The plight of homosexuals seems to take up an inordinate amount of space in our newspapers these days and occupies a disproportionate share of air time on TV and radio. Visitors from another planet might conclude that the tears and trials of guys who do guys is a really big problem here, that it affects a whole lot of people in this country. And they would be right. The people it affects most, however, are not the 1 to 5 percent of the population who elect to practice same-gender sex, but the 95 to 99 percent who don't.

Homosexuality is the politically correct cause of the moment for those who see America as a bastion of barbarism because a few of its leaders and citizens still think morality should play some role in government.

In fact, it is no more or less important than a dozen other causes these perennial victims and their hired media whiners trot out whenever the majority dares suggest that some behaviors should be restrained--even if they do feel good.

The problem is not homosexuality, but the fact that each time our government compromises another of its moral values, the underpinning of our society is weakened. The very thing that has made our nation strong--even with all of its warts--is the idea that our leaders and citizens are answerable to a higher authority. The legacy of that authority is a code of moral behavior, reflected in our laws. Without that accountability, democracy becomes chaos.

Like the frog in the kettle that quietly boils to death because the temperature of the water increases very gradually, we stand back and watch the moral fabric of our society rot and decay, thread by thread, each time some trendy special-interest group goes whining to the media and lawmakers for special attention and treatment. The latest and most popular affront is coming from homosexuals and their supporters, but the strategy reads like an excerpt from the standard liberal playbook.

First, a "crisis" is created and dutifully documented by an obedient press. The recent Tri-City Herald coverage of local homosexuals is a classic example. How many people, besides those who invented the crisis, knew such a serious problem with discrimination and gay-bashing existed in the Tri-Cities? Indeed, how many people even gave the matter a passing thought? And if nobody knew about it, and nobody thought about it, exactly who was doing all the bashing?

The truth of the matter is that no one was. Not a single instance of gay-bashing has been reported to any Tri-City police agency. It will be interesting to see if that admirable record is maintained, now that the crisis has been so artfully revealed by the Herald.

Once the crisis has been created, the second step is to generate guilt in the minds of the people. Carefully crafted analogies--comparing the newly oppressed group with slaves in the antebellum South, Jews in Hitler's Germany, and the American Indians from whom we stole the country so many generations ago--coax tears from even the stoniest heart. Never mind that the agenda, the strategy, the analogies and rhetoric were all researched, developed, tested, packaged and marketed by some East Coast spin factory that has neither the slightest concern for, nor knowledge of, anything in rural Washington.

When our hearts have been sufficiently bled by guilt, our tears jerked dry with simpering pathos, and our brains battered to mush by media rhetoric, we awaken one morning to realize we are indeed in the midst of the greatest social crisis since the plagues of Egypt--and it's about time somebody did something about it.

The something usually takes the form of more laws--just what we need--and we tread water, frog-like, as our legislators turn up the heat and pass them. On the surface the new laws sound benign, almost poetic. They sensitize our society to the needs and feelings of oppressed brother and sisters. But beneath the velvet glove is an iron claw that rips the guts out of our country by devouring the very values that have made it strong.

Underlying this strategy is the insidious concept that legality equals morality. If it's not against the law, then it's gotta be OK. The whole concept spits in the eye of the notion of a higher authority. It presupposes that man is capable of making up the rules all by himself as he trundles along through time, and therefore has license to change them whenever they become inconvenient.

It is the same humanist philosophy that gave Germany moral license to legally kill millions of Jews, "mental defectives," and yes, even homosexuals.

With no higher authority, no binding moral code exists, so if we say it's legal then it becomes moral.

It is the same humanist philosophy that may soon lead to legalized and therefore moral sex between adults and small children in America. Sound like alarmist rhetoric? Don't bet the rent on it. The North American Man Boy Love Association has now attained recognition and tacit approval in the national media--and even in the United Nations.

In case you're not familiar with NAMBLA, it is a highly organized group of some 1,000 outspoken pedophiles who openly advocate eliminating the age of sexual consent. Traditional values, says NAMBLA, allow parents to violate the rights of their children by preventing them from having sex with pedophiles. Since children need love, they argue, they should have the freedom and liberty to voluntarily engage in homosexual activity with adult males.

NAMBLA President, Bill Arnett, appeared recently on CNN's Larry King show. In that appearance, Arnett stated that his organization is an active member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, which was recently granted official credentials by the United Nations, and the opportunity to participate in some of that distinguished body's activities. He reminded King that the International Alliance had signed a pact with NAMBLA, agreeing to "treat all sexual minorities with respect, including pedophiles."

On the surface, NAMBLA does not appear to be helping the homosexual cause and many gays and lesbians wish they would go away. In a perverse variation on the "good-cop, bad-cop" routine, however, NAMBLA is playing a classic role in liberal strategy.

When compared with the prospect of legalized child sex, other homosexual demands sound downright conservative--and a lot more palatable to those stodgy people who still take their morals into the voting booth.

When you think of dirty old men scornfully and legally seducing little boys over the screaming protests of their powerless parents, legally blessed homosexual marriages seem a little less weird.

No thanks. Just between us frogs, I think the water is hot enough already. It's time to either turn down the heat or get out of the kettle.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, May/June 1996