Framing the Debate

Harry Hay is the founder of gay liberation. In 1950, he started the underground Mattachine Society, the first modern gay-rights organization. It took its name from a dance, les Mattachines, that groups of unmarried men performed in France during the Renaissance. According to Hay's 1996 book, Radically Gay, the performances of these fraternities satirized religious and political power.

Harry Hay was one of the first to insist that lesbians and gay men deserve equality. And he placed their fight in the context of a wider political movement. "In order to earn for ourselves any place m the sun, we must with perseverance and self-discipline work collectively ... for the first-class citizenship of Minorities everywhere, including ourselves," he wrote in 1950.
Harry Hay - gay activist - Interview

Hay, by appealing to Kinsey's discredited 1948 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male invented the myth that 10% of our population is gay. Then starting in about 1957 closeted gay psychiatrists devised a plan to take control of the American Psychiatric Associtation (APA). While the APA denies the truth of this statement, the facts are documented in Dr. Satinover's "Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth" and the NPR broacast 81 Words. Gay activists and many members of the APA will take umbrage at this accusation, however:

NEW YORK — The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians, a step that gay-rights activists hope will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation.

Such efforts _ often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy _ are considered futile and harmful by many gay-rights activists. Conservative groups defend the right to offer such treatment, and say people with their viewpoint have been excluded from the review panel.

A six-member task force set up by the APA has its first meeting beginning next Tuesday.
Psychologists to Review Stance on Gays

WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The recently created "Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation", which is part of the American Psychological Association (APA), has appointed five openly gay activists to monitor clients who want to overcome their homosexual tendencies.

The APA's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Concerns Office requested that the task force be created, asking clinicians to submit qualified names for job positions. In response, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) compiled a list of doctors and professors for the new committee. Despite the high qualifications of these professionals, a recent NARTH press release stated that all of them were rejected by APA president Dr. Sharon Stephens Brehm.
APA Appoints Gay Activists to Monitor Homosexual Reorientation Therapy

The APA's decision to exclude qualified psychiatrists and psychologists who are involved in counseling those with unwanted same sex desires confirms what I have written since appointing gay members to review counseling options is like buying a fox to guard the hen house.

The lastest way to frame the debate is with science. Since 1993 when Dean Hamer published his research on a possible genetic link to homosexuality the media has jumped on a "gay gene" to advance its liberal bias. However:

Simon LeVay, Ph.D., stated in a 1994 interview that appears in an article entitled "Sexual Brain" published in Discover (Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 64-67):

    "It's important to stress what I didn't find. I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn't show that gay men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain."
    1994 Simon LeVay

Brian S. Mustanski, Ph.D., stated in a January 27, 2005 University of Illinois at Chicago news release about his article "A Genomewide Scan of Male Sexual Orientation" in Human Genetics (Vol. 116, No. 4, pp. 272-278):

    "There is no one 'gay' gene. Sexual orientation is a complex trait, so it's not surprising that we found several DNA regions involved in its expression.

    Our best guess is that multiple genes, potentially interacting with environmental influences, explain differences in sexual orientation.

    Our study helps to establish that genes play an important role in determining whether a man is gay or heterosexual."
    2005 Brian Mustansk
Q: Is there a "gay" gene?

Genes do not code for thoughts, feelings, or behavior, but rather code for proteins that regulate and modulate biological systems. Although promising work has been done searching for the biological bases of individual differences it is possible to sketch out these bases only in the broadest of terms. Specific neurotransmitters and brain structures can be associated with a broad class of approach behaviors and positive affects while other neurotransmitters and structures can be associated with a similarly broad class of avoidance behaviors and negative affects. Reports relating specific alleles to specific personality traits emphasize that the broad personality traits are most likely under polygenic influence and are moderated by environmental experience.
The Personality Project: Theories

In as much as Dean Hamer and others who claim a genetic link to same sex desires also qualify there assertion by adding other factors such as environment, culture, and personality influence sexual orientation they are in fact admitting there is no sound science that shows same sex desires are inborn and therefore unchangeable.

So the question for Conservative Christians is how should we frame the debate?

Matthew 10:38-39
38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 "He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it. NAS

Luke 14:25-35
25 Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 "Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying,' This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 "Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. 33 "So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. 34 "Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? 35 "It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." NAS

In his book "Desires in Conflict", Joe Dallas advises any person entering upon an ex-gay journey to count the cost as well as define why you want to change. I echo Joe's advise since far to many men and women have tried to "change" their desires because of family, societal, or peer pressure only to find their desires win the battle. However, if your reasons to "change" are the result of deeply held religious beliefs you can "overcome". This is not to say your desires will be totally eliminated or that you will "change" from gay to straight. This means you will choose a life that is pleasing to God and this can mean a life of peaceful celibacy since as Jesus said:

Matthew 19:11-12
11 But He said to them, "Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it." NAS

Gay theology frames the debate by appealing to psychology, denying that Scripture judges behavior, interpreting Scriptures that prohibit same sex sexual relationships as applying only to those born straight who engage in homosexual activity, and insist that "love your nieghbor" can mean intimate, monogamous same sex relationships. Therefore, we need to take an indepth look at the Scriptures that deal with homosexuality, which I do here.

On my links page I have included links to articles that discuss the APA and gay activism and other information pertinate to framing the debate. I also invite those who disagree with me to discuss what I have written by clicking the banner to my forum, which is at the bottom of this page.