Readers may have already seen this op-ed by Soulforce Executive Director Jeff Lutes cialis online. It’s ironic that William Jennings Bryan so strenuously opposed eugenics and Mohler now seems a proponent…
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A Baptist leader says we’re ‘equally made in the image of God.’ Yet he usurps God’s authority when he advocates eliminating gays
By Jeff Lutes
Religion News Service
I have fond memories of growing up in my Southern Baptist church in Lexington, Ky. My father was a deacon, my mother taught Sunday school for 14 years, and — like all good Southern Baptists — we attended services on Wednesday nights and twice on Sunday. Several of our church leaders graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in nearby Louisville.
As a result, I was horrified — as all fair-minded Americans should be — to read the recent comments of Albert Mohler, the current president of that seminary and a board member of Focus on the Family.
In his blog on March 2, Mohler explores the mounting body of scientific research suggesting that sexual orientation is shaped by biological factors. In doing so, he alludes to the Religious Right’s slow and reluctant concession that sexual orientation is an innate human characteristic, not a behavioral choice. The argument that homosexuality is simply a behavioral issue is the foundation for the Religious Right’s arguments against equal civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans.
Mohler goes on to state, “If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is developed, and if successful treatment to reverse sexual orientation to heterosexual is developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin.”
Later he adds, “We can and must insist that no scientific finding can change the basic sinfulness of all homosexual behavior.”
Translation: Straight people have a “sexual orientation” — LGBT people, even in utero, have a “sinful temptation.”
Despite the overwhelming body of empirical evidence, policy statements from all the major mental health associations and the living testimonies of grace, love, and faithfulness displayed by LGBT people, Mohler and his friends remain unrepentantly determined to stand by their bigotry and love us into extinction.
Mohler acknowledges that we all “are equally made in the image of God.” Yet he usurps the Creator’s authority with the audacity to advocate eliminating — or at least altering — the existence of future LGBT people. Such are the dangerous tenets of fundamentalist ideology, and they should scare all of us to death.
Fair-minded Americans often make the serious mistake of dismissing fundamentalists. They fail to realize that all but a handful of the state campaigns to ban civil marriage for gay couples were led by Focus on the Family’s “Family Policy Councils” — with Mohler sitting on the Board of Directors — as part of the gay-bashing fundamentalist vision to “reclaim America for Christ” and eventually write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution.
Rather than participate in the distraction of the same old tired debate about gays being sick, sinful or second-class citizens, let’s start a new and long overdue conversation in America. We need to be asking: What are the symptoms of a sick religion, and what should Americans do to resist it?
To start, let’s stop giving preachers a pass when they claim that LGBT people are “a threat” to children, marriage, the family, or Western civilization itself. Let’s stand up in the pews in an act of peaceful protest when they abuse the pulpit to destroy the spirits of gays and lesbians. Let’s not be afraid to call a lie a lie when they distort social science research to promote discrimination against LGBT parents.
As Americans, let’s awake from our apathy and realize that the false anti-gay teachings of fundamentalist Christianity are responsible for breeding the fear and misunderstanding that leads directly to discrimination and destroyed lives.
It’s time we as Americans confront the primary source of anti-gay discrimination in America: religion-based bigotry. We must reclaim our own faith and steadfastly refuse to allow fundamentalists to act as if they speak for all people of faith or all Christians.
Mohler does not own a copyright on the Bible or a patent on Christianity. He possesses no monopoly on a relationship with God.
Fundamentalists like Mohler are not evil, but we must resist the evil they do. We must help them understand the immorality and tragic consequences of their destructive campaigns against the very existence of LGBT people. Lives — and souls — depend on it.
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Sometimes I feel like the best thing that happened to me last year was being diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes. When I was in college, I was running 6-minute miles, bench-pressing 200 pounds, and even ran a couple marathons… but I never really knew how to eat properly. Why worry about it? I knew I’d burn off all those calories in the long run.
Once I turned 30, however, things kind of went south… and life has a way of catching up with our lousy lifestyle habits. I still smoked (started when I was in the Marines)… was never able to quit for longer than two years (now it’s been about six months). I still ate all the *bad* stuff… I’m a sucker for Mexican and Italian. And I lost the exercise bug years ago.
My diagnosis helped me start to turn things around… especially in the most recent months (the doctor gave me a kick in the keester when he put me on cholesterol medication… UGH! I’m on medication for high cholesterol! At 40!). Anyway… I exercise… for me that means I walk at least a mile every day. And I’ve FINALLY started watching what I eat again.
Since Christmas, I’ve lost nearly 25 pounds (definitely won’t be satisfied until I lost another 30) and am going to have to buy a new belt soon because I’m on the last hole and it’s starting to feel loose again.
