“Pray away the gay” is NOT the way to play

Zdenny keeps forgetting he still owes me two 500-word essays before I’ll give him commenting rights back, and keeps commenting regardless. And yet, now and then, I’ll still give him a stage on this blog, proving what kind of harsh taskmaster I truly am.

He opines thus on one of my older posts:

“DuWayne, The APA in their report is suggesting indirectly that choosing faith over sexuality or as Christians say, dying to your desires in Christ and being resurrected to new life is the only way to overcome homosexuality.”

To which I reply, you have no idea what the APA is saying, and you have to stretch further than Stretch Armstrong to misinterpret them the way you do. At one point, all the psychological textbooks considered homosexuality as abnormal, much the way your religion does, however most of them now understand that a) sexuality is a sliding scale moreso than a gay/straight dichotomy, and b) there’s nothing abnormal about your orientation being something other than typical for your gender. It’s an orientation, not a preference. You can change the spin on a molecule with a great deal of effort, but all you’re going to do is have it annihilate itself when it comes into contact with another such molecule.

No, there is no one single “gay gene” that one can screen for, but there is probably a large genetic component. Also, yes, environment is a factor, otherwise the outside influence applied by religion wouldn’t be enough to cause an otherwise sane, gay person to try to subvert their normal inclinations. In societies where homosexuality is normal, those that are so inclined have nothing to fear, and in societies where it’s normal but a huge pressure is applied to reproduce, they may even choose to take an opposite-sex partner to procreate. People in general have a tendency to be people, to make choices that are against their nature or even fundamentally opposed to their basic drives (hunger, thirst, sex, and self preservation), so it is indeed possible to suppress your sexual proclivities when religion comes along and embeds itself in your head and tells you you’re broken.

That doesn’t mean these people are sinful for having these desires, nor does it mean that you’re right to apply pressure to “pray away the gay”. It means only that these people are likely to allow environment to influence how they act, and influence their self-esteem. If you beat into the heads of gay people that they are somehow wrong or different or sinful, then all you’ll do is, with the people who internalize it, increase their propensity toward suicide. Some people can “fake it” though, for the sake of their religion, which they wholeheartedly believe. Some others, like Ted Haggard, can’t repress their orientation forever.

Frankly, I don’t dislike religious people, just the religion itself, and its tendency to cause normal, caring, loving people to act like utter asshats and intolerant buffoons toward others that are not like themselves. In fact, I pity anyone who chooses religion over nature — regardless of whether you’re talking about choosing religion over the scientific study of nature, or choosing religion over your natural sexual proclivities. Regarding sexuality, I am of the opinion that as long as you are not hurting anyone, and everyone’s a consenting adult, whatever you want to do to get your rocks off is fine by me. And even that “hurting anyone” is more flexible than that — if you really really get off on being hurt or hurting people, as long as you’re all consenting, go for it. Just don’t hurt any unwilling third party in the process, emotionally or physically, and we’re still cool.

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“Pray away the gay” is NOT the way to play
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5 thoughts on ““Pray away the gay” is NOT the way to play

  1. 1

    I think the telling part of his quote is, “…the only way to overcome homosexuality.

    It’s as though a person should be able to overcome being blonde, or overcome being caucasian.

    Your last paragraph reminded me of something I recall from years ago:

    I don’t have a problem with God™; it’s the people that work for her that piss me off.

  2. 2

    He’ll just keep harping on the APA saying that there’s no single gay gene, as though that means there’s absolutely no genetic component. It’s rather sad how you have to be so careful about your words so fundies don’t attach their hooks into anything that can be misinterpreted as supporting their intolerant worldviews.

  3. 3

    I cannot wait until the day when fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity™ are viewed by the general public with the same contempt that most people currently reserve for groups like Jim Jones’ cult, Heaven’s Gate, etc. The members of these religious groups are poisoning our society with their lack of critical thinking, their lies, their proselytizing, their hypocrisy, their hatred, their bigotry… Well; you get the idea.

    His “proof” of design is such a… I don’t even know how to describe it. It fails on so many levels that it’s almost funny. The sad thing is, I know that he’s actually serious. He honestly believes that his “proof” (that actually only proves that he doesn’t understand logic or design) will convert any “rational” person to Christianity. Anyone not converted is therefore not rational, in his worldview.

  4. 4

    Ignorant fucking claptrap – the fucking moron should shut the fuck up, until he actually learns elementary neurobiology and psychology.

  5. 5

    DuWayne, you simply won’t believe the extent of his idiocy. Now he’s using the APA statement as part of one of his many in a long line of “proofs” for the existence of God™.

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