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July 7, 2005 Gay issues are once again in the news, here is my take. I've broken this into four chunks: religion, science, ethics and impact on politics/public policy. Point 1: there is no such thing as a “true Christian” What is a True Christian, and what does Christianity stand for? Nobody knows! There is no approval committee which decides these things. For many, God speaks directly to their hearts. The trouble is, he speaks to many people, and although he doesn't tend to speak in words, he does tend to “tell” different people different things. For most Christians worldwide, it's a truth that the Bible is not to be taken literally. Indeed, an honest literal translation shows that the world is flat. For some vocal American forms of the faith, however, it is to be taken mostly literally. According to some of these “literal” sects, God indeed does seem to have a problem with homosexuals. But he also has a problem with fat people and folks which divorce, and with women handling money and he seems to be ok with slavery. It's funny that the attack against gays and gay marriage often resolves to fundamentalism, yet is cast as merely, “defending marriage” for the consumption of most Americans. Why not just fight to ban divorce if the protection of marriage is the goal? Because that would be less popular politically, of course. Even within the “literal” community, Christians cannot agree about even the most basic of tenets. Overall, Christians cannot agree whether or not Jesus was God or just the Son of God or both. They cannot agree what is involved to get to heaven, or how many get to go. The cannot agree on the existence of Hell, and for those that accept Hell, they can't agree on its nature. For some it's temporary, for others it's permanent, for still others it's simply “separation from God”, with no detail about what that entails. Each and every faith can provide Bible quotes and theological evidence to back up their various positions; indeed, theological debates are as non-ending as political debates, and are often much more heated. Recently a Christian church put their stamp of approval on homosexuality, other Christian faiths have dabbled with the “blessing of same sex unions”. Does anyone doubt that some of these folks feel God in their hearts? I'm an atheist, yet I know folks of many different faiths, and I can honestly say that they each believe what they believe. We can say, not dishonestly, that Christianity allows homosexuality. And we can honestly say that Christianity disallows homosexuality. Point 2: the science What does science tell us? Science doesn't know the whole story, but it knows this much. First off, homosexuality is not a disease. Second, there is no conclusive evidence of a genetic link to homosexuality. This means that folks are not born gay, but it also means that gays which have children aren't any more likely to produce gay children than straight people. Third, we know that homosexuality isn't a choice, that it's more or less fixed by age 8. Biology may play a role, but we don't know how much is natural and how much is societal. The latter is tricky, because there have always been gays, going back to early recorded history. In other words, it's not MTV or gay media which turns 8 year old children gay. Nor is it sensitive children, or children who don't like sports, or children which choose non-traditional male activities. It may be a particular combination of factors affecting hormones, common for all humans anywhere and anywhen. We also have many examples of natural homosexual behavior in other parts of the animal kingdom. Bonobos and elephants, for example. We will always have a certain percentage of gays. “Fixing” them to be something they are not is pseudoscience at best, and religious abuse at worst. Point 3: ethics It's ironic that the same extremist fundamentalist sects which fought civil rights are now fighting the advancement of gay rights. It's scary that these same groups now want to merge with the government. Bush spoke at Bob Jones University when he was campaigning – at the time, Bob Jones still had a rule against interracial dating. It shames me to be an American knowing that our president gave this “school” the time of day. In 30 years, will you be embarrassed that you supported discrimination, or will you stand proud as someone who truly abhors discrimination, and accepts science into reasoning, even when faith is involved? Will you tell your grandchildren that you looked the other way when it came to discrimination because you wanted to advance other policy, such as low tax rates? We were one of the last nations to get rid of slavery – this is an eternal stain in our history. Should we make the same mistake again? It's time for politically left-leaning Christians to stand up and declare that 'Bob Jones Christians' don't represent Christianity as a whole (indeed according to the numbers, they do not). They represent division and all things bad about America. It's obvious they can't be humble and self-reflective about their faith, so perhaps it's time to simply shout louder. Point 4: The impact on public policy/politics Simply put, given that science tells us that homosexuality isn't a worry, and given that we live in a secular and pluralistic nation, the opinions of a few sects of Christianity shouldn't weigh more than the opinions of other sects of Christianity or those without faith or different faiths when the discussion affects us all. First, lets play a numbers game. Lets say our society has 20 people, 2 of which are gay males. If those two find each other and hook up, it in no way prevents the rest of them from hooking up and living happy, married, lives. Given that all societies have norms, if we don't discriminate against those two gays, they are likely to behave as the rest of that society does, meaning, they will not be promiscuous by default. It would seem that any person which derives their morality from Christian teachings would want to have gays incorporated into society. Certainly humanism abhors this kind of “racism”, with its clear negative consequences. Second, I think a good argument can be made that it was in fact straight men, forcing gays into the closet, which has lead to the so called “gay lifestyle” of promiscuity. Likewise, it will take the majority to accept this minority and thereby, fix any negativity associated with gays. Marriage is not in danger, and homosexuality can't spread by heredity or other influence. This would be a real fix, which would allow more of us to pursue happiness. Third, this is a secular nation. We shouldn't ban beef just because the Hindu's think it's sacred, we shouldn't close down health clinics just because the Christian Scientists believe germs don't exist, and we shouldn't discriminate against gays just because a few racist politically motivated Christians pretend to speak for all Americans. This should appeal to not just Liberals, but also Christian Democrats, moderate Republicans, pragmatic conservative Republicans, and Libertarians of all stripes. Libertarians are all about personal freedom and liberty – do anything you want, as long as no one else gets hurt within the confines of the Constitution. Otherwise non-racist Conservative Christians should also take note and make sure they aren't being coerced to one political party by one key wedge-issue. History is full of this type of religious control by those with non-pious ambitions. For this group I recommend skepticism. [ “Skeptical scrutiny is
the means, in both science and religion, by which deep
insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.” -- Carl
Sagan]
Surely most of us, Christian or not, don't desire a nanny-state, where the personal practices of what we do in our own bedroom is up for legislation! That sounds like big government [brother] of the worst kind. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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