Pivot of Civilization Rivet of Life
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Pivot of Civilization or Rivet of Life ? Conflicting Worldviews and Same-Sex Marriage CARMAN BRADLEY Canada • England • Ireland • United States of America © Copyright 2004 Carman Bradley. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author. Printed in Victoria, Canada Note for Librarians: a cataloguing record for this book that includes Dewey Classifi cation and US Library of Congress numbers is available from the National Library of Canada. The complete cataloguing record can be obtained from the National Libraryʼs online database at: www.nlc-bnc.ca/amicus/index-e.html ISBN 1-4120-1900-1 This book was published on-demand in cooperation with Trafford Publishing. On-demand publishing is a unique process and service of making a book available for retail sale to the public taking advantage of on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing. On-demand publishing includes promotions, retail sales, manufacturing, order fulfi lment, accounting and collecting royalties on behalf of the author. Suite 6E, 2333 Government St., Victoria, B.C. V8T 4P4, CANADA Phone 250-383-6864 Toll-free 1-888-232-4444 (Canada & US) Fax 250-383-6804 E-mail [email protected] Web site www.trafford.com trafford publishing is a division of trafford holdings ltd. Trafford Catalogue #03-2278 www.trafford.com/robots/03-2278.html 10 9 8 Dedicated to the survival of the traditional family – a societal model based on monogamous, life-long, heterosexual marriage, and child-rearing remaining the responsibility of the biological parents. For the love of Mom, Dad, Gill, Mary, Lucy and Amy. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION - Why This Book? Why Now? ............................................ i PART 1 - ELEMENTS OF FREE WILL 1 CHOICE, BOUNDARIES AND CONSEQUENCES ...................... 1 Choice and Ecology 1 Natural Boundaries 2 Free Sex? 5 Wellness Doctrine for Promiscuity 8 Magic Bullet – Codependency on Technology 11 Ecological Consequences of Gay Lifestyle 12 Boundaries of Silence 21 Lessons of AIDS and Anal Sex 26 2 POLITICS, ALLIANCES AND COGNITIVE DISSONANCE ... 32 Manifestations of Cognitive Dissonance 32 Lesbianization of a Women’s Movement 44 Infinite Orgasm 52 REAL Women and Feminists for Life 56 Politics of Oppression and Patriarchy 63 Lesbian and Gay Bigotry 68 Third Wave Feminists 78 PART 2 - TWO MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE PARADIGMS 3 PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION............................................................. 83 Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797 85 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860 – 1935 86 Emma Goldman 1869-1940 88 Margaret Sanger 1879 – 1966 98 Alfred Kinsey 1894 – 1956 105 Henry Morgentaler 1923 - 115 Humanistic (Modern Gnostic) Civilization 123 4 RIVET OF LIFE .............................................................................. 136 Two Sides in a Binary Decision 136 Creation of the Universe 140 Creation of Life 145 Creation of Humankind 168 Christianity 101 179 Pagan Slander 182 Gnostic Cancer 187 Greek and Roman Sexism 202 Christian Patriarchy 207 Christian Hypocrisy: A Self-made Cancer 217 PART 3 - UNORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY: THE “COMPROMISE” PARADIGM 5 DEBUNKING GAY AND PRO-GAY CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY .....225 God’s Truth 225 Bailey’s Pervert – The False Homosexual 233 Queer Christianity 244 Born Again Bisexual 257 Consequences of Sexual Experimentation 261 A Scriptural Boundary for Man-Boy Sex? 271 The Rev. Dr. John Spong 278 Replacing Leviticus Code with the Condom Code 287 6 THE PARADOX OF HOMOSEXUAL REORIENTATION ...... 305 The Divided Kingdom 305 Is Conversion Therapy Ethical? 308 APA Fight Over Reorientation 311 Scientific Facts on Conversion Success 313 The Right to Choose 316 Reasons GBLTQ Want to Change 318 There is No Gay Gene 320 Psychology of Homosexuality 327 Barriers to Change 335 Reorientation Process 337 Role of the Church 341 PART 4 - THE PRACTICALITY OF COMPETING WORLDVIEWS 7 BABIES, CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS AND PARENTING... 345 The Unorthodox Family 346 Symptoms of Crisis 353 Collateral Damage From Divorce 358 Why Do You Work? 363 Anti-Parenting Culture 369 Family Risk Factors 380 Teen Sexual Liberation 388 Abstinence 397 Abortion 407 8 SINGLES, COUPLES, MARRIAGE AND ALTERNATIVE FAMILIES ........................................................................................ 422 Singles Life 423 Offensive Against Marriage 431 Cohabitation 441 Heterosexual Matrimony 444 Christian Marriage 447 Paradox of GBLTQ Marriage 454 Alternative GBLTQ Union 479 Clones: Alternative Family Planning 486 PART 5 - PIVOT OF CIVILIZATION OR RIVET OF LIFE? 9 THEISTIC BOUNDARIES TO RIGHTS AND CHOICE .......... 501 Is the God of the Charter Real? 503 Your Choice – Your Voice 513 Twenty-Four Questions of Philosophy and Belief 515 Pivot of Civilization or Rivet of Life? 525 Respecting Each Other’s Space – A Last Hope Paradigm Shift 525 A Christian Closing Prayer 529 Appendix 1 – Letter to High School ................................................................ 