Meditation 288
Choosing your Orientation
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If you go to one of Jerry Falwell's web sites and question the search engine on Falwell's policy on homosexuality, you will get as a reply a document titled "What We Believe: Jerry Falwell Ministry’s Definit."
Extracting from that policy paper we find:
From time to time, this ministry is challenged on our thoughts and beliefs regarding homosexuals. We want all of our supporters and friends to know that our position HAS NOT and WILL NOT change! We believe, as is stated in God's Word, that homosexuality is a sin.
...
Many homosexuals, however, defend their lifestyle by claiming that God "made them that way." To suggest that homosexuality is a physical condition caused by biological facts rather than an emotional and mental condition is highly blasphemous. The Bible tells us that the cause of homosexuality is sin. A person is not born a homosexual; he becomes one according to his sinful will.
Clearly, Falwell's official policy is that homosexuality is a matter of choice. Whether one is homosexual or goes down another route to be heterosexual, asexual, or bisexual, is determined by a free act of will. Let's be clear on this fact - Falwell's policy is not about specific types of sex acts actually performed by consenting adults; it is clearly about sexual orientation.
Does Falwell really believe this nonsense? Judge for yourself from Falwell's own words.
Let's look at the transcript* of his recent television appearance on Chris Matthews' Hardball.
Matthews: Did you choose to be heterosexual?
Falwell: I did.
Matthews: You thought about it and you came up with that solution, that lifestyle?
Falwell: Well, put it this way, I was taught as a child that that's the right way to be.
Matthews: But did you feel an attraction toward women?
Falwell: Oh, of course.
Matthews: But when people are born and they find themselves having an attraction to somebody from the same sex, do you think that's a choice?
Falwell: I think you can experiment with any perversity and develop an appetite for it, just like you can food. […] I don't think anybody is born a bank robber […]
Matthews: How old were you when you chose to be heterosexual?
Falwell: Oh, I don't remember that.
Matthews: Well you must, because you say it's a big decision.
Falwell: Well, I – I started dating when I was about thirteen.
Matthews: And you had to decide between boys and girls. And you chose girls.
Falwell: Well, I never had to decide, I never thought … (laughter)
I suspect Jerry Falwell was never more honest in his life than in those final words of the transcript. Quite clearly, he does not really believe that sexual orientation is a matter of choice. He took no thought on the issue, he made no decision. He just acted naturally according to his orientation. As do my gay and lesbian friends according to theirs.
Can you spell hypocrisy?
Footnote:
* Transcript from slate.com