From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Subject: I Am Someone Doing The Best That He Can
Organization: Glassboro State College (Slip Sliding Away...)
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 15:29:57 GMT


In an earlier article, I asked some questions about how people react to
homosexuals.  Some people do not want gay men to work in a day care center
near young boys, but accept straight men working near young girls (and
straight women working near young boys -- but what about gay women who care
for young girls?).  I am interested in the thinking that drives these ideas.
Are there sufficient logical grounds for treating these people differently,
or are we simply repeating ingrained behaviour without thinking?


Carl Lahetta replied to some questions semi-sensibly, and then got personal:

> What are you Darren?  The appointed protector of groups that seek to be
> called Christians but cannot be validated.  I bet you applauded the move
> by some churches to approve of homosexual ministers.

Since you asked, I will answer.

I am an extremely suggestible person; I am probably the most gullible person
any of you will ever encounter.  If told convincingly, just about any lie,
regardless of details, can take me for a ride.  But.

Being aware of my own suggestibility, I have devoted a lot of time to the
study of arguments, logic, rhetoric, evidentiary standards, and research.  You
might be able to get me going with a story about historical figures, or an
argument for your pet idea, but not for very long.  Eventually I will get
around to dissecting the argument -- though it may take a while -- and then it
won't matter how suggestible I am.

I've spent quite some time rejecting ideas that I was taught from a very young
age: that the US was founded to be a `Christian Nation', that the Bible is
Inerrant, that "Sola Scriptura" makes any sense, that the Bible teaches
"abortion is murder",  ... too many to list them all.  (Some readers will
recognise these topics as among those I have debated on Christia of late.)

Christia has had some discussion of homosexuality recently; many people are
expressing ideas that I have believed for a very long time.  This was, in my
view, an excellent opportunity to analyse those ideas.  Things like
"homosexuals constitute a threat to Family Values" seem to underlie much of
the anti-gay-scoutmaster posts which we have seen.  But I'm finding that this
idea doesn't really have much sound thinking -- if any -- under it.  To
paraphrase my last quote, it appears that a lot of people here think they are
thinking -- but they are only rearranging their prejudices.


In reply to this:

> [ Are you ]  The appointed protector of groups that seek to be called
> Christians but cannot be validated. [?]

You've got it somewhat backward.  I'm the self-appointed critic of groups that
seek to impose standards on others, but who cannot validate those standards.
Quite a bit of Christia traffic has gone by that supports ideas as "The Only
Right Christian Opinion" -- but these ideas have sometimes had no Biblical
support at all, no sound reasoning behind them, or in some cases only the most
useless kind of evidence.

If attacking baseless prejudice amounts to protecting certain groups, so be
it.  Sometimes the tax collectors and sinners aren't all that bad, despite the
bad press they get.


> I bet you applauded the move by some churches to approve of homosexual
> ministers.

If I were homosexual, I would remain celibate, because I believe that is what
the Bible teaches on this subject.  I believe this because it's something I
have always been told -- whether it stands up to careful examination remains
to be seen.  (Numerous other ideas did not.)

What God wants of somebody else is between him & God.  I will not require
others to adhere to ideas which I have not critically examined.  What those
churches did is their business; when I get appointed Saul of Tarsus, then I'll
write them letters.


Darren F Provine / kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu
`The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say "Here is a glutton and
 a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ``sinners.''" ' -- Matthew 11:19
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