Monday, March 2, 2015

Time to Tell the Truth: Time for CaliResistance

In California this past weekend, a historic moment of a sordid sort transpired in Republican politics.

The CAGOP officially recognized the Log Cabin Republicans as a chartered member.
For those unaware, this group is composed of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender members, and sympathizing individuals who support them. I imagine that very soon the “questioning” element will be added, if it has not come already.

On a wide vote, 861-293, delegates overwhelmingly supported this move.

I was devastated by the outcome. Throughout the meeting I was contacting a delegate friend of mine, who rejected chartering the group because she felt that the current by-laws of the party would not permit a charter. She stood her ground on this issue, even though she held the minority view on the subject.
After the vote, I spoke at length with one of my conservative Christian friends, who voted for the charter.

He explained to me that he has gay friends, that another friend of his had a child who struggled with sexual feelings and identity. This child was bullied at her school, attempted suicide, yet lingered on in a vegetative state for four years before passing away. He also pointed out that Republican volunteers who live homosexual conduct had worked for him and other winning Republican candidates.
I cried when he related to me these harrowing, personal, tragic accounts. I understood the stories he told me of gay friends helping him get elected.
Nevertheless, I countered on the whole premise he had been offering: “gay friends”. The issue goes back to identity, and the entire homosexual agenda, as outlined in a 1993 book

However, I have another close conservative friend, who lost a loved one due to gun violence. She did not become a gun control advocate as a result.

Public policy simply cannot be the dictate of our feelings. Our hearts, what we identify and believe in, and our minds, what we decide and respond to, help us inform our stake on societal issues.

Yet for many pro-family groups, and conservatives in general, they are not willing to fight against the cult of feelings which shames people for saying the truth:

Homosexuality is a disordered form of conduct, and not an identity. Yes, I just wrote that. Deal with it. The evidence is overwhelming regarding the health concerns which afflict homosexuals.

My good friend from Northern California, who related to me his painful hurt about what his friends have gone through, opened my eyes to understanding why pro-family, pro-marriage proponents are not winning.

Instead of putting aside feelings, they are embracing them. Instead of asking homosexuals hard questions and getting straight answers, they are simply accepting their decision as more than a lifestyle, but an identity.

My Christian friend candidly told me that his gay friends have their same-sex feelings, and they do not know why. These are valid points, and therefore to say that homosexual conduct is a choice free of force or shame makes no sense.

I qualified my remark: people engage in homosexual conduct, or identify with it in response to abuse, neglect, or confusion. The shame of sexual molestation is so deep, that even the most professional and successful of adults still struggle with identity issues. Oprah Winfrey, a king-maker and global influence in her own right, candidly admitted that she still blamed herself for the abuse she had endured, even though counselors, support groups, and good friends had affirmed that she did nothing wrong.

Only when Winfrey, forty-two years old, interviewed a group of convicted child molesters, did she realize that part of the modus operandi of abuse is to convince the victim that they deserve the abuse, i.e. that it is their fault. She was an established adult, yet she did not understand.

That moment of truth set Oprah free. Truth has that effect, and the same helps many who struggled with sexual identity and same-sex attraction. Many adults victimized by abuse and neglect do not pinpoint right away their same-sex attraction to these concerns. Most people would rather “come out” as gay rather than acknowledge the pain of abuse.

Neglect is another key source of gender confusion and same-sex attraction. Many young men do not know or never understood the love of their fathers, and they try to seek the same in other men. Same for women. Confusion reigns supreme in public institutions. Adolescents as a matter of development routinely deal with confusion, and now it’s worse because authorities in our governments and hubs of culture (churches, charities, after-school programs) are telling people that they can change their gender, that this basic and immune aspects of our being can be altered.

In short: we are not telling people the truth, for fear of offending someone, of losing political influence, of seeing more issues fall away from us.

Pro-family forces need to relate to people that it’s not about shame, guilt, or hate. It’s about the documented realities, historical, empirical, and anecdotal, that homosexual conduct as an aberration hurts rather than helps, which destroys individuals, families, and communities.

In Massachusetts, a pro-family group MassResistance, is waging the fight to protect young people, aid adults, and inform everyone of the consequences of state-imposed gay marriage, and the attending consequences of homosexual conduct.
Perhaps it's time for CaliResistance. In other words: time to tell the truth about homosexuality, and the truth that sets people free!

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