Wayne Besen, on his blog, discusses the the idea of a Southern Baptist leader Rev Albert Mohler Jr that one day, were a genetic propensity to homosexuality ever discovered, he would condone the use of anti-gay treatments to correct these traits. The idea is interesting because it comes from a man who is clearly in a position of power in his community. He’s riding high and there are few natural predators. There’s no need to watch your back, right? But what if he did have to? What if he were to consider his stated view but from the position of a Christian who is unpopular. You go to Turkey, go to China, go to Indonesia and perhaps the idea that eradicating gays might not be quite as powerful. Why? Not that these men and women who criticise everyone else’s lifestyles would have had a change of had, not that their hatred would have diminished, but in the light of threats to their own eradication and extermination perhaps they would have less haste in persecuting others. Besen says:
Before you dismiss this question as hypothetical or academic, consider that research into the origins of spirituality is a robust field of inquiry. There are currently about a dozen studies that show shared personality traits among religious people, suggesting a genetic or biological basis. …In Mohler’s world, conservative Christians are a majority and considered a paragon of virtue. However, the late singer John Lennon is not the only person who has “imagined” a world without religion and its Inquisitions and suicide bombers. Indeed, there are prominent scholars and writers who consider religion to be little more than a psychological defect - much like the Southern Baptists now consider homosexuality.
While the right in America is strong they think of their worldview as omnipotent and supreme. But their lack of humility and their absolute faith, which often equals a disregard of and lack of respect for the views of others could be a threat to themselves. Who is to say that in some future time, our increasingly laïque and secular societies will not view religion as a greater threat to humanity than ‘alternative’ sexualities? Gays don’t start wars because other people aren’t gay, we just want to be left alone. But those crazy christians are just bringing fire onto themselves. By pushing to continually persecute gays, legislating against us, protesting against us, hating against us, praying against us, shooting, stabbing and killing us, they will eventually undermine their own position of what is for now strength. Love thy neighbor flys out the window when those neighbors are both guys. Maybe they should rethink that?
Wayne Besen: Mohler’s Slippery Slope
formerly.. Just how gay is the right?
It’s just a constant source of bafflement to me how just how un-Christian some of these Christians are. I’m currently in the middle of a course topic on religion in politics in America, and it’s proving fascinating.
On a somewhat more flippant note, I saw a rather good t-shirt in town the other day, the slogan of which was, “Jesus wouldn’t vote Republican”. A fair point …
I do think it’s fascinating, and blog-post worthy almost, how our relative course topics have panned out. From what I remember it seems that while you’ve been doing courses on military power (’terrorism class’) and religion (see above), I’ve been doing courses on civil society and regimes, development, and political communication. Correct me if I’m wrong but I do think this very superficial and perhaps wrong glance at what we’ve been looking at is highly reflective of the respective societies we’re studying in. While the US and it’s go-it-alone attitude has been obsessed by its own religious convictions and determination in Iraq, us ‘liberal’ Europeans have been trying to avoid conflicts like Iraq, developing peace keeping capabilities (ERRF) an continuing with integration (absorbing two new members to the EU in January)…
Funny how the differences in political cultures shows itself simply through the courses we’re respectively taking.
An interesting point, Patrick. I can’t say I agree fully with the idea that it’s a reflection of the respective societies, though; more likely just a reflection of our own preferences. Perhaps living in America has brought out my inner Christian conservative :p
Actually, the terrorism class was a wonderful education in both the subject matter and how many Americans view the topic. There were a lot of uniforms in the classroom every Tuesday and Thursday (I did a class on war in politics in the same semester, and I felt a little like I was in boot camp at times …), and it was notable that, while there were some circumspect voices from the military, the enlisted students were generally more gung-ho, let’s kick their asses than everyone else.
The whole course, incidentally, stressed non-military, political solutions as virtually the only sustainable model for counter-terrorism — but made it clear that, for a variety of reasons, the non-military option is usually not used.