http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=1011
Homosexuality and Transgenderism: The Science Supports the Bible
For over 40 years, a host of forces have worked vigorously to normalize
homosexuality in American society—culminating in the U.S. Supreme
Court’s infamous ruling that stipulated homosexual marriage as a
constitutional right. These same forces have most recently turned their
attention to transgenderism.
1 As is always the case, when
human beings decide that they want to pursue certain behaviors that have
always been considered deviant and illicit (particularly in God’s
sight), they will do everything possible to bully and intimidate the
opposition (cf. Genesis 19:9). A careful analysis of history
demonstrates that the tactics that have been used the past several
decades to advance sexual aberration in America are reminiscent of
propaganda schemes that have successfully transformed other societies,
including Nazi Germany and other totalitarian regimes.
2
For all the bombast, coercion, venom, and widespread ridicule marshalled by the left
3
and directed against Americans who have steadfastly remained unmoved in
their conviction that homosexuality and transgenderism are immoral
behaviors, it is refreshing and encouraging to hear the truth declared
by credible scientists. In a special report titled “Sexuality and
Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social
Sciences,” Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh divulged their startling
findings.
4 Consider their qualifications and credentials.
Lead author Dr. Mayer is an epidemiologist trained in psychiatry, a
biostatistician, and a research physician, having trained in medicine
and psychiatry in the U.K. and received the British equivalent (M.B.) to
the American M.D. Currently a scholar in residence in the Department of
Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a
professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University,
Mayer has been a full-time tenured professor for over 40 years, having
held professorial appointments at eight universities, including
Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Johns Hopkins
University Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine,
Ohio State, Virginia Tech, and the University of Michigan. He has also
held research faculty appointments at several other institutions,
including the Mayo Clinic. He has held appointments in 23 disciplines,
including statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, social
methodology, psychiatry, mathematics, sociology, political science,
economics, and biomedical informatics, and has been published in many
top-tier peer-reviewed journals. Co-author Dr. McHugh is arguably the
most important American psychiatrist of the last half-century and one of
the leading psychiatrists in the world. He is the former chief of
psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is presently a professor of
psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine, and was for 25 years the psychiatrist-in-chief at
the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
5
These scientists found that the most frequently heard claims about sexual orientation and gender identity are
not supported by scientific evidence.
They found that the LGBT community suffers from “a disproportionate
rate of mental health problems compared to the population as a whole.”
6
Regarding sexual orientation, they found: “The understanding of sexual
orientation as an innate, biologically fixed property of human
beings—the idea that people are ‘born that way’—is not supported by
scientific evidence.”
7 “Compared to heterosexuals,
non-heterosexuals are about two to three times as likely to have
experienced childhood sexual abuse.”
8
Regarding human sexuality as it relates to mental health and social
stress, they discovered that, “compared to the general population,
non-heterosexual subpopulations are at
an elevated risk for a variety of adverse health and mental health outcomes,”
and are “estimated to have about 1.5 times higher risk of experiencing
anxiety disorders than members of the heterosexual population, as well
as roughly
double the risk of depression, 1.5 times the risk of substance abuse, and
nearly 2.5 times the risk of suicide.”
Further, “members of the transgender population are also at higher risk
of a variety of mental health problems compared to members of the
non-transgender population” with “the rate of
lifetime suicide attempts across all ages of transgender individuals is
estimated at 41%, compared to under 5% in the overall U.S. population.”
9
Regarding gender identity, the research showed that “the hypothesis
that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that
is independent of biological sex—that a person might be ‘a man trapped
in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’—is not supported
by scientific evidence.”
10 What’s more:
Compared to the general population, adults who have undergone
sex-reassignment surgery continue to have a higher risk of experiencing
poor mental health outcomes. One study found that, compared to controls,
sex-reassigned individuals were about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die by suicide.11
In view of the finality of such drastic surgeries and their impact on mental health, the report insists that
nearly all children ultimately identify with their biological sex. The
notion that a two-year-old, having expressed thoughts or behaviors
identified with the opposite sex, can be labeled for life as transgender
has absolutely no support in science. Indeed, it is iniquitous
to believe that all children who have gender-atypical thoughts or
behavior at some point in their development, particularly before
puberty, should be encouraged to become transgender.12
Conclusion
You see, if the Bible is, in fact, of divine origin, i.e., if there really is a God, and He’s the God of the Bible,
13
then the information given in the Bible can be counted on for its
veracity. If it affirms explicitly that homosexuality is “against
nature” and an “abomination” (Romans 1:26; Leviticus 18:22),
14 then
we can know that such a behavior is not genetic.
