Bryan Fischer
SPLC's ten "myths" about homosexuality turn out to be ten truths
By Bryan Fischer
Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the American Family Association to its list of "hate" groups, lumping pro-family groups like the AFA and the Family Research Group in with true hate groups such as the KKK.
The SPLC's attack on these groups is predicated on the fact that we tell the truth about homosexuality and oppose the normalization of homosexuality in any way, shape or form. What we are for is natural marriage and the historic "laws of Nature and Nature's God" on which this nation was founded. Because we are for natural marriage, we must oppose any attempt to give society's sanction to marriage counterfeits and aberrant forms of sexual expression.
In updating its list, the SPLC made a thoroughly lame attempt to discredit what they claim are ten "myths" about homosexuality that groups like AFA spread.
Unfortunately, what the SPLC calls "myths" about homosexuality turn out to be what neutral observers call "truths" about homosexuality. Below is the SPLC's "myth" list updated to what it truly is, a "truth" list about the reality of deviant sexuality.
TRUTH # 1
Homosexuals molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals.
Absolutely true. Homosexuals comprise perhaps two percent of the population, yet according to the Journal of Sex Research, homosexual pedophiles are responsible for 33% of all child sex offenses. Homosexuals molest children at at least 10 times the rate of heterosexuals.
TRUTH # 2
Same-sex parents harm children.
Research indicates that children raised by homosexuals experiment with sexually aberrant behaviors at a higher rate than children raised by heterosexuals and at earlier ages, and do worse, according to a 1996 study by an Austrian sociologist, in nine of 13 academic and social categories compared to children raised by heterosexual married couples.
A 2001 article in American Sociological Review reported that children raised by lesbians are more likely to engage in homosexual behavior and are "more sexually adventurous."
TRUTH # 3
People become homosexual because they were sexually abused as children or there was a deficiency in sex-role modeling by their parents.
Initial sexual experiences have a powerful imprinting affect on the psyche of young children. Being abused by a same-sex adult leaves a child enormously confused and conflicted about his own sexuality. And counselors have long observed a connection between distant fathers, overbearing mothers, and homosexual tendencies in males who grow up in such households.
TRUTH # 4
Homosexuals don't live nearly as long as heterosexuals.
According to an extensive study of the homosexual community in Vancouver, B.C., active participation in the homosexual lifestyle will rob an individual of a significant portion of his life span. Say the researchers, "[L]ife expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men." In fact, they observe that participation in the homosexual lifestyle knocks life expectancy for a Canadian male back to what it was in 1871.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that homosexuals are 50 to 60 times more likely to become infected with AIDS than other groups. AIDS, of course, is often a fatal disease and thus has a dramatic impact on life expectancy. We spend billions and billions of dollars trying to keep children from taking up cigarette smoking because it will shorten lifespans by six or seven years. If we're going to spend that kind of money, it's time we spend some of it to stop children from taking up homosexual behavior as a habit, and for the same reason: it will kill you.
TRUTH # 5
Homosexuals controlled the Nazi Party and helped to orchestrate the Holocaust.
William Shirer, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," said, "But (in) the brown-shirted S.A...many of its top leaders, beginning with its chief, Roehm, were notorious homosexual perverts." Shirer observes at another point that of the men gathered around Hitler, not 10% of them were sexually normal. According to historian Samuel Inga, the assassination of Roehm and his associates in 1934 was carried out by other homosexuals at Hitler's behest for the purpose of protecting Hitler from a possible political threat from Roehm and from possible public exposure of his own homosexual proclivities. Inga says the assassins "were all known to be sex perverts or sexual maniacs of one type or another."
According to noted German historian Lothar Machtan, Hitler's own homosexuality is a well-established fact. He was denied military promotions in WWI because of sexual deviancy, and was well-known to the Munich police in the 1920s as a practicing homosexual. He later carried on a raging love affair with his deputy, Rudolf Hess. Hitler persecuted homosexuals as a means of self-protection. Says Machtan, "'Hitler himself never condemned homosexuality, but he allowed the persecution of gays in order to disguise his own true colours."
