Thought Theater

If you haven't heard about the latest Bill O'Reilly pontification, you're in for a treat. The San Diego Padres sponsored a night celebrating gay pride in San Diego which included the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus singing the National Anthem. On the same night, the Padres gave out team ball caps to any child under 12 years old.

In O'Reilly's twisted reasoning, the "clustering" of gays in proximity to children was inappropriate and "stupid" on the part of the Padres...or as O'Reilly likes to describe it, the night was a misguided exercise in social engineering.

One of the individuals joining O'Reilly is Sandy Rios of the Culture Campaign, a right wing religious organization bent on fighting the "culture war" in order to bring morality to America. Rios asserts that the gay agenda is focused on recruiting young people into homosexuality; making an event that includes gays and young children offensive.

The thing I keep coming back to is this. If a child is raised in a family like Rios', that child will be bombarded with the message that being gay is wrong. At the same time, people like Rios contend that being gay is a matter of choice. With that in mind, how would Rios explain a child of hers "succumbing" to the "gay agenda" over the proper upbringing, the religious doctrine, and repeated criticism of the homosexual lifestyle that she is no doubt providing?

If the "gay agenda" is able to overcome the virtual 24/7 influence of parents...and it happens at random to Christian families...isn't it likely that something else is at play? Isn't it reasonable to assume that if her child declares to be a homosexual, then that child must possess some innate preference that surfaces despite the constant parental influence and the religious beliefs? Further, there is little doubt that the child realizes that such a pronouncement will likely lead to their being ostracized and condemned.

Now if the "gay agenda" and the "manufactured nature of the gay identity through the media" is that effective, wouldn't one assume that a far larger number of children would identify as homosexuals? If Sandy Rios can't protect her child from the "gay agenda", why would one assume any parent could prevent a child from becoming gay...and if one buys my argument, then only one of two things can be true.

One, those in charge of gay recruitment (the wizards behind the curtain?) have devised a marketing plan that exceeds the success of all other marketing efforts such that it can overcome the constant drone of religious objections, the imagery of heterosexuality that dominates the media, the peer influences found in the school environment, and the persistent societal bigotry directed at gays. That, my friends, is one bad ass marketing plan!

Two, being gay must not be a choice and once a child realizes the nature of their sexuality...against incredible odds and with great risk of pain and rejection...they find the courage to announce their sexuality in order to live a life of happiness and fulfillment.

Any parent unwilling to look at the realities outlined above is simply in a state of denial and capable of outrageous fabrications such that one would want to question their fitness to be a parent.

The truth of the matter is that those opposed to homosexuality are desperate to affirm their religious beliefs and there are few limits to the means by which they would seek to achieve that goal...including great emotional and psychological damage to their own child.

The problem is that this affliction permeates the psyche of many Christians such that they attack all that fails to support their beliefs...whether that be scientific evidence of evolution, proof that abstinence only is a failed approach to sexuality, the entire gay community, or their own child's homosexuality, to name a few.

In the end, it is no wonder the world is filled with conflict. If a parent can abandon their own child because of words that were written by men who lived many years ago and whom they have never ever met, then Christian values are little more than the weapons by which we demean and destroy what little remains of our shared humanity.