The Myths of Homosexuality
by Dr. Phil Stringer (Florida)
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope,
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;"
(Titus 2:11-3)
MYTH 1:
Homosexuality is genetic.
This is the most common myth regarding homosexuality. Homosexual activists
work tirelessly at spreading this myth. It is interesting to note that the very
people who want to proclaim homosexuality as "good" do not want to
admit that they chose the homosexual lifestyle.
Large numbers of scientific studies have been undertaken to discover the
cause of homosexuality. No reliable study has concluded that there is any
genetic cause for homosexuality. Dr. Charles Wahl, a researcher in this area,
said, "The vast preponderance of evidence clearly indicates that
homosexuality is a learned disorder and is not genetically inherited."
Homosexual activists are fond of quoting a few "scientific studies"
conducted by homosexual activists which are said to indicate the possibility of
genetic factors relating to homosexuality. Despite the fact that these studies
were conducted by activists without academic qualifications, without normal
guidelines and control groups, and without observation or verification of
results, activists are quick to accept them and promote their purported results.
The news media and some politicians are also quick to accept these studies
and quote them as if they are proven scientific facts. The truth is, these
studies are based more upon wishful thinking than any scientific results.
In fact, homosexuals are heterosexuals who have twisted God’s purpose for
them. Homosexuality is a behavior, not a genetic condition.
The Bible declares that rebellion against God and His moral code are the
basis for homosexuality. The vast majority of homosexuals are the victims of
homosexual abuse or homosexual manipulation in their childhood or teen years.
How a person responds to such perversion determines how they will develop. Some
respond in such a way as to free themselves from these bonds. Others give in to
them completely.
The influence of this myth is so great that many professing Christians are
starting to believe it. Rather than simply asking what the Bible says, or
questioning the purported evidence, they respond to the subtle pressure of
having heard this myth repeated so often. However, the testimony of Scripture is
clear in refuting this myth.
MYTH 2:
Ten percent of the American population is homosexual.
This oft-repeated myth is based upon a statement in Alfred Kinsey’s 1948
book Sexual Behavior in the American Male. One reference in one book has
resulted in this widespread myth. Actually, even the statement is misquoted from
this work. Kinsey actually stated that four percent of the male population is
homosexual. He goes on to suggest that an additional six percent may try
homosexuality and eventually reject it. Furthermore, Kinsey’s study was based
upon his interview with people who had volunteered to participate in a
"sexuality study." This was hardly a representative group of society
as a whole.
A 1989 National Opinion Research Center study concluded that less than one
percent of America’s population was homosexual (with perhaps another one
percent being described as bisexual). A 1993 study by the Alan Guttmacher
Institute (funded by $1.8 million tax dollars) also concluded that about one
percent of American males were homosexual with an additional one percent having
experimented with homosexuality. Similar studies in Britain, Canada, Denmark,
France, and Norway have also come up with the one-percent figure.
MYTH 3:
Homosexuality is just another sexual orientation and does not
affect other areas of life.
Homosexuals regularly engage in parades and demonstrations. Routinely these
parades include public nudity, sex acts committed in public, and the promotion
of abusive sexual behaviors and sexual abuse of children. The participants are
not just promoting a "different sexual orientation" or crusading for
their civil rights; they are seeking approval of their acts and even encouraging
expanded participation, demanding, in fact, an "anything-goes"
society.
The behavior of these homosexual demonstrators are reminiscent of the
homosexual demonstrators of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Gibeah in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 3:8-9 speaks to such public displays of wickedness:
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and
their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9 The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare
their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have
rewarded evil unto themselves.
While homosexual leaders want to convince the general public that they are as
normal as this myth would suggest, their methods communicate the opposite.
MYTH 4:
Homosexuals do not recruit.
This myth is based upon myth one -- the idea that homosexuality is genetic.
The truth is that homosexuality is chosen. No one is born homosexual, and so
either all homosexuals must volunteer or be recruited (either directly or
indirectly). There are only two ways to recruit someone into homosexuality:
either force them, or persuade them. Since children are easier to both force
and/or persuade, they are most often the prime targets of homosexual
recruitment.
Although homosexuals account for only one to two percent of the population,
they are responsible for 50% of the acts of child molestation (Dr. Brad Hoyton,
the Homosexual Agenda). One survey by two homosexual authors found that 73% of
homosexuals had at least one experience with a teenager or child.
The Boy Scouts of America have wisely refused to allow homosexuals to be
scout leaders understanding that men in such positions would be with boys on
campouts, etc. Homosexual activists attack the organization, accuse them of hate
crimes, and otherwise try to destroy them legally. President Bill Clinton
publicly snubs them, but sensible, concerned parents applaud them for not caving
in to political pressure and the "politically correct" myths of the
day.
MYTH 5:
Homosexuals are a persecuted minority.
No homosexual publication, speech, demonstration, interview, or protest is
complete without the customary complaint that homosexuals are victims of a
discriminatory society. Vague references to violent hate crimes always follow
this comment. This myth is told by activists to hide the truth: that the
homosexual movement is an aggressive, militant movement designed to gain power
and influence (by intimidation if necessary). The militant homosexual movement
demands special rights, tax-payer funding to spread their messages, and the
force of big government to make everyone approve of them.