Nazi hunter Elie Wiesel points out in his book Night that homosexuality and pedophilia were frequent practices of concentration camp guards. He said of the head of his own tent in Auschwitz that, "like the leader of the camp, he loved children." He adds parenthetically, "[T]here was considerable traffic in young children among homosexuals here."
TRUTH # 6
Hate crime laws will lead to the jailing of pastors who criticize homosexuality and the legalization of practices like bestiality and necrophilia.
A 74-year-old grandmother in Philadephia faced 47 years on prison for doing nothing more than standing on a public sidewalk and declaring the biblical truth about homosexuality during a gay pride parade. Street preachers in England have been arrested for doing the same thing. Pastor Ake Green of Sweden narrowly avoided a two-year prison sentence for teaching a biblical view of homosexuality in his own church from his own pulpit. The risk of going to jail for telling the truth about homosexuality is very real.
TRUTH # 7
Allowing homosexuals to serve openly would damage the armed forces.
One survey of active duty personnel revealed that 10% of them would definitely leave the armed services if homosexuals are allowed to serve, and another 14% would seriously consider it. You cannot lose almost a quarter of your officers and service members and not have it damage the military. The leaked Pentagon survey indicates that at least 30% of the active duty service members who returned the survey expect negative effects from lifting the ban. Only an intellectually blind and deaf individual would say this will have no deleterious affect on retention, recruitment and readiness. Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos has said quite publicly that virtually every Marine he has talked to opposes repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and he has said such a repeal will have a negative impact on "unit cohesion" and "combat effectiveness."
TRUTH # 8
Homosexuals are more prone to be mentally ill and to abuse drugs and alcohol.
Even the pro-homosexual Gay and Lesbian Medical Association admits that homosexuals "use substances at a higher rate than the general population," have "higher rates of alcohol dependence and abuse," and are subject to higher rates of "depression and anxiety." Homosexual activists attempt to blame homophobia for this, but the same trends are evident even in Scandinavian countries where homosexuality has received virtually unanimous societal approval for decades.
TRUTH # 9
No one is born a homosexual.
No researcher has ever even claimed to have discovered the "gay gene." And I'm convinced that homosexuals now don't want to find it even if it's there, for fear that advances in pre-natal genetic screening will lead to the systematic abortion of babies who carry the suspect genetic marker. They know what happens to Down syndrome babies in the womb. Even if there is some innate disposition toward homosexual behavior, no human being is compelled to yield to every sexual impulse he experiences. You can ask Tiger Woods about that. Homosexual behavior is always, always, a matter of choice.
TRUTH # 10
Gay people can choose to leave homosexuality.
When I pastored, happily married ex-homosexuals spoke in my church about their journey from homosexuality to heterosexuality. Change is clearly and without question possible. Even Dr. Robert Sptizer, who led the effort to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, now admits as much. Says Spitzer, "The changes following reparative therapy were not limited to sexual behavior and sexual orientation self-identity...(but) encompassed the core aspects of sexual orientation."
People leave the homosexual lifestyle every day, just like people stop abusing drugs and alcohol every day. Any addiction to a self-destructive behavior can be broken with determination accompanied by the right kind of spiritual and emotional support.
It's also worth noting that homosexual behavior is so dangerous and risky that the FDA — hardly a member of the vast, right-wing conspiracy — will not allow a male to donate blood if he has had sex even one time with another male in the last 33 years.
And the CDC — again, not a right-wing think tank — has found that of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the history of the epidemic, 91% of them got it either through having sex with other males or through injection drug abuse. Clearly, homosexual behavior is as dangerous to human health as shooting up with illicit drugs. No sane society should ever endorse and grant special rights and protections based on either kind of behavior.
Until the Southern Poverty Law Center adds the FDA and the CDC to its list of "hate" groups, there is no reason to think that either the AFA or the FRC belongs on that list. In point of fact, we are "truth" groups, not "hate" groups. And you can't go wrong telling people the truth about behavior that could destroy them. We're sticking with the FDA and the CDC on this one.
(For more information, be sure to read Peter Sprigg's excellent white paper, Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality, from which I have gleaned some key content for this column.)