I don’t feel disgusted looking in the mirror anymore… well not ALWAYS… but it’s such an improvement!
It’s still an uphill slog… I have the worst sweet tooth in the world! And I’m sorry… but sugar-free ice cream JUST doesn’t cut it.
But I know now that I’ll get there… just have to keep plugging away at it.
Over the last decade, I knew I wasn’t taking care of myself… but there always seemed to be a reason to put change off for another day. I remember sometimes asking myself what it was going to take for me to get serious about my physical health.
It really is true that sometimes those things that feel like curses turn out to be blessings in disguise.
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Note to readers: This post was made BEFORE Don Imus’ firing from MSNBC and CBS Radio. In light of his removal, Gov. Richardson’s “get out of jail free” card seems that much more objectionable.
What’s worse, “fag” from a conservative political hack or “maricon” from a Democratic presidential candidate? NEITHER! They’re both reprehensible and juvenile.
In light of the flap surrounding Anne Coulter’s recent “faggot” comment about John Edwards, I would have thought that Governor Richardson might see the reasonableness of holding himself to a higher standard of decorum and consider apologizing for his own similar remarks.
During a March 29, 2006 appearance on the “Imus in the Morning” radio show, Governor Richardson used the Spanish variant of “faggot” to demean a staff member of the show (after encouragement from Don Imus). He may have felt this was a joking matter at the time. I disagree: using words of derogation like “maricon” under any circumstances is demeaning to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people—and is certainly not a laughing matter. Here’s the clip:
http://mediamatters.org/static/dropbox/imus-032906-richardson.mov
P.S. Governor Richardson, for future reference, “maricon” means “faggot”!
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I could be wrong, but this CitizenLink article from FOTF seems an important piece.
Mr. Minnery seems almost brazen in associating racial and ethnic “tolerance” with “moral” issues, especially coming on the heels of the recent publication (then retraction) of a blatantly racist piece on the NARTH website (see SLPC article below).
Our friends at FOTF and NARTH are helping to illuminate the interrelatedness of a whole HOST of issues… immigration, racism, economic justice, feminism… in addition to LGBT justice issues.
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Consider the following key paragraphs:
He said… there’s a lesson to be learned from nations that have seen a moral decline rooted in the country’s drift toward multiculturalism and tolerance. Social battles of the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s were lost, because they were fought feebly.
“In a book called ‘Londonistan,’ ” he told the group, “author Melanie Phillips, a columnist for the London Daily Mail, discusses the reasons why the terrorists responsible for attacks such as the ones that occurred on 9/11 are comfortable living in London. It is because the courts have determined that all moral judgments between lifestyles are nothing more than discrimination. All minorities over the years have become victim groups.”
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http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000004029.cfm
Principles Protect the Fabric of Society
by Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor
State leaders discuss the impact of pro-family work.
Pro-family leaders from across America are gathered at Focus on the Family this week to discuss the importance of strengthening the nation’s social fabric through grassroots activism.
Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy for Focus on the Family Action, said “the stakes are high, the threats are real, but the opportunities are tremendous” for conservative leaders.
Speaking to the group, Minnery held up his favorite striped rugby shirt. After a spaghetti spill, the had wiped he shirt clean with bleach. It removed the stains, but over time, three large gaping holes appeared. The fabric had been weakened.
He said, in a corresponding fashion, there’s a lesson to be learned from nations that have seen a moral decline rooted in the country’s drift toward multiculturalism and tolerance. Social battles of the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s were lost, because they were fought feebly.
For more, click on the following link:
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000004029.cfm
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Next, this important essay from the Southern Poverty Law Center…
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=84
Essay by promoter of “ex-gay” movement sparks racism charges
by Brentin Mock
Oct. 6, 2006 — A prominent member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is under fire for publishing an essay in which he argues that Africans were fortunate to have been sold into slavery, and the civil rights movement was “irrational.”
“There is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America,” writes Gerald Schoenewolf, a member of NARTH’s Science Advisory Committee. “Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle… Life there was savage … and those brought to America, and other countries, were in many ways better off.”
NARTH is a coalition of psychologists who believe it’s possible to “cure” homosexuality, a position rejected by the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. The controversy over Schoenewolf’s apology for slavery has battered the so-called “ex-gay” movement with accusations of racial bigotry for the first time. The movement’s leaders and their close allies at Christian Right powerhouses like Focus on the Family have failed to condemn Schoenwolf’s inflammatory arguments.