Deep down inside, under all their bravado and public bluster, homosexuals
still feel wicked, different, and bizarre. They think that if they can just get
the government to declare them "normal," they will feel better; then
they want government to force people to accept them as normal. They want
government-imposed acceptance of homosexuality forced upon employers, schools,
churches, and society in general. But, normal people do not need the full force
of government power to make people accept them as normal. Deep down inside,
"gays" know that government force is their only hope of being treated
as the normal human beings that they know they really are not.
The real question here is simple: is there any room left in American society
for individuals to decide for themselves? Can we make judgements based upon our
religious convictions or personal opinions, or must we blindly accept a moral
code handed to us by the government?
Public decency laws are not waived every time a "victimized"
minority wants to have a parade. Law enforcement officials do not blindly look
the other way when a "victimized" minority firebombs a parsonage (When
the Wicked Seize a City by Charles Donna McIlheny) or when churches are attacked
while having services (several examples in 1993 and 1994). "Victimized
minorities" are not openly praised by the President of the United States;
"victimized minorities" are not promoted by all four major television
networks.
The truth is that the militant homosexual movement receives more cooperation
from the cultural forces shaping our society than any other group, but in their
conscience they still do not feel normal, and most of society still does not
accept them as normal.
MYTH 6:
Homosexuals cannot change.
Despite all the liberal propaganda to the contrary, many organizations are
successfully helping homosexuals abandon that lifestyle. Groups like Harvest and
Exodus International are having a major impact. There are many others. These
groups have to deal with hate campaigns form the homosexual activists and
negative publicity from mainstream media.
John Freeman, Executive Director of Harvest describes his ministry to
homosexuals in this excerpt from World magazine, March 6, 1993:
Many homosexuals are essentially saying, "I didn’t choose this and
it is unfair of you to ask me to change," Freeman notes. Homosexuality is
symptomatic of deeper things, he says, and Harvest tries to go to the roots.
In Bible studies, participants examine anger, bitterness, rejection, fear, and
envy. Unless something shakes a person out, someone who starts into the
homosexual lifestyle is there for life, and will often accept "gay
theology." According to Freeman, gay theology says: "God loves you
and accepts you just the way you are, so there is no need to change."
Gay theology usually has three appeals, Freeman notes: to feeling instead
of Scripture, to fatalism, and to individual rights. Those appeals are backed
up with the following arguments: I feel this way. I’m gay now; I’ll always
be gay; or I have the right to express my sexuality any way I want to, no
matter what God said.
People who follow the "once gay always gay" belief usually do not
look at the choices in life, Freeman said. People are rarely consciously aware
of when they started feeling same-sex attractions, but when actions are traced
through the years, small choices began to accumulate.
Freeman struggled with homosexuality himself and lived a gay lifestyle
until he became a Christian in his 20's through the help of some Christian men
"who modeled to me what a Christian man is all about." Freeman later
married; he and his wife now have three children.
Homosexuals who come to Harvest are asked, "Why are you here?"
One of the most frequent answers is: "I want to be like everybody
else." That usually means being married and having a family."
MYTH 7:
The health dangers to homosexuals are the fault of the
administrations of Presidents Reagan and Bush.
• The average age of men dying with AIDS is 39.
• The average age of death for all homosexual males is 41.
• Only one percent of homosexuals live to age 65.
• Homosexual women are 19 times more likely to get venereal disease
than non-homosexual women.
• Seventy-eight percent of homosexuals report having had at least one
sexually transmitted disease.
• Male homosexuals are 5,000 times more likely to contract AIDS than
heterosexuals.
Homosexual literature and speeches are replete with statements placing the
blame for all of these health dangers on Ronald Reagan and George Bush. "If
they had only cared," we are told, "this would hot have happened. They
could have prevented all this if they would only have spent money on AIDS
research. If they had only used the Presidency to promote homosexual health
education, they could have prevented all this."
The facts are quite different. The Reagan and Bush administrations spent more
money on research and treatment of AIDS (per patient afflicted) than on any
other disease. The sex education information that the activists wanted them to
spread simply is not true -- it reflects a fantasy world view with no medical or
scientific basis.
While the recognition of the disease AIDS is new, the recognition of the
health hazards of homosexuality is not. The state laws (which did exists in all
50 states) were based upon the threat of homosexuality to public health. When
you use the body in a fashion for which it was never designed by its Designer,
the body is wrecked and ruined. Objective observers have long realized that
homosexuality is a health hazard.
Homosexuals are responsible for the health dangers to the homosexual
community. The attempts to blames all of this on Presidents Reagan and Bush is
only the most irresponsible of fantasies.
MYTH 8:
Homosexuals are very careful and selective about their
partners.
Those who have been concerned about forcing military personnel to share
barracks, close living quarters, and showers with homosexuals are always assured
that homosexuals are very selective about choosing partners. This idea, however,
exists only in the liberal fantasy world. Studies show that homosexuals average
between 20 and 100 partners each year, 300 to 500 partners in a lifetime. It is
no wonder that disease is transmitted at an incredible rate. Homosexual
practices are as unsanitary as they are disgusting, and they communicate
diseases among a large number of partners.
CONCLUSION
Homosexuality is one of the most hotly contested battlegrounds of the Culture
War. In order to promote homosexuality, homosexual activists have had to resort
to vain deceit, myths, and intimidation. Homosexuality is the ultimate example
of an individual or society in rebellion against God.
Dr. Phil Stringer is Executive Vice President of Landmark
Baptist College, Haines City, Florida