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
November 26, 2010
Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the American Family Association to its list of "hate" groups, lumping pro-family groups like the AFA and the Family Research Group in with true hate groups such as the KKK.
The SPLC's attack on these groups is predicated on the fact that we tell the truth about homosexuality and oppose the normalization of homosexuality in any way, shape or form. What we are for is natural marriage and the historic "laws of Nature and Nature's God" on which this nation was founded. Because we are for natural marriage, we must oppose any attempt to give society's sanction to marriage counterfeits and aberrant forms of sexual expression.
In updating its list, the SPLC made a thoroughly lame attempt to discredit what they claim are ten "myths" about homosexuality that groups like AFA spread.
Unfortunately, what the SPLC calls "myths" about homosexuality turn out to be what neutral observers call "truths" about homosexuality. Below is the SPLC's "myth" list updated to what it truly is, a "truth" list about the reality of deviant sexuality.
TRUTH # 1
Homosexuals molest children at far higher rates than heterosexuals.
Absolutely true. Homosexuals comprise perhaps two percent of the population, yet according to the Journal of Sex Research, homosexual pedophiles are responsible for 33% of all child sex offenses. Homosexuals molest children at at least 10 times the rate of heterosexuals.
TRUTH # 2
Same-sex parents harm children.
Research indicates that children raised by homosexuals experiment with sexually aberrant behaviors at a higher rate than children raised by heterosexuals and at earlier ages, and do worse, according to a 1996 study by an Austrian sociologist, in nine of 13 academic and social categories compared to children raised by heterosexual married couples.
A 2001 article in American Sociological Review reported that children raised by lesbians are more likely to engage in homosexual behavior and are "more sexually adventurous."
TRUTH # 3
People become homosexual because they were sexually abused as children or there was a deficiency in sex-role modeling by their parents.
Initial sexual experiences have a powerful imprinting affect on the psyche of young children. Being abused by a same-sex adult leaves a child enormously confused and conflicted about his own sexuality. And counselors have long observed a connection between distant fathers, overbearing mothers, and homosexual tendencies in males who grow up in such households.
TRUTH # 4
Homosexuals don't live nearly as long as heterosexuals.
According to an extensive study of the homosexual community in Vancouver, B.C., active participation in the homosexual lifestyle will rob an individual of a significant portion of his life span. Say the researchers, "[L]ife expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men." In fact, they observe that participation in the homosexual lifestyle knocks life expectancy for a Canadian male back to what it was in 1871.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that homosexuals are 50 to 60 times more likely to become infected with AIDS than other groups. AIDS, of course, is often a fatal disease and thus has a dramatic impact on life expectancy. We spend billions and billions of dollars trying to keep children from taking up cigarette smoking because it will shorten lifespans by six or seven years. If we're going to spend that kind of money, it's time we spend some of it to stop children from taking up homosexual behavior as a habit, and for the same reason: it will kill you.
TRUTH # 5
Homosexuals controlled the Nazi Party and helped to orchestrate the Holocaust.
William Shirer, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," said, "But (in) the brown-shirted S.A...many of its top leaders, beginning with its chief, Roehm, were notorious homosexual perverts." Shirer observes at another point that of the men gathered around Hitler, not 10% of them were sexually normal. According to historian Samuel Inga, the assassination of Roehm and his associates in 1934 was carried out by other homosexuals at Hitler's behest for the purpose of protecting Hitler from a possible political threat from Roehm and from possible public exposure of his own homosexual proclivities. Inga says the assassins "were all known to be sex perverts or sexual maniacs of one type or another."
According to noted German historian Lothar Machtan, Hitler's own homosexuality is a well-established fact. He was denied military promotions in WWI because of sexual deviancy, and was well-known to the Munich police in the 1920s as a practicing homosexual. He later carried on a raging love affair with his deputy, Rudolf Hess. Hitler persecuted homosexuals as a means of self-protection. Says Machtan, "'Hitler himself never condemned homosexuality, but he allowed the persecution of gays in order to disguise his own true colours."
