...because this nature has been spoiled by sin and doomed to death and justly condemned, no man was to be born in any other condition."

 

Thus, it should be of no surprise that we each have inherent predispositions for wrong behavior. However, even if a certain predisposition--like sexual orientation--is genetically determined, the ACTUAL behavior--the gay lifestyle--is not. It is a choice. And like alcoholism, incest, or child abuse, neither is personal inclination a license to engage in that behavior.

 

Unlike the person who is genetically programmed to be 6'3" and Caucasian, and cannot choose to be 5'4" and Asian, a person with a gay orientation can choose to be celibate or commit to heterosexual relationships.

 

"But wait," someone's sure to object, "it's not fair to deny my in-born attraction to the same sex. You're in no position to tell me what's right, because you can't understand my aversion to heterosexual intimacy!" You know, I could say the same thing about Christ's command to love my neighbor as myself. "Who is he to pontificate? He just doesn't understand my inherent repulsion to the poor, the uneducated, the Jews, blacks, the obese, (fill in the blank)."

 

The appeal to false compassion (giving people what they want as opposed to what they need) is a common ploy by the gay community. Ms. Bruce continues,

 

"As the Gay Elite found Americans willing to tolerate and even accept their divergent lifestyle they started exploiting that compassion. Thus began the furtherance of a campaign that...has nothing to do with the acceptance of homosexuals and everything to do with eliminating the lines of decency and morality across the board."

 

Instead of giving into false compassion, Christians are to uphold moral absolutes as knowable and immutable, while extending the true compassion of help, encouragement, and companionship to those who are alienated and hurting through wrong choices.