Public Skrools and Homophobia

Well, I might have gone off the deep end a bit this am with an e-mail to The Hogue Show. The topic was a bill placing some limits on what can be taught in public schools regarding health and sex education, which I’m all for. Rabbit trails can (and apparently have) run down paths regarding so-called “alternative lifestyles” in some of the health/sex ed curriculums. My take on sex education in the public skrool beyond; here’s what the two different reproductive organs do, here's what happens when you put them together, here’s the primary consequence of that particular act and here’s the secondary consequences (venereal disease), is that anything else beyond the basic facts is social engineering attempting to usurp parental authority.

Hogue agreed with that, but thought I might be “bi-polar” because I was accusing the bill’s author, Mountjoy, of being homophobic. Not the case. The other speaker Eric had on (Tony?) made a supportive comment about the bill, as he was concerned about “homosexual recruitment.” That statement set me off. It set me off enough to dash off a hasty, angry, ill-conceived e-mail to the Hoguester describing that kind of talk as homophobic. While my writing style may have had the appearance of being bi-polar in its angry tone, I stand by my position that Tony? is bad for the cause if he’s going to make public pronouncements about “homosexuals recruiting our children to their group,” as if they are setting up something like lemonade stands or camped out right alongside the military recruiting stands (which I support Eric, the Solomon rule at Yale notwithstanding). That type of talk sounds a wee bit paranoid at best, downright psychotic at worse. Either way is a public perception of people like me, with severe moral objections to any attempt to mainstream alternative lifestyles, as right wing homophobic nut cases. If there is indeed homosexual recruitment for partners going on, which I’m not denying is happening anymore then I’d deny I use to recruit women as partners for one-night stands in my misguided youth (I was a lousy recruiter BTW!), fear of that is more a comment on one’s parenting skills then the skill of the recruiter. I have neither fear nor hatred of homosexuals, so when I hear people saying misguided things that tend to paint people with my opinion as fanatics, I take offense. As our senior pastor at Adventure Christian Church said one time, “We’re not afraid of any sin!” Damn Right!! I’ve described a variety of things as sinful and to be avoided to our 4th grader, so yes I would be upset to learn teachers are contradicting my words to him regarding homosexuality if that’s happening, but I’d not be fearful.

And that’s what sex education beyond the basic facts starts delving into - sin. Is homosexuality wrong? If not, then what is wrong? Is bestiality wrong? Is adult-child sex wrong? Is pre-marital sex wrong? Who draws that line? If I were to pronounce homosexuality a sin (which I am, as well as the other examples), there are those out there who will accuse me of a hate crime. Like I said earlier, I don’t hate homosexuals, I hate their sin as much as I hate my own sins, but I don’t hate the sinner. The sinner is to be saved and God has very clearly defined what He considers sin. But this is not a discussion for the public skrools, so Mountjoy’s proposal is right on the mark.

How do I know it’s sin? Weeelll…. “Because the Bible tells me so!” as the song goes. Yes, yes, yes, I know the left-wing arguments out there about the “hateful and cruel God” described in Leviticus when it comes to punishment for homosexuals – which is DEATH. Well, nearly EVERY offense described in Leviticus, as well as the last chapters of Exodus, was punishable by death. It wasn’t just reserved for those poor oppressed homosexuals. Even the New Testament doesn’t have good things to say about homosexuality and other sin with Paul describing what happens when men turn away from God and to themselves (Romans). The difference between the Old and New Testaments is God allows us to choose Him or sin in the New with Christ paying for the sin part. That is not a cruel and hateful God that would do such a thing.

There was no such freedom in the Old. Why? Well, Christ hadn’t come yet to pay full price. But if you read the Bible (and I do mean READ it, not just skim it for soundbites to argue about), you would detect a few things about the early Israelites. Primarily they were not very nice people. “Father” Abraham passed his wife Sarah around like she was a whore so save his own skin. Nice, very nice. Jacob stole his older brother’s blessing by deceiving his dying father. Nice, very nice. Joseph’s brothers threw him down a well and then sold him to slave-traders. Nice, very nice. Judah wouldn’t let his widowed daughter-in-law remarry and had sex with her because she disguised herself as a prostitute to receive his seed and produce a child. Nice, very nice. And the list goes on. These were barbaric people! They lacked personal discipline and engaged in rather noxious and downright UNHEALTHY behavior. Why else would the Good Lord see it necessary to describe to the freed-from-Egypt Israelites what must be done if a man “lay with a woman” who was menstruating? EEEE-Yuucccck!! Are You freakin’ kidding me?!?! I mean, the mind just reels to read some of these “laws” handed down to the Israelite tribes. Just disgusting people, and the purpose described in these first books of the Bible is the Lord instituting JUST A LITTLE DISCIPLINE on a bunch of savages. They may not have understood the value of human life to God, or how to treat their women-folk honorably like gentlemen, or personal property, but they certainly understood they didn’t want to die for breaking the rules!! At least once the Lord contemplated ridding Himself of the whole rotten lot those “stiff-necked people,” but Moses talked Him out of it. He relented primary out of love for His people, even though their wickedness grieved Him plenty.

This isn’t just about homosexuality; it’s about sin in general when it comes to the human condition. Ours is a wicked culture and always has been. Up onto now, the wickedness was kept in the shadows, repented for and eventually left behind the sinner as the Holy Spirit sunk in enough. Now daze, it’s “celebrated” under the euphemism of “diversity.” A stiff-necked people we have become once more. But to say homosexuals are going to “recruit” my son into their ranks via the education system gives them more credit then I give myself as a God loving/fearing father. It sounds nutty and makes me look like just another kook for taking a moral stand. That offends me.