The Un-Discussed Side of Homosexuality?

 

                Homosexual acceptance has been a hot-button, get-everyone-angry issue for awhile now.  There is a powerful network of money and influence that is pushing our nation to accept homosexual relationships as just like heterosexual ones.  It is a civil rights issue, we are told.  And, as TIME magazine and other outlets have reported recently, polls now show that over 50% of Americans say homosexual marriage should be allowed. 

 

  

              My first reaction to the polls?  I’m surprised the support for gay marriage is not even higher.  Why?  Because this has not really been a debate or fair conversation in our national media – it has been a one-sided campaign in favor of gay marriage.  Shout anything at someone long enough, without letting another side be heard, and of course people will accept it.  If we are not allowed to hear an idea fairly disputed, we will come to believe there must not be a legitimate dispute with it. 
 

I don’t know about you, but I personally have not heard honest, fair discussions in the national media about the issue of homosexuality.  I have heard demonizing of Christians.  I have heard claims that the issue is about whether someone is allowed to love someone else (apparently forgetting that homosexuality is legal in our country; no one is being chained in basements and not being allowed to love or live with who they want to live with).  I have heard horror stories of gay individuals who lost a homosexual partner to death and they didn’t get the money they thought they should have gotten because they weren’t legally married.  I have seen countless television shows and movies make it appear that gay couples are just as healthy a lifestyle as everyone else.  I have heard media members shout collectively in disgust if any public figure says anything negative about homosexuality. 

 

What I haven’t heard in our media is real, dig for the truth investigations into the other side of the issue.  And among the issues I would personally love to hear discussed fairly is the health side of homosexual relationships, because just a short internet search finds all sorts of studies that suggest homosexuality is not a healthy lifestyle in multiple ways.  Why does no one know this unless they go digging for it? 

 

The Darker Side of Homosexuality?

 

                Here are just a few of the studies you find on the internet – totally legitimate they appear to me, done by people who are very qualified to do the studies, and all seem to definitively contradict the idea that homosexuality is a healthy lifestyle that our country should accept:

 

Ø  A 2002 study for the Corporate Resource Council by John R. Diggs, M.D., entitled “The Health Risks of Gay Sex.”  In the study, he warns of major problems health-wise found in homosexual relationships that are producing the following medical consequences: more physical health problems (STDs and physical injuries), more mental health issues (depression, drug abuse, suicide attempts), and shorter life expectancy (up to 20 years less life expectancy) are some of the problems he uncovers.  It gets sort of graphic – we should probably call it “real” – but it’s a medical and statistical based assessment of the issues.

 

Part of his conclusion: “A compassionate response to requests for social approval and recognition of GLB relationships is not to assure gays and lesbians that homosexual relationships are just like heterosexual ones, but to point out the health risks of gay sex and promiscuity. Approving same-sex relationships is detrimental to employers, employees and society in general.”

 

Ø  A July 2012 study in Social Science Research Magazine by a Sociology Professor at the University of Austin, on the life outcomes of children raised by homosexuals.  It is entitled “How different are the adultchildren of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the NewFamily Structures Study.” 

 

It is obvious as you read the study that the professor does not want to be against homosexual couples, but even he can’t ignore the findings of his study.  Children raised in homosexual households were significantly more likely to end up with a variety of life problems: higher poverty rate, more unemployment, more victims of sexual assault, more suicidal thoughts, more sexually transmitted diseases , and many other statistically different outcomes in a negative direction.  As the author concludes, almost apologetically, “the empirical claim that no notable differences exist must go.”  The reality, he confesses, is that children raised in homosexual households do much worse in life by almost any measure.

 

Ø  A report on the Family Research Council website that pulls together results from several studies, entitled: “The Negative Health Effects of Homosexuality.”   Among its findings: higher drug and alcohol abuse, lower life expectancy, higher rates of violence and abuse, much higher depression and suicide rate, and alarming findings of these issues in young-adult homosexuals. 

Part of their conclusion: “Those who advocate full acceptance of homosexual behavior choose to downplay the growing and incontrovertible evidence regarding the serious, life-threatening health effects associated with the homosexual lifestyle. Homosexual advocacy groups have a moral duty to disseminate medical information that might dissuade individuals from entering or continuing in an inherently unhealthy and dangerous lifestyle. Education officials in particular have a duty to provide information regarding the negative health effects of homosexuality to students in their charge, whose very lives are put at risk by engaging in such behavior. Above all, civil society itself has an obligation to institute policies that promote the health and well-being of its citizens…”

 I'm sure there are others, but these are some I uncovered rather quickly with simple Google searches.  Pretty strong information...why hasn't anyone heard about this?  Or am I the only one who doesn't hear this stuff reported?

 

Shouldn’t This Information At Least Be Part of The National Conversation?

                I have heard people say recently that people who oppose gay marriage have not produced an argument against gay marriage besides the teaching of the Bible.  Now, I personally wish we as a people trusted God enough to know that what He says is best.  But even taking the Bible out of it, don’t all these studies suggest that forcing the acceptance of homosexuality is a terrible idea? 

 

Among its meanings, marriage has always been a culture’s way of sanctioning – not just allowing, but sanctioning – the physical and sexual relationship between the two parties and sanctioning them beginning a family if they so desire.  Should our society “sanction/approve” gay sexual relationships and child-raising given the above information?

It seems that every study that has been done shows that it is worse for everyone involved: homosexuals’ mental and physical health, life outcomes of children raised by homosexuals, the health care system being crushed by homosexual health issues, the entitlement system having to support more poverty, etc.  And everyone wants to sanction these sexual relationships as “just as good as heterosexual marriage?”  Why is no one asking these questions?  What am I missing? 

  

Maybe We Should Listen to the Bible After All

                I realize that God’s law and our nation’s law are different.  There are many things that are legal in our country – because people have freedom to make their own choices – that are not right with God.  Many sexual sins are legal in this country and yet are wrong in God’s eyes: adultery, sex before marriage, and homosexuality are all legal in this country.  All are sinful. 

                And yes, the Bible is very clear on homosexuality as a sin.  Not a “super-sin” or an unforgiveable sin, but a sin that must be spoken against like every other sin.  It’s not exactly our favorite topic, but we end up having to talk about it more because it is constantly shoved down people’s throats demanding acceptance.  Yes, our attitude toward homosexuals should be in a spirit of love, as it should be toward every person, since we are all sinners.   It hasn’t been the purpose of this article, but if you want to explore the biblical passages about homosexuality, here are some of the passages under the covenant of Christ: 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Timothy 1:8-11, and notice how Jesus defines marriage in Matthew 19:4-6 by appealing to Genesis chapter 2.

God doesn’t always tell us why His way is best.  God didn’t explain to the Israelites that eating only the “clean” foods and following the sickness laws of the Old Testament would make them healthier and safer.  But if they trusted Him, they would find out His way was best after all.  God hasn’t spelled out all the reasons His plan for marriage is best.  I’m afraid our nation is going to find out the hard way – and may already be finding out behind closed doors – why God set it up as He did. 

Our media goes through quite a bit of effort to produce the image of ‘normal, healthy’ homosexual relationships, which are presented as ‘just like heterosexual relationships.’  The reality  seems to be much darker.  Yet why hasn’t this been part of the national conversation?  I’d like to hear an honest debate about these things.  Something tells me it’s not coming anytime soon.

May God grant our world to see the wisdom and truth of Isaiah 55:8-9 as it pertains to right and wrong: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”