The fundamentalist quoted above was not just a victim of poor theology. He was actually making a moral judgment when he presumes that the only definition of homosexuality and transgenderism is “perversion” based on chosing an immoral behavior or lifestyle.
Extreme fundamentalists (in Christianity and other religions as well) who don’t really care what the nature or cause is, define the very concept of homosexuality or gender deviation as “evil” and condemn it to eradication. Some of these take judgment into their own hands by bombing gay bars, lynching perceived homosexuals, beating and murdering transgendered people, imprisoning, castrating, and the latest torture of super-gluing shut the anus of suspected Gay men to let them die of septic poisoning.
"Moral Failing" in context
For some reason folks want to ascribe moral choice, with resulting judgment, to everything that is different from their own experience. Anything different from their concept of ‘perfect’ is a perversion and thus sinful. They want to label any deviation as ‘deviant’ and then burn it at the stake – figuratively or literally.
Let me go back to the sunset thing for a minute.
Every sunset is different and not all sunsets are to our aesthetic liking, even though the elements are always the same: sky, clouds, sun, horizon. Has Mother Nature failed in some way when the sunset is not beautiful? Or have we ‘perverted’ our perception. Those occasional days when there is a dramatic sunset are actually evenings when the nature has failed to produce a ‘normal’ sundown, which we have twisted in our minds to appear as beautiful to us. Perhaps we might find weather fundamentalists who would prefer that the day would change to night like a light switch with no margins. Or perhaps they would rather that the elect would live always in the light, while the damned choose to live on the dark side of the planet.
The root of the ‘moral failing’ argument is that being Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgendered is completely a choice and a “lifestyle” which the individual has willfully chosen over more godly (read, “normal”) expressions. Flowing out of the assumption that everyone must have been born heterosexual, they believe that GLBT people have decided somewhere along the way to ignore their God-given nature and “burn with same-sex lust.” It is the choice, they say, that God condemns – to mentally consider, then experiment with, and finally embrace homosexuality at the expense of their true nature and eternal soul.
Is gay sex REALLY that much better than straight sex?
I grant that some people choose participate in same-sex intercourse for a variety of reasons in certain circumstances; as there are those who cross-dress and gender-bend for theatrical, political or rebellious reasons. But scrutiny will show that these people are not transformed into Gay men, Lesbians, nor Transgendered people.
I think the same scrutiny shows that Gay and Lesbian people are also not changed into heterosexuals when they choose opposite-sex relations. Preachers may claim that accepting salvation and converting to a (fundamentalist-defined) “Christian Lifestyle” will ‘heal’ GLTB people by the power of God. The evidence is that neither spiritual faith nor physical denial seems to change homosexuals into heterosexuals. So called Ex-Gay programs do not result in the promised “transformed lives” but rather produces spiritually confused individuals often with the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
The reason it doesn't seem to 'work' is not because the individuals don't have enough faith or dedication, nor because God has chosen to not help these people, nor because the Power of salvation is not transforming.
It is because Western culture has denied the truth of 'sexuality' and raised up an idol of morality to take its place.
©2009 David Loofbourrow All Rights Reserved