Titled “Gay Rights and Political Correctness: A Brief History,” Schoenewolf’s angry polemic was published on NARTH’s website. In addition to his outrageous historical claims about the conditions of life in Africa, he writes that human rights proponents are intellectually stunted. (Schoenewolf draws upon Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized four stages of intellectual development, with the most advanced stage consisting of abstract and complex thinking. “[F]ollowers in the Human Rights Movement,” have not reached this stage, according to Schoenewolf.)
Schoenewolf, a psychotherapist who lives in New York City, is director of The Living Center, an online therapy center for people in the arts. He has authored 14 books, among them The Art of Hating, in which he writes, “Many people talk about hate, but few know how to hate well.”
When interviewed last week for this article, Schoenewolf stood by his comments on the intellectual inferiority of civil rights movement supporters. “The civil rights movement has from the beginning and today seen itself as good and others are evil, like slaveowners are evil,” he said.
During the interview, Schoenewolf lambasted civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights. “All such movements are destructive,” he said. He also claimed the American Psychological Association, of which he is a member, “has been taken over by extremist gays.”
Schoenewolf’s essay first appeared on NARTH’s website in the fall of 2005, but apparently went unnoticed by critics until mid-September, around the time the executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a black gay and lesbian advocacy organization, delivered to NARTH a formal letter of protest.
“In the name of propriety, respect, common decency and professional integrity, the National Black Justice Coalition strongly urges NARTH to issue a public apology on the front page of its website for publishing such an outrageous and offensive article,” wrote H. Alexander Robinson. “We also hope that you reevaluate your relationship with Dr. Schoenewolf, whose peculiar views have no place in civilized discourse.”
Then, in late September, the gay rights group Truth Wins Out called on Focus on the Family to cancel a speaking appearance by NARTH executive director Joseph Nicolosi scheduled for a Focus on the Family conference held September 23 in Palm Springs, Calif.
Nicolosi appeared as planned. But the Schoenewolf essay was erased from NARTH’s website the same day as the Focus on the Family conference. Then, on October 6, NARTH posted this statement to its website: “NARTH regrets the comments made by Dr. Schoenwolf about slavery which have been misconstrued by some of our readers. It should go without saying that we do not wish to minimize the suffering of those who have been mistreated because of race, sex, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.” The statement makes no mention of the civil rights movement.
Nicolosi has yet to publicly address the future of Schoenewolf’s relationship with NARTH. He also did not respond to multiple voice mail messages and E-mails seeking comment for this article. Michael Haley, manager of Focus on the Family’s homosexuality and gender department, likewise did not respond. Calls and E-mails to Focus on the Family press managers went unanswered.
For now, Schoenewolf remains a member of NARTH’s Science Advisory Committee. This committee has “the authority of opinion and the authority of their recommendations,” over what is published by NARTH, according to former committee member David Blakeslee, who resigned in protest over the Schoenewolf essay Sept. 29.
“Whenever a scientific organization speaks inaccurately about science and conflates it with politics, the general public can be significantly misled and harmed,” he wrote in his letter of resigation.
Interviewed by the Report, Blakeslee added: “Schoenewolf’s article was so over the line that it justifiably outraged a number of people.”
Even so, other NARTH members have leapt to Schoenewolf’s defense on the organization’s official blog, whose administrator, “Sojourneer,” summed up the outcry over the essay as “lies and distortion, in an attempt to discredit Narth [sic] and Dr. Shoenewolf [sic].”
“Just because Schoenewolf said some good can come out of a bad situation [slavery] does not make him a racist,” the NARTH administrator wrote. “It was just his opinion and does not reflect Narth’s [sic] position on the topic.”
So what exactly is NARTH’s position on equal rights for non-whites? On the NARTH website, the section marked “NARTH and Civil Rights” states: “It is NARTH’s position that science, not activism, should inform legal decisions and public policies,” a position that could easily be read to support Schoenewolf’s hostility towards the civil rights movement. NARTH’s position statement is particularly ironic in light of the organization’s close relationship with Focus on the Family, which clearly engages in political activism.
Blakeslee isn’t the only NARTH supporter to sever ties with the organization over its failure to denounce Schoenewolf.
“This was a slam dunk. They should have said, ‘These are not our views.’ People have asked them to clarify what they meant by this and [instead] they’ve in fact defended it,” says Warren Throckmorton, a professor of psychology at Grove City College and a former member of NARTH.
Before the Schoenewolf controversy, Throckmorton was slated to present at NARTH’s annual conference in November in Orlando, Fla. Now, he’s pulled out, and wants nothing to do with the group.
“This stuff about political correctness and slavery is very far outfield,” he said. “I’m appalled by it, and a lot of people within NARTH are as well, but they don’t have the authority to speak out on it. And those who do have the authority aren’t.”
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