Real Bad Theology: Gays Aren't Real

[Part of an ongoing series about stupid things people believe.]

Growing up as a foundationalist, I believed that there was an immutable structure to the world. This order was described in the Bible.

The foundationalist view of homosexuality is that it does not exist. All people are born as Adam and Eve had been created: Man and Woman. All are heterosexual, looking to the other sex for the partner who completes them.

There is a logic to this:

• It takes a man and a woman to produce children, so they are complementary 
• The family unit doesn’t exist (nor does the species) unless we bear children, so the first point is reinforced existentially. Since gays can’t propagate organically, they will die out as a "species." 
• Homosexuality does not exist, then. Or, if it does, homosexuals are genetic anomalies and will die out without prodigy. 

Because this male/female order makes sense biologically and is established in the Bible, it seems immutable.

What then with homosexuality?

Foundationalists must use one of two ways to understand homosexuality: 1) homosexuals are aberrations; or 2) homosexuality doesn’t really exist per se because it is an "addition" to your humanity.

Abomination

Traditionally, the first argument has held sway. Homosexuals could be killed or have their rights limited because they, their sex acts, and their lifestyle are unnatural.

This thinking still exists within both religious and non-religious contexts. From the pulpit, homosexuality is the example of the worst of the worst sins. Greed and gluttony are sins, but they are not as bad as (cover the children’s ears) homosexuality.

But the religious folk aren’t the only ones bashing the gays. Gay bashing may not make headline news except in such cases as the Pulse nightclub massacre, but most queer folk outside of major population centers don’t even hold hands in public for fear of physical harm.

Addition

More recently, the argument has been of the second kind, that homosexuality does not exist at all. This is an attempt, I think, of well-meaning Christians to find a compassionate alternative to the Abomination view. They are trying to resolve this question: how do we love this gay person and stay true to the Biblical view of sexuality that we hold.

It goes like this: All people are born heterosexual, longing for their gender opposite. Homosexual acts, then, are simply actions—additions to who you are, not a true part of who you are. They are unnatural, mistaken actions based on emotional confusion. But since they are additions, external acts, homosexuality as an orientation doesn’t exist. Your acts don’t define you, so your homosexual acts cannot define you. Ergo ... homosexuality as a sexual orientation is not real.

Most recently, the addiction model has been employed. Sex acts are addictive, so someone can become addicted to unnatural sex acts, such as homosexual acts, pornography use, extramarital heterosexual affairs, etc. Conversion therapy assumes this model, and so attempts to pray the gay away are basically rehab for (gay) sex addicts.

So as a foundationalist growing up, I knew that if I were gay, I was an aberration. To admit that I was gay, would have meant admitting I was a genetic mistake damned to hell.

It isn't any better calling “same-sex attraction” an addiction. Addicts are treated like ... well ... like addicts. In our society, addicts are typically despised, even when sober.  The protocol is to isolate addicts from those who might understand their situation and “empower” them to find the straight dude within--using a process we know as Conversion Therapy. There is no recovery in an addiction model, only maintenance, so hope for a solution dissipates: once an addict, always an addict.

So there you have it. Ideas about homosexuality, ways people try to reconcile their faith/worldview with the reality that the queers are here.

I care for people who believe these things. But it’s still just bullshit.