Ignorance Is a Weapon, But It Can Be Defeated

In a recