By Selwyn Duke
Can a waning phenomenon have a waxing effect? If a survey conducted on the relationship between religious messages and homosexual suicide is to be believed, the answer is yes. The survey, conducted jointly by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Religion News Service, found, writes Kirsten Moulton in The Salt Lake Tribune, “Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that messages from U.S. religious pulpits are connected to the rising rates of suicide among gay youths….”
This conclusion isn’t surprising, given how propaganda reigns today, but it makes no sense. After all, how can an increasing rate of homosexual suicide be caused by a message that is decreasing in frequency? The fact is that if this suicide rate was lower many years ago, it was so during a time when homosexuality was in the closet and stigmas against it were the default. Today, in contrast, “coming out” is lauded, we have open homosexuals in public office and sympathetically portrayed homosexual characters in film and on TV, and books such as Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate are childhood fare. As for churches, I can’t say I’ve heard many fire-and-brimstone denunciations of any sin — let alone homosexual behavior — from pulpits of late. So what are the messages to which the survey respondents refer? Are they perhaps indicting the clergy for not warning their flocks of the perils of indulging certain inclinations? (I can have my fantasies, can’t I?)
Read the rest here.
