Besen to Obama: Don’t embrace the change, drop McClurkin

Americablog and Wayne Besen have managed to whip the Obama “Embrace the Change” Gospel Tour into an AP story today.

I wrote Donnie McClurkin to ask him if he had changed his views on gay rights with no reply as yet. I also wonder if he is an Obama supporter — which would be a stretch from his Republican National Convention appearance in 2004. From the AP article, it does not appear that he has changed his views about his own experience or how to think about sexuality, but nothing is said about his political views.

Obama now seems to be in a difficult spot: keep McClurkin and send more gay supporters to Hillary or drop him and make a mess of his South Carolina strategy for wooing socially conservative Christians.

Exodus files ethics complaint against Alicia Salzer over Montel Show comments

<img src='https://www.wthrockmorton.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/exodus-press-release.thumbnail.JPG' alt='' align="left" hspace="10" Vspace="10"/Alan Chambers and Exodus have filed an ethics complaint against television psychiatrist Alicia Salzer. Actually the complaint was filed some weeks ago but Exodus has received no reply from the APA. Dr. Salzer works for Montel Williams and in that role took part in a controversial March 15 episode titled “Homosexuality…Can it be cured?” After Alan described his personal story, Dr. Salzer had this to say:

“This is marketing; this is not science…Science has shown us that 96% of people cannot change and along the way, absorb an enormous amount of self-loathing, a lot of confusion, a lot of family conflict, so I know the harm.”

In the ethics complaint, Alan refers to my blog post on Dr. Salzer’s misapplication of Shidlo and Schroeder’s research to provide some of the foundation for the complaint. In their public statements, psychiatrists are not to speak for the profession without solid empirical evidence. In this case, Dr. Salzer spoke not only for psychiatry but for science.

As noted in past posts, the video Abomination takes a similar route. The documentary presents the Shidlo and Schroeder study as if one can have confidence in their findings being representative of those who have sought out ex-gay style ministries or therapy.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I intend to re-view the documentary and have some more to say about the video and the harm that can come from misguided methods.

Anne Rice converts to Catholicism, endorses Hillary Clinton

This post is another in the series of interviews with my colleague Paul Kengor regarding social issues and the 2008 election. This one veers off this track a bit in that we discuss the recent conversion of author Anne Rice to Catholicism as well as the endorsement of Hillary Clinton by Ms. Rice. However, the interview reflects different views about how Christians of various stripes will handle the values issues in the coming election.

THROCKMORTON: What’s your take on the endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president by Anne Rice, the famous author of The Vampire Chronicles and recent high-profile convert to Catholicism? That endorsement, which is posted on her website (www.annerice.com), is making quite a stir.

KENGOR: A reader alerted me to this via email. I’ve visited her website and taken a close look at her position.

First off, I must say that I’m impressed with Rice’s earnestness, her sincerity. Her endorsement was made with kindness and charity, with the Christian virtues that she is clearly taking to heart. It is a heartfelt, careful, conscientious endorsement. I mean that sincerely, and not to be patronizing in any way.

That said, it can’t help but clash with Rice’s statement (which was made to Alan Colmes and is posted on her website) that, “I believe the life of the unborn is sacred….. I’m pro-life, I’m not for abortion.” Given that belief, Anne Rice faces a huge hurdle in endorsing Hillary Clinton. There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that Hillary shares that view.

In fact, ironically, I noticed that immediately after the endorsement posted on her website, Anne Rice inserted a link to the website for Feminists for Life, which she rightly calls a “wonderful” website.

Well, Feminists for Life, which describes Anne Rice, is not a group that Hillary respects. Hillary Clinton is a pro-choice feminist who has been downright nasty to pro-life feminists.

THROCKMORTON: Is Hillary really that hard on rank and file pro-lifers?

KENGOR: Oh, yes. She has demonized pro-lifers. I’ll give you an example.

On January 22, 2004, she gave the keynote address at the NARAL dinner celebrating the 31st Anniversary of Roe v Wade, where she described pro-lifers as insidiously plotting behind closed doors to plan the quiet overthrow of America’s greatest right: the right to an abortion. Here’s an excerpt:

“They [pro-lifers] have realized it cannot be done quickly and in the light of day. They can’t just propose a constitutional amendment, and make the debate public. No. Our opponents are patient. They are going to do it slowly, quietly, one justice at a time, one legal battle at a time, one state at a time. As we gather today, forces are aligned to change this country and strip away the rights we enjoy and have come to expect. Slowly, methodically, quietly, they have begun chipping away at the reproductive rights of women. And if those rights fall, other rights will follow. Their goal is to supplant modern society with a society that fits into their narrow world view.”

