Discriminating Christians

Eight-year-old Martin Thompson couldn't wait to join the Boy Scouts. From the flyers passed out at school, he'd read about all the fun Scouts have. But when Martin's parents discovered his interest, they told him absolutely not. Their reaction shows just how successful the gay lobby has been convincing people that homosexuality has no moral component. The Boy Scouts don't accept members or leaders who engage in homosexual conduct -- and that's why Martin's parents objected. "Our family does not agree with discrimination against . . . homosexuals," Martin's mother told him. The family then went to a meeting of the Anne Arundel County, Maryland, school district and tried to get the Scouts thrown off school property. Martin's father read a statement Martin had written, which said, "I don't want the Boy Scouts to come to my school because my school allows everyone to come. . . . But . . . not everyone is allowed in the Boy Scouts." Of course, Martin's school does not allow everyone to attend. It discriminates against people who are too old or too young, and against anyone who lives outside the school district. Evidently, this type of discrimination doesn't bother Martin's parents. They probably view it as appropriate, because it violates no moral laws. But they're evidently teaching their son that homosexual conduct violates no moral laws either -- but that objecting to it does. They equate the upholding of biblical principles as code language for gay-bashing. Many Christian families are having to confront this issue head on. Around the country, homosexual groups and their allies are lobbying to kick Boy Scouts out of public schools and parks. So it's important that our kids understand Christian teaching on this subject. First, we must teach them that Christian thinking about these questions begins and ends with the fact of God's love. We love these people, but not their behavior. And God loves them. The real question is: Did God make homosexuals the way they are, or is their sexual preference a consequence of what makes our world a broken place? Many secularists claim that homosexuality is genetically determined. But these claims ignore the empirical evidence to the contrary. Researchers looking for a gay gene periodically announce new evidence for it, and then that evidence evaporates when other researchers study it. So if homosexuality is not genetically determined, then to some degree the behavior involves an element of choice. That doesn't mean that some people don't have a predisposition to homosexuality: they do, just as straight people have pre-dispositions that they themselves must control. David Persing, a molecular genetics researcher and a Christian, says the biblical teaching that all of nature is fallen includes our genetic heritage. As a result, we all have inborn tendencies toward various forms of sinful behaviors, from alcoholism to heterosexual addiction to homosexuality. But this fact does not excuse us from having to make a choice to do right or to sin. Christianity calls all of us to struggle against our natural tendencies. Whatever those inclinations are, we still have room for making real moral choices. And that's what we have to teach our kids when they're accused of anti-gay bigotry. My new book, Answers to Your Kids' Questions, will help you do this. Read it with them, and you'll help them learn how to discriminate between gay propaganda and biblical truth.

10/20/00