God and His Gays

Those wacky religious right evangelicals are gonna hate me for this one ... but I couldn't resist. It seems that science might be about to take the steam out of one of their biggest obsessions. And, they are finding out about it from one of their own! Yikes!

Consider the dilemma of the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and a leading figure in the Southern Baptist firmament.

Writing in his blog this month, Mohler acknowledged that " the direction of the research" increasingly points to the possibility that a "biological basis for sexual orientation exists." Should sexuality be determined in utero, Mohler continued, that still wouldn't justify abortion or genetic engineering.

Well THAT'S good to know, because I kind of like me! And besides, if some one is going to do any genetic engineering on me I'd rather it be -- in the words of my mother -- to "make me a size 10 with lots of hair."

... as Mohler noted in a later blog post, his admission that the data suggest that homosexuality may be as genetically determined as hair color produced a torrent of irate e-mail from his fellow evangelical Christians. Up to now, the preferred theory among Christian conservatives has been that homosexuality is behaviorally induced and thus can be unlearned.

It's easier to hate the sinner if you think the sinner could change, but is choosing to remain a sinner just to spite you.

The thought that being lesbian or gay could be genetic does create a theological dilemma for the Mohlers among us. People like, say ... Peter Pace?

... as the data confirming this thesis continue to mount, that could confront even those of Pace's persuasion with Mohler's conundrum: how to reconcile a God who creates homosexuals with a God who condemns practicing homosexuals to hell? A mysterious God may be well and good, but a capricious or contradictory God can inspire so much doubt that He threatens the credibility of the entire religious enterprise.

For an evangelical community fighting about global warming and war, could this be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back? Guess time will tell.