She lambasted pro-life stances by “anti-choice forces” that “seem reasonable,” but, in her view, are not. Among them, she noted, “It’s a crime to harm a pregnant woman, so it should be a crime to harm the fetus, as well. Right?… We even believe in protecting the rights of doctors and nurses to act on their conscience in deciding what medical procedures to perform.” She warned her sisters: “We should be careful in our complacency. Many of these policies sound perfectly reasonable to the untrained ear. But they are not reasonable when you realize the true intention—which is not to protect fetuses from crime, to expand access to prenatal care, to involve parents more thoroughly in their children’s medical decisions, or to protect the civil rights of medical professionals. These policies are meant to chip away at all reproductive rights.”

She did the same on the issue of the use of federal tax dollars to pay for abortions: “On the surface, this argument also sounds reasonable….”

As the speech went on, she grew more angry, ultimately launching into a tirade about how pro-lifers were seeking to end “all rights of privacy.” She ripped pro-lifers as allegedly being opposed to both science and progress, even though, obviously, pro-lifers include scientists, doctors, medical professionals, people with doctorates and various other professional degrees, writers—people like you, like myself, like Anne Rice and many of your readers.

She finished by shaking and shouting at the NARAL audience: “Our rights are at stake. Our freedom is at stake. Our way of life is at stake. Let’s wake up America!” It was a very ugly political speech, and it was evident from the speech that no other issue so animated Mrs. Clinton. In fact, having written a book on her faith, her behavior in the speech reminds me of her statement that, “I wrestle nearly every day with the biblical admonition to forgive and love my enemies.” This would seem a particularly acute challenge in the case of pro-lifers.

THROCKMORTON: This, of course, is not the view of Anne Rice’s newly found Catholic Church.

KENGOR: No, it is not. The leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, said last month that “the fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself.”

Senator Clinton completely disagrees. She sees the right to an abortion as among the greatest of all human rights. In fact, ever since Hillary Clinton and Al Gore began working on the September 1994 World Conference on Population Development in Cairo, the Vatican has been fearful that Mrs. Clinton will fight for abortion as an official, internationally defined “basic human right.”

Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II were constantly working on both the Clintons on abortion, and made no impact at all. They were very fearful of Hillary’s crusade for abortion rights. Mother Teresa pressed her constantly, by letter, by phone, in person.

THROCKMORTON: In light of the stark difference between Catholicism and Hillary Clinton on life, what, do you think, is Anne Rice’s thinking? How does she come to her position?

KENGOR: Like many liberal Christians and Democrat Christians, she seems to be looking past abortion when she states that the Democratic Party and “Hillary in particular” are “more concerned with the life and death issues” than the Republicans. By this, she means several issues other than abortion. She cites healthcare, Katrina, Iraq, and global warming. Rice told Alan Colmes, “abortion is not the only issue here.”

But here’s the problem with that thinking: All Christians, all Catholic Christians, whether Democrat or Republican, whether liberal or conservative, can reasonably disagree over the best way to handle issues like Iraq–which, by the way, Bill Clinton bombed repeatedly while he was president, each time killing not Saddam and his sons but innocent Iraqi bureacrats in government buildings–global warming, healthcare, and disaster relief. This is a matter of disagreement on means to an end, not the ends themselves. Poverty is the same kind of issue, based on whether you tend to favor government or private-sector solutions.

Yet, abortion is an end in itself. It is the deliberate, willful end of a human life. It is the destruction of the most innocent and helpless among us. And there has never been a presidential candidate in all of American history–ever–as uncompromising and strident on the abortion issue than Hillary Clinton. Abortion–as well as embryonic research–is much more directly a life-death issue.

That’s where I respectfully but strongly disagree with Anne Rice. She says that “unborn human life is sacred.” I agree. Neither of us, surely, would say that global warming is a sacred issue; it might be important, even very important, but it is not sacred. The act of global warming is not on the same moral plane as the deliberate destruction of an unborn human life resting comfortably in the protection of its mother’s womb, nor the generation of human embryos simply for cells prior to their destruction.

So, I’m thrilled about Anne Rice’s conversion and her new commitment to writing about the life of Christ in her work, but I think she is way off base here in her endorsement of Hillary. I believe that her commitment to the sanctity and dignity of human life does not reconcile with her endorsement.

This occasion interview series will continue through the election year and feature various candidates and their views on social issues.

Previous posts in this series:

New Book Explores God and Hillary Clinton

More on God and Hillary Clinton: An Interview with Historian Paul Kengor

Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Giuliani: A Pro-Life Dilemma?