Nazi hunter Elie Wiesel points out in his book Night that homosexuality and pedophilia were frequent practices of concentration camp guards. He said of the head of his own tent in Auschwitz that, "like the leader of the camp, he loved children." He adds parenthetically, "[T]here was considerable traffic in young children among homosexuals here."
TRUTH # 6
Hate crime laws will lead to the jailing of pastors who criticize homosexuality and the legalization of practices like bestiality and necrophilia.
A 74-year-old grandmother in Philadephia faced 47 years on prison for doing nothing more than standing on a public sidewalk and declaring the biblical truth about homosexuality during a gay pride parade. Street preachers in England have been arrested for doing the same thing. Pastor Ake Green of Sweden narrowly avoided a two-year prison sentence for teaching a biblical view of homosexuality in his own church from his own pulpit. The risk of going to jail for telling the truth about homosexuality is very real.
TRUTH # 7
Allowing homosexuals to serve openly would damage the armed forces.
One survey of active duty personnel revealed that 10% of them would definitely leave the armed services if homosexuals are allowed to serve, and another 14% would seriously consider it. You cannot lose almost a quarter of your officers and service members and not have it damage the military. The leaked Pentagon survey indicates that at least 30% of the active duty service members who returned the survey expect negative effects from lifting the ban. Only an intellectually blind and deaf individual would say this will have no deleterious affect on retention, recruitment and readiness. Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos has said quite publicly that virtually every Marine he has talked to opposes repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and he has said such a repeal will have a negative impact on "unit cohesion" and "combat effectiveness."
TRUTH # 8
Homosexuals are more prone to be mentally ill and to abuse drugs and alcohol.
Even the pro-homosexual Gay and Lesbian Medical Association admits that homosexuals "use substances at a higher rate than the general population," have "higher rates of alcohol dependence and abuse," and are subject to higher rates of "depression and anxiety." Homosexual activists attempt to blame homophobia for this, but the same trends are evident even in Scandinavian countries where homosexuality has received virtually unanimous societal approval for decades.
TRUTH # 9
No one is born a homosexual.
No researcher has ever even claimed to have discovered the "gay gene." And I'm convinced that homosexuals now don't want to find it even if it's there, for fear that advances in pre-natal genetic screening will lead to the systematic abortion of babies who carry the suspect genetic marker. They know what happens to Down syndrome babies in the womb. Even if there is some innate disposition toward homosexual behavior, no human being is compelled to yield to every sexual impulse he experiences. You can ask Tiger Woods about that. Homosexual behavior is always, always, a matter of choice.
TRUTH # 10
Gay people can choose to leave homosexuality.
When I pastored, happily married ex-homosexuals spoke in my church about their journey from homosexuality to heterosexuality. Change is clearly and without question possible. Even Dr. Robert Sptizer, who led the effort to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, now admits as much. Says Spitzer, "The changes following reparative therapy were not limited to sexual behavior and sexual orientation self-identity...(but) encompassed the core aspects of sexual orientation."
People leave the homosexual lifestyle every day, just like people stop abusing drugs and alcohol every day. Any addiction to a self-destructive behavior can be broken with determination accompanied by the right kind of spiritual and emotional support.
It's also worth noting that homosexual behavior is so dangerous and risky that the FDA — hardly a member of the vast, right-wing conspiracy — will not allow a male to donate blood if he has had sex even one time with another male in the last 33 years.
And the CDC — again, not a right-wing think tank — has found that of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the history of the epidemic, 91% of them got it either through having sex with other males or through injection drug abuse. Clearly, homosexual behavior is as dangerous to human health as shooting up with illicit drugs. No sane society should ever endorse and grant special rights and protections based on either kind of behavior.
Until the Southern Poverty Law Center adds the FDA and the CDC to its list of "hate" groups, there is no reason to think that either the AFA or the FRC belongs on that list. In point of fact, we are "truth" groups, not "hate" groups. And you can't go wrong telling people the truth about behavior that could destroy them. We're sticking with the FDA and the CDC on this one.
(For more information, be sure to read Peter Sprigg's excellent white paper, Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality, from which I have gleaned some key content for this column.)
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
