Baptist Professor Trots Out Tired Tactics

It gets so tiresome, hearing the same nonsense arguments over and over. I suppose the other side probably feels the same about us, but really, can’t we stop the false comparisons between homosexuality and pedophilia? At the very least, educated people should know better.

But that’s not the world we live in. Today we’ll look at an article from George Guthrie, a professor of Bible at Union University in Tennessee. Today I ran across his article “No True Compassion Apart From Revelation” from the Associated Baptist Press. In it, he has this to say:

I am also concerned that there exists a short step from affirming homosexuality on the basis of one’s constitution, to affirming other forms of sexual expression, such as pedophilia, on the same basis. Some of our homosexual friends would abhor the idea, but we are talking about constitutionality as a basis for making ethical decisions, and there are those in the global, heterosexual and homosexual communities who already put pedophilia forward on the basis of it being “natural.” My point is not that all homosexuals are pedophiles, but that constitutionality forms a terribly poor basis for promoting an ethical stance on homosexuality.

It’s interesting how Dr. Guthrie equates gays with child molesters long enough to plant a frame of mind, and then attaches the requisite ‘You misunderstood me!’ line at the end. Just in case someone like me is paying attention to the undercurrent of his musings.

But it gets worse, as Dr. Guthrie makes some bold and outright false claims. Claims that reveal his true character:

I am sure to be accused of lacking compassion for those embracing a homosexual lifestyle, and that grieves me. Yet, is it a rightly applied compassion that affirms a lifestyle that too often compromises the physical and emotional well being of fellow human beings? The data seems to indicate that homosexual practice for both couples and individuals leads to a greatly reduced life expectancy (as much as three decades, and not just due to AIDS). Among homosexual men, for instance, there exists a much higher risk of rectal cancer and rectal trauma (which causes a much higher risk of a wide range of diseases). Is it compassionate to affirm such a lifestyle?

It’s reasonable to assume (he doesn’t include any references) that the ‘greatly reduced life expectancy’ he’s talking about is based on ‘research’ done by Paul Cameron and the so-called Family Research Institute, an openly anti-gay organization. ‘Research’ that was panned almost universally outside anti-gay circles. ‘Research’ that was condemned by the authors of the 20-year-old study on which it was based.

Or maybe he’s talking about a study (this one based on science!) published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2005. The one that looks at the very real increased instance of rectal cancer in men who are A) sexually active with B) more than five partners and who C) use alkyl nitrites during sex (Is Dr. Guthrie suggesting that all gays are pill-popping, bed-hopping sex hounds? Last I knew, it was possible to be gay and monogamous. And even if we/they aren’t, are non-monogamous gays undeserving of basic Godly respect?), OR who carry human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus often associated with cervical cancer in women (I wonder what Dr. Guthrie has to say about those women.).

There’s more, but I think we know enough about Dr. Guthrie to understand his point quite well, even if he isn’t willing to own up to it. It bothers me that someone like him is in a teaching position, but I’m more disturbed by the rest of his CV. Dr. Guthrie has been in a position to affect translation of the Bible, and God only knows what bias and balderdash he’s managed to shoehorn in.

Dr. Guthrie, in response to your article, I am not equivalent to child molesters, and you know better than to use a slippery slope argument, faulty pseudo-scientific studies, and misrepresented research in the first place.

I couldn’t care less if you’re compassionate, Dr. Guthrie. You can take that up with the Lord one day. What I care about is that you stop treating my Baptist brothers and sisters and all the rest of us as if we’re weak, diseased, pitiable creatures. We are made in the image of God, and God requires that you treat us better than this.