God and Hillary Clinton, Part 4 – Pro-choice Christians?

Should a pro-life voter prefer Hillary to Rudy?

“Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-gay Movement” hits film festivals

Exgay Watch reports that the 2006 video Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-gay Movement will premiere in New York City on Wednesday, October 24.

I have previously reviewed this video but will give it another look over the next week and add comments in another post. I plan to make some comments about the harm that can result from some reparative therapy approaches and other misguided efforts to change sexual orientation.

One of my prinicipal concerns about Abomination is that the Shidlo and Schroeder study is treated as providing accurate and representative rates of change. Here is a clip from a Canadian talk show where Alicia Salzer again quotes the 4% change rate (as she did on the Montel Williams Show).

Ex-gay Donnie McClurkin to tour with Barack Obama

The New York Times political blog (prob a must read for about the next year) is reporting that Barack Obama will woo religious conservatives with a gospel music concert series. I wonder if there will be any GLB fallout from Donnie McClurkin’s presence?

I have no interest in Obama as a candidate, but if I was in South Carolina, I would go. Can I get a witness!?

UPDATE: Some fallout has come from the announcement. Obama has distanced himself from McClurkin’s views. Now gay activists are calling on Obama to drop McClurkin.

Maine school board votes to allow birth control in middle school

This story has been all over the media but I wanted to post it as a starter for discussion. The link leads to a NPR discussion a bit more in depth than the AP reports.

I can think of several reasons why this could backfire. I do not believe middle school kids are likely to be consistent in taking the pills but may have a false sense of safety. We know kids aren’t very consistent in implementation of most birth control methods so I suspect this will not have much effect on births and inasmuch as sexual activity increases, so might the incidence of STDs. Seems to me the best birth control method at this age is the presence of an adult. Maybe the school board could spend some money on adult supervision. I do not know what the fact on the ground are there but I sure hope this doesn’t catch on elsewhere.

GOP meet and greet at Values Voter Summit: Open Forum

This weekend the Values Voters Summit will look for some consolidation of views surrounding a candidate to offset Rudy and defeat Hillary in 2008. The New Yorks Times covers these expectations and what is stake for various suitors for the social conservative vote.

Feel free to post links, comments and observations from weekend coverage here.

Rudy Giuliani’s speech may have helped his status with social conservatives…or maybe not – 10-20-07 – The straw poll shows conservative support split between Romney and Huckabee.

Stanton Jones comments on AP sexual orientation cause article

As suspected, Stan Jones was mischaracterized by Lindsay Tanner’s article on genetic contributions to homosexuality. He wrote this explanation to me in an email earlier this evening and is reproduced with his permission.

Regarding Lindsay Tanner’s Associated Press story titled: Study Seeks Genetic Links to Being Gay and elsewhere:

It is unfortunate when through misunderstandings or miscommunications we do not recognize our own views in press reports. Such is the case here. Ms. Tanner describes my views about the genetic research going on in Chicago in the following way:

“Jones said [1] his results suggest biology plays only a minor role in sexual orientation, and [2] that researchers seeking genetic clues generally have a pro-gay agenda that will produce biased results.”

This is extremely disconcerting, as both clauses (my numbers added) in this sentence are misunderstandings of what I was trying to express to Ms. Tanner in my interview with her three weeks ago.

First [1], I did not say that our results from our recently released study of change in sexual orientation indicate low biological or genetic contribution to causation of homosexual orientation. I tried to express to her that the results of our study, in my opinion, say nothing about causation of homosexual orientation. In fact, my memory is that I complained about a conservative columnist who had, based on rumors about our study, declared (erroneously) that our study proved that homosexual orientation is a choice. Apart from our recently released study, however, my read of the scientific literature on causation, expressed in print in a number of places for the last 15 years, is that biology likely does play a role in causation, though less of a role than the man-on-the-street thinks (“it’s like eye color”). So I did make cautious comments about biological causation, but she seemed to draw the conclusion that I was speaking from the results of our study, which I was not.

Causation is likely multivariate and idiosyncratic, including biological factors. I actually applauded good research on the various factors that contribute to the etiology of sexual orientation, and expressed positive anticipation of hearing of the results of this genetic study. I expressed one particular concern about this particular genetic study based on accounts I had read in the media as follows:

That by this study concentrating on pre/self-selected subpopulations selected for higher probabilities of biological factors in causation, the importance of biological factors for the whole population of homosexual persons may be exaggerated because of the uncertain relationship of the study’s subpopulations to that broader population.

