1 Boring Old Man

Christian compassion requires the truth about harms of homosexuality
Washington Post
By Tony Perkins
October 11, 2010

… However, homosexual activist groups like GLSEN [the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network] are exploiting these tragedies to push their agenda of demanding not only tolerance of homosexual individuals, but active affirmation of homosexual conduct and their efforts to redefine the family… There is an abundance of evidence that homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression…

… GLSEN’s approach is to encourage teens to "come out" when younger and younger – thus likely exacerbating the very problem they claim they want to solve… This – and not society’s disapproval – may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide…

Since homosexual conduct is associated with higher rates of sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence, it too qualifies as a behavior that is harmful to the people who engage in it and to society at large… This is why, in the public policy arena, we will continue to oppose any policy or action that would celebrate or affirm homosexual conduct.

… There is no contradiction between Christian compassion and a call for holy living. But the life which is holy [from a spiritual perspective] or even healthy [from a secular perspective] requires abstinence from homosexual conduct. We would do no one a favor if we ceased to proclaim that truth.

I remember as a kid in the segregated south hearing people argue that African-Americans had an agenda to take over; that they were constitutionally less intelligent; that they were immoral; that they were criminals; that they needed to be "kept in their place." Those were the hypotheses of the Ku Klux Klan and were widely held ideas. While integration hasn’t ended racism, one doesn’t hear that kind of crazy argument anymore. No one with any sense would listen to it.

And so Tony Perkins is becoming marginalized much more quickly than he might have imagined. Even the Religious Right is becoming a tired metaphor. We just don’t hear much about it these days, even here in the Appalachian Rupublitopia. It’s about time. The timeline for movements based on hate is short. They call attention to the hated group, and in the process begin to desensitize people. Sooner or later, their reasons for hate begin to crumble – ideas like Gay recruitment, or defaming the institution of marriage begin to sound kind of silly. And then it finally becomes apparent that the purveyors of the hatred are themselves hateful.

I suspect that few, if any, such bullies are people who regularly attend church, and I would not be surprised if most of the "bullies" did not have the positive benefit of both an active mom and dad in their lives. Religious faith and a return to traditional family values are more likely to be a solution to the problem of bullying than a cause.