Fix the Baby or the Doctrine?

Give the Southern Baptist pastor and seminary president, Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., credit for acknowledging that homosexuality has biological rather than demonic origins. But Mohler should reevaluate his suggestion to find a way to diagnose and surgically change infants found to have a homosexual orientation.

Mohler is completely right in that science is showing that a homosexual orientation has a biological origin. Some examples:

- Dr. Marc Breedlove at Michigan State University was able to change the breeding behavior of both male and female rats through hormone treatments.

- Statistically, there is a direct correlation between the number of older brothers a male has and the likelihood that he’ll be gay. Scientists suspect that this tendency results from interaction of anti-bodies, first between the older brothers and the mother, and then between the mother and the younger brothers.

- Swedish scientists showed that lesbian women’s brains respond like those of males when exposed to female hormones. Since both the sensory input and reaction are completely subconscious, their orientation is clearly biological.

Finally, more than 450 animal species have been documented to engage in homosexual behavior. Is the devil at work with them too? (Note that, in his letter to the Romans, St. Paul condemned homosexuality specifically because it was not “natural�.) Scientists speculate that there may even be a competitive advantage for a species to have homosexual members. A social species that includes members who are productive but not reproductive is able to provide more resources for its young. Indeed homosexual humans who do not have children pay taxes toward our schools. Sometimes they even adopt unwanted children who might otherwise be aborted.

That fact that homosexuality is biological in origin and brings no harm to anyone sets it apart from all other behaviors identified as sinful in the Bible. Other characteristics, like pedophilia and pyromania might be inherent but they clearly harm others.

Rather than fixing the babies, conservative Christians should reevaluate their doctrine. Biblical prohibitions against behavior that is biological in origin should be treated like the Biblical prohibitions against tattoos, wearing clothes made out of different materials, and women speaking in church. They are largely ignored.

Several centuries ago, the work of a scientist named Galileo caused the church to eventually change its view on the workings of our galaxy. We’re at a similar juncture now. Since the rights of millions of people are affected by our views toward homosexuality, hopefully we’ll move faster this time.