Second [2], I emphasized in my interview with Tanner that a lot of good science is done by gay and gay-affirming researchers, and that we hoped to be treated with the same respect that we hoped we demonstrated to good researchers regardless of their ideological leanings. Obviously, however, the values of the researcher interpreters influence where you go with the interpretations of the findings. My concern in this area is that implications of our research be drawn cautiously and with circumspection. Several of the comments in the article itself indicate the way people are willing to jump forward with interpretations of the implications of research.

In Dr. Sanders’s response in the article to my views as represented through Ms. Tanner, he said “We do not have a predetermined point we are trying to prove. . . . We are trying to pry some of nature’s secrets loose with respect to a fundamental human trait.” Anyone who reads our book will find that we also did not have a predetermined point we were trying to prove. We had met people who claimed to have changed, but were open to findings that this change was frequent or infrequent, and also that claimed change was transitory and unsatisfyingly complicated for the participants. Our commitment was and is to reporting straightforwardly what our research population reported to us. Good science can never result when people are trying to create sermon illustrations for pre-determined positions.

Information about the book in question, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Sexual Orientation Change (InterVarsity Press), is available at the IVPress website. Click on the “AACC Address” link for a 13-page paper summary of the study.

Stanton L. Jones

Provost and Professor of Psychology

Wheaton College

Should a pro-life voter prefer Hillary to Rudy?

Yesterday, I posted the beginning of an interview with Dr. Paul Kengor on the religious views of Hillary Clinton and her abortion policy. Today, I post part two of this interview by discussing other Barack Obama and what a head to head contest between Hillary and Rudy would mean for abortion politics. Go to the end of the post for links to all interviews in this series. Regular readers of this blog will note a pro-life emphasis on this interview. This reflects both my viewpoint as well as an important aspect of the upcoming presidential race. The question which titles this post is already being hotly debated among social conservatives and is a topic to which I will return in coming posts.

THROCKMORTON: Currently second in the polls, Barack Obama could be included in this category of choice Christian, correct? What are his religious leanings and is he of the same cloth as Hillary on abortion?

KENGOR: Yes, that is correct. The degree to which Obama matches Hillary is so striking as to seem almost coordinated, from the way his faith influences his stance on certain “social-justice” economic issues to the way he distances his faith from the rights of the unborn. Both Obama and Hillary seem to have nearly identical strategies for trying to win the “values voter” in 2008. Abortion will be their biggest hurdle.

THROCKMORTON: Is there a pro-life Democrat in the current field?

KENGOR: As usual, no. It is a tragedy what has happened to the Democratic Party. Democrats get angry when their party is described as the “Party of Death” because of where it stands on these life issues, but they’ve done very little to try to change the label. (By the way, “death” here refers to issues like abortion and embyronic research, not war, since presidents from both parties send troops into combat.) My Catholic Democrat grandparents and aunts and uncles are no doubt rolling over in their graves. In fact, the children of all of those relatives, by and large, are Republicans.

THROCKMORTON: On the pro-life side, activist Randall Terry recently asserted that Hillary would be preferable to Rudy for the pro-life voter. How do you respond to that theory?

KENGOR: This coincides with my last answer. While the Democrat Party is being labeled the Party of Death, the Republican Party has become the Party of Life. A President Rudy Giuliani would change that. Pro-life Republicans find that unacceptable. The Republican Party would no longer be able to claim moral superiority on life issues.

THROCKMORTON: You have noted that Clinton would have a clear litmus test on abortion whereas Giuliani might not do so. In a head to head contest, is it accurate to think that Clinton be the better candidate for a pro-life voter?

KENGOR: It would be impossible for Hillary Clinton to be the better pro-life candidate. That doesn’t and can’t equate. There is no candidate more strident than Hillary Clinton on abortion. Period. The voting record makes that perfectly clear. She scores a perfect 100% from NARAL and a 0% from National Right to Life. A President Hillary Clinton who is good for pro-lifers? That would be a more amazing conversion than Saul on the Road to Damascus. The Catholic Church would need to investigate that as a certifiable miracle.

THROCKMORTON: Rudy Giuliani has promised to nominate strict original intent justices to the Supreme Court. Do you believe he would keep his word?

KENGOR: I think he probably would. But there is far more to the life issue than nominating judges. How would he respond once forced to consider supporting federal funding for embyronic research, or when it came to deciding whether to support the various “population” programs pushed by global abortion activists at the U.N.?

Thanks again, Paul for your insights. I highly recommend Paul’s books on Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

Past posts in this series:

New Book Explores God and Hillary Clinton

More on God and Hillary Clinton: An Interview with Historian Paul Kengor

Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Giuliani: A Pro-Life Dilemma?

God and Hillary Clinton, Part 4 – Pro-choice Christians?