America's 35th president continued, "We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
Though Kennedy spoke these words almost half a century ago his wisdom has never been more relevant, especially when applied to the subject of homosexuality.
Homosexual activists and many in the media have for some time now touted research done by Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s that asserted 10 percent of males in the U.S. were homosexual.
The fact that Kinsey's controversial research methods and suspect findings have been subject to debate and dispute has not stopped activists or the media from continuing to trumpet the 10 percent figure.
The motive, of course, is clear: If it were true that a significant portion of the population were engaged in a particular behavior, how could that behavior be deemed deviant? Perhaps it is even biological.
The strategy has worked.
In spite of the fact no definitive study has ever found a biological cause for homosexuality, their behavior, for the most part, is accepted. Further, a recent Gallup poll found that "U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian." Among young adults ages 18-26, the estimate jumps to 29.9 percent.
The main problem with Kinsey's 10 percent figure and the current estimates of Americans is they could not be more wrong.
According to a report released in March by the Centers for Disease Control 1.7 percent of men identify themselves as "gay" and 1.1 percent of women say they are "lesbian."
The CDC study titled "Sexual Behavior, Sexual Attraction, and Sexual Identity in the United States: Data From the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth" also found that 1.1 percent of men and 3.5 percent of women identify as bisexual. Additionally, 0.2 percent of men and 0.6 percent claimed to identify as "something else." Even more interesting than the recent CDC study is that it has not been widely reported in the media. I wonder why?
If a species of field-mice in Africa is found to engage in homosexual behavior, it is widely reported as suggesting a biological basis for homosexuality in humans. However, a comprehensive study by the CDC finds homosexual behavior is practiced by less than 3 percent of the U.S. population and it is all but ignored. Yet we are told there is no agenda to promote homosexuality as natural, normal and healthy.
The movement to bring homosexuality into the mainstream and portray it as normal has for the most part been based on propaganda and brute politics. The facts, scientific, medical or demographic, simply do not support the assertion that homosexual behavior is natural, normal or healthy.
Homosexual activists and a complicit media have been successful in swaying public opinion.
It is one thing to approve of a proposal based on facts. It is quite another to do so based on misinformation and opinion. The acceptance of homosexuality in America has been based on what John F. Kennedy called a myth: persistent, persuasive, unrealistic.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions," the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "but they are not entitled to their own facts." Opinions abound about homosexuality, but the facts are it has never been proven to be natural (i.e. biological) and the CDC study proves it is not widely practiced in the U.S. On this issue, we cannot afford, as Kennedy said, "the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
Kelly Boggs is a weekly columnist for Baptist Press and editor of the Baptist Message (www.baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
Copyright (c) 2011 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press www.BPNews.net
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