The recent decision by the Boy Scouts to allow gay children into their ranks has created quite the stir in the Christian community. Many leaders have spoken out against this move, like controversial pastor, Pat Robertson, and Faith2Action president, Janet Porter. Mrs. Porter said, at a conference, that the Boy Scouts have capitulated to the homosexual agenda. She also implies that the Boy Scouts were the last secular organization that held up “traditional” values.

“And now the last secular organization has capitulated to the homosexual agenda. They have put the homosexual agenda and the funds that come from the corporate donations over the safety of children in their care. If you haven’t heard, while they’re keeping out the homosexual predator scoutmasters, they’re allowing these confused children who are sexually attracted to other boys to go camping with your son in the same tent.”

In the speech, she goes on to say that the last battle, before Christianity becomes criminalized, is the battle for marriage equality. Apparently, Mrs. Porter hasn’t taken a look at the religious landscape in America. Since 78 percent of Americans self-identify with some branch of Christianity, I’m not quite sure where the criminalization of Christianity comes from.

Many Christian leaders like Mrs. Porter have alleged that the government and the LGBT lobby are forcing their lifestyle on Americans. That is simply not the case. There is a difference between combating discrimination against an individual’s sexual orientation and making everyone gay. Nobody is telling Christians or any other group who detests homosexuals to become gay; the push is to end discrimination against this particular segment of society. In a lot of ways it is similar to racism in the United States. Of course, we know there are still racists; however, it is illegal to discriminate against someone based on the color of their skin. The fight is for equality and the right to have the same rights as every other American.

The usual retort when equating racism and homosexuality is the fact that homosexuality is a “choice.” Mrs. Porter uses the story of Jason Collins, the NBA player who recently came out, to prove her point that homosexuality is a choice.

“He actually makes our [anti-gay lobby] case against their agenda. They’re basing their agenda to beat us with a bat of intolerance. They’re trying to equate homosexuality, the behavior, with race, gender and mutable characteristics. But Jason Collins makes our case. You know that he is an identical twin? You have to remember that identical twins have identical genes. Jason Collins brother is a heterosexual. So it’s clearly not genetic.” [Transcript from video below.]

There are several ways to respond to this absurd statement. One can postulate that perhaps Jason Collins’ brother simply has not yet revealed himself as gay, thus making their homosexuality genetic, or you can rebut this statement with science. I choose to go the scientific route. There have been studies that prove that identical twins’ genes can actually be different. For example, in a study coming from University of Alabama, one twin was missing some genes on particular chromosomes that indicated a risk of leukemia, which the subject eventually suffered from. The other twin, however, did not suffer from leukemia. So, indeed, it is possible to be identical twins and exhibit genetically different behavior.

Porter continued making futile attempts to prove that Christianity was under attack and being criminalized. She told the story of Scott Lively, who is now facing charges of crimes against humanity for his role in the anti-gay movement in Uganda. Lively was promoting “Biblical principles” during a time when a controversial “Kill the gays” bill was circulating in the country. Scott Lively supported the measure, but didn’t necessarily support the aspect of capital punishment for homosexuals. However, in the interview you can see his reluctance to step away from the “Kill the gays” legislation:

Here is the video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08HpzqZAQ_g&w=420&h=315]

Nevertheless, Christian leaders don’t understand that their treatment of homosexuals in the United States and around the world constitutes a gross form of discrimination. Instead, they view the backlash against their antiquated “Biblical principles” as the criminalization of Christianity, despite any actual evidence of such criminalization. Christian leaders remain under the assumption that the United States is a Christian nation. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Surely, a large majority of the country identifies with the Christian faith, but America wasn’t founded as a Christian nation. Whenever a Christian makes such a bold statement, kindly refer them to what THEIR founding fathers understood regarding America.

The Treaty of Tripoli, article 11 says:

“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…”

In addition to these statements, Mrs. Porter also asserts that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarettes.

Here is the video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhwHi5YxBQ&w=420&h=315]