533 Endnotes ............................................................................................................ 541 i INTRODUCTION Why this Book? Why Now? Two and a half years into my research and writing, after an infinite number of two finger key strokes and endnotes, I asked myself: Why this book? Why this time? It may seem an odd confession, but I started this project without any idea of where it would end, led by an earnest desire to study the subject matter. Foremost, this book details the secular, feminist, humanist, free love worldview, which I have called “Pivot of Civilization” and the orthodox Christian paradigm, labeled “Rivet of Life.” With the recently heightened issue of same-sex marriage, I now see the research as timely and the book contents as a constructive contribution to the de- bate. The inspirational spark for this effort came in the form of a guest speaker evalu- ation, which my oldest daughter literally tossed into my lap one evening in Decem- ber 2000. Mary, then sixteen, had attended a guest speaker presentation on “sexual assault” at High School. When she was asked in the evaluation (opposite page) to “select one thing that struck you as most powerful and then to discuss how it af- fected you personally,” Mary wrote: The thing that struck me most ‘powerfully’ was that the speaker seemed to think that being gay was scientifically decided in your genes. I really disagree. It says in the Bible that being gay is a sin. So why would God allow people to be gay if he didn’t make them that way? The “gay gene” issue bothered me a lot. I felt that my daughter’s and thus my family’s “space” was willfully invaded. Like a previously dormant immune system, now alerted, I found I had become animated in a quest for answers and explana- tions. Here was a clash of life beliefs, which I felt had to be addressed. I wrote to the High School (Appendix 1) seeking clarification on school curriculum and policy. A passage, which describes the situation as I saw it reads: Every voice in the debate speaks from some sort of value system. There can be no ‘neutral’ answers to most social issues. The problem is, while claiming only to dis- courage scapegoating, gay-affirming programs do much more. In reality, they pro- mote a particular worldview; complete with truth claims those students are expected to adopt. These programs promote the value systems of a particular social group and denigrate the views of another, while at the same time, distorting science.1 In the months following, I determined that the School did not hold the view that homosexuality was genetic. More important, according to the host teacher, “the guest speaker was only giving her personal beliefs.” Equally as shocking, the School Board could not show me in the curriculum where any guidance was given for in- struction on homosexuality; nor did they respond to questions 2-5 posed in my original letter (Appendix 1). The questions were as follows: ii Introduction — Why this Book? Why Now? The ‘homosexual orientation’ or ‘homosexual identity’ does not itself cause medical problems; only typical homosexual behaviors can. What steps does XXXX School take to portray the health risks of a gay lifestyle? During teaching on homosexuality, is any effort made to portray the heterosexual family unit as the optimum model for raising children? Could you outline when formal teaching about homosexuality is given to students over their time with the Calgary Board of Education? What are the objectives of the education at each stage? When teaching about homosexuality, is there any discussion on how this subject is viewed by Christians, Jews and students of other religions? The School Board representative did say that a new curriculum was under devel- opment but she could not speculate on its guidance for teaching about homosexual- ity. Since Mary’s class was slated for a further presentation on the subject of homo- sexuality, I met with the next guest speaker to decide if Mary should attend. Julia (assumed name) was then a member on staff at the Calgary Birth Control Associa- tion (CBCA). Since 1996, CBCA has been providing comprehensive sexual educa- tion to high schools within the Public School System. Over 4300 students had al- ready participated in CBCA’s anti-homophobia education classes, designed to chal- lenge stereotypes surrounding gay (G), lesbian (L), and bisexual (B) youth and to decrease factors leading to isolation of GLB youth. CBCA, a pro-choice agency, is also a “strong supporter of the feminist analysis of women’s issues.” During our discussion at the abortion clinic, I showed Julia the guest speaker evaluation and asked what her position was on the “gay gene” theory. Her response remains indelibly etched in my memory. “Oh we would never say that. We don’t discuss philosophy, just rights.” Said with such conviction, this statement strength- ened my resolve to do something, since all one hears about these days are “rights.” Everyone wants constitutional (guaranteed) rights to do as they wish. Rights-based arguments are not just a problem for heterosexuals, but even homosexual and pro- gay theorists complain about the strategy.