15
Knowledge of the truth regarding human behavioral proclivities
pertaining to a host of actions is available from the Creator who
created the human body and infused it with a spirit, a personality, a
mind. We can
know what is right and what is wrong, what is moral and what is immoral.
Hence, Christians were not at all surprised to see some years ago the
invention of junk science to allege a genetic source for homosexuality;
nor are they surprised finally to hear some honest, legitimate,
reputable, credible, scientific investigation that harmonizes with the
Bible viewpoint. One can imagine the hostile response with which this
latest research has been received by the anti-Christian forces of
political correctness. Nevertheless, may the rest of the scientific
community heed the admonition of Dr. Mayer when he urges colleagues to
maintain impartiality and not allow political controversy and culture to
taint their research: “May they never lose their way in political
hurricanes.”
16
EndnotES
1 Vice-President Joe Biden ludicrously labeled transgender
discrimination “the civil rights issue of our time”—Jennifer Bendery
(2012), “Joe Biden: Transgender Discrimination Is ‘The Civil Rights
Issue Of Our Time’,”
The Huffington Post, October 30,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/joe-biden-transgender-rights_n_2047275.html.
2 William Allen (1965),
The Nazi Seizure of Power (New York: Franklin Watts); George Mosse (1981),
Nazi Culture (New York: Schocken Books), pp. 7ff.; J.P. Stern (1975),
Hitler: The Führer and the People (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press), pp. 35ff.; Jacques Ellul (1965),
Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (New York: Vintage Books).
3 By “the left” I mean those who champion behaviors that
throughout history have been deemed immoral by Christian standards.
Sometimes alluded to as the “cultural aristocracy,” the primary
instigators in America have been television networks and the leftist
news media, university faculties, liberal mainline Protestant
denominations, Hollywood, liberal judges, and various foundations that
are dedicated to transforming the American way of life.
4 Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh (2016), “Sexuality
and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social
Sciences,”
The New Atlantis, 50:10-143, Fall,
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/number-50-fall-2016. The authors explain their methodology: “
This
report offers a careful summary and an up-to-date explanation of many
of the most rigorous findings produced by the biological, psychological,
and social sciences related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
We examine a vast body of scientific literature from several
disciplines. We try to acknowledge the limitations of the research and
to avoid premature conclusions that would result in over-interpretation
of scientific findings…. [O]ur focus is on the scientific evidence—what
it shows and what it does not show” (p. 10, emp. in orig.).
5 The reasons for recounting the lengthy and impressive
credentials of the authors is to demonstrate (1) that they would be
considered by the secular community to be highly qualified to discuss
the subject, and (2) that they are not “right wing radical” Christians
or religious fanatics who are biased in their appraisals of the
scientific evidence. Indeed, Dr. McHugh describes himself as a
“politically liberal” Democrat—Erica Goode (2002), “Psychiatrist Says He
Was Surprised by Furor Over His Role on Abuse Panel,”
The New York Times, August 5,
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/us/psychiatrist-says-he-was-surprised-by-furor-over-his-role-on-abuse-panel.html?pagewanted=all.
6 Mayer and McHugh, p. 6.
7 Ibid., p. 7.
8 Ibid.
9 p. 8, emp. added. The authors note: “The prevailing
explanation in the scientific literature is the social stress model,
which posits that social stressors—such as
stigmatization and discrimination—faced
by members of these subpopulations account for the disparity in mental
health outcomes. Studies show that while social stressors do contribute
to the increased risk of poor mental health outcomes for these
populations,
they likely do not account for the entire disparity” (p. 59, emp. added).
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., p. 9, emp. added.
12 Ibid., p. 6, emp. added.
13 Abundant evidence proves these facts. See apologeticspress.org.
14 For further discussion regarding the biblical view of
homosexuality, see Dave Miller (2012), “The President and
Homosexuality,” Apologetics Press,
http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=689&topic=36.
15 Four reasons why we can logically know that homosexuality is
not
genetically based: (1) The God of the Bible would not forbid or condemn
a behavior, holding an individual culpable, if the behavior is in-born,
endemic to a person’s being, or an act that the person cannot control
or from which he cannot refrain; (2) In referring to homosexuals, when
Paul said to the Corinthians, “such
were some of you”
(1 Corinthians 6:11), he demonstrated that practicing homosexuals can
cease their illicit practice; (3) As a matter of fact, many practicing
homosexuals have reformed, further proving that the practice is a
choice; and (4) no scientific evidence exists demonstrating the presence
of an alleged “gay” gene.
16 Mayer and McHugh, p. 6.
