Gay Rights and Religious Liberties

I just got this article via email and I appreciated the unique perspective offered within. The author, Wendy Kaminer, definitely has a bias against the idea that professional counseling is very helpful for those who seek it in overcoming unwanted homosexuality.  That said, I appreciate that her bias is clearly stated and yet she is professional and objective to a large extent.  Here is the first paragraph from Gay Rights and Anti-Gay Liberties:

An openly gay student seeking a graduate degree in counseling at a state university is expelled for refusing to agree that homosexuality is immoral and declining to enter an anti-gay indoctrination program.  An openly gay high school guidance counselor speaks out in favor of same sex marriage and is brought before a state licensing board to answer complaints against her filed by marriage opponents.  If you’re a gay rights advocate or liberal civil libertarian, you’re probably outraged by such gross violations of freedom of speech and conscience.  Now ask yourself if you’re equally outraged to learn that the victims in these cases were not your friends and allies but your opponents — conservative Christians who have been targeted for their beliefs about the immorality of homosexuality and same sex marriage, respectively.

Kaminer goes on to describe two cases of where Christians were severely punished because of their moral view or for public expression of those views in light of the marriage battle in Maine. Kaminer, again, obviously pro-gay, goes on to say that these two Christians were only guilty of “mis-speak” and “mis-belief” and yet they were thrown out of school and one had his state social work license revoked.  She unfortunately believes they deserve being punished by their private associations and may be guilty of malpractice but not to have their state licenses denied to them.  She also says that their being thrown out of the profession also denies Christians of similar moral values the benefit of having a counselor with similar views.

However, Kaminer obviously doesn’t know anyone who does know that Professional Counselors can and do help many of us find freedom, peace and contentment.  They did *not* commit malpractice as Kaminer infers that Exodus type counselors do.

Also, no one says “cure” except those who don’t agree with us.  The use of the word “cure” misrepresents what Exodus is truly about.  Freedom in Christ is a faith based, complex and deeply rewarding journey that involves a lot of different issues in which sexual behavior is just one.

“Freedom” is also a subjective experience influenced by personal belief, perceptions of self, relationships with others, expressions of faith and life goals. In a movement of thousands of people, 230 Member Agencies, you will find a remarkably common paradigm of belief.  But you will also find some significant variance in what “freedom” actually means for those who are struggling with unwanted homosexuality.  We are not about the simplistic “disease to be cured” model gay activist’s seek to stigmatize us with.

That aside while remembering Kaminer is pro-gay and apparently not a fan of ours, I found this article very interesting.  Here is another quote:

The targeting of Julea Ward and Donald Mendell reflects a tendency to confuse speech or belief with conduct and to seek reprisals against people or groups whose views are equated with actual discrimination.  But equating speech with action is also a semantic dodge for people who prefer not acknowledging (even to themselves) that they support censorship and restraints on freedom of conscience.  In the Ward and Mendell cases, “complainants are wielding the canons of professional ethics as if they were blasphemy codes for the state church and you have to punish these people as heretics,” Alliance Defense Fund attorney Jordon Lorence asserts.  ”Who’s being the narrow minded fundamentalist and who’s being the civil libertarian in these discussions?”

The conflict between liberty and equality is familiar, and civil rights movements often grapple with it, as feminist fights over pornography and sexual harassment have demonstrated.  Recently, the drive for gay rights has produced some speech and belief policing: consider the series of cases involving Christian student groups denied official recognition at their schools because of their constitutionally protected membership policies that discriminate against active, “unrepentant” gay and lesbian students, along with heterosexual “fornicators.”  (I’ve written about these cases here; in my view, the associational rights of private student groups should prevail over school anti-discrimination policies, and I suspect that the Supreme Court, which will soon decide the question, will agree.)

Please go read the whole article.  While I have strong disagreements with a few points of Kaminer’s beliefs, I truly respect the unique objective analysis she has brought to the public discussion on gay rights at the expense of religious liberties.

What do you think?