A Sin to be Me?
  by Steven Mahone

The recent news surrounding John Paulk must have been quite an embarrassment for the public relations team over at Focus on the Family (Paulk is the ex-gay employed by Focus to convince homosexuals that God's love can earn them the "ex" status too). Mr. Paulk now admits that while on company business in Washington, D.C., he knowingly ducked into a gay bar to "relieve stress." Apparently, Dr. Dobson and the "Love Won Out" staff at Focus had little appreciation for the irony involved. Sort of like the KKK trying to explain to the faithful that the Imperial Wizard didn't have any idea that the BBQ plate he was photographed with was from a NAACP benefit luncheon.

Most Christian organizations like Focus on the Family are certain they have a mandate from God to fight "sin." If sin is to be condemned, then we have no choice but to condemn the sinner as well. In some cases this is completely necessary and absolutely justified. Embezzlement, rape, murder, kidnapping, and the like, are unacceptable under any ethical convention or personal circumstance. It seems reasonable, then, to categorize all crimes as being sinful, but are we going to take that one step further and classify all sins as being a crime?

We can't, of course, do that, because what the Rabbi disdains, is just a pleasant Saturday picnic with pork ribs for the Protestant. So sin can't just "be," it must be defined -- and that definition has to endure the rigors of logic and reason, otherwise it is just another superstition. God might know for sure, but the rest of us (including the good folks at Focus) are forever relegated to doing the best that we can.

The American Psychological Association has determined that homosexuality should no longer be classified as a "treatable ailment." Why, then, do most Christian apologists consider the APA's conclusion to be uninspired and irrelevant? Is it because these apologists have better scientific data or more reliable research? Have they uncovered a devious conspiracy involving the 140,000 professionals that support the APA's findings? If they can produce this kind of evidence, then fair enough. If they can't, then perhaps it would be appropriate to remind them that when we discarded the belief that the Sun revolves around the earth back in the fourteenth century, it pretty much signaled an end to the Dark Ages.

I don't know what it's like to be gay. I don't know what it's like to be a genius or an aborigine, either. But if I were any of those things, I imagine that it would be mostly pointless to deny that I wasn't. What would be even more heartbreaking, is if someone told me that God, Himself, was disappointed in what I turned out to be. This is the dilemma that Mr. Paulk faces every day of his life. He is gay pretending not to be gay and I have little doubt that it's a very difficult ruse to maintain, regardless of the quality of his prayers.

If Dr. Dobson is going to define homosexuality as a sin, then the burden of proof for supporting such a claim is on him. If his proof begins with what the word of God says, then maybe a quote from Ecclesiastes 7:13 will offer some productive insight: "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which He hath made crooked?"

A self-appointed task of making straight what God has put crooked sounds like a daunting undertaking. I hope that Dr. Dobson feels up to the challenge. If not, I'm sure that both he and Mr. Paulk can take some solace in this passage from a popular children's book by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), "And so ... I think there are some things I do not wish to be. And that is why I think that I just wish to be like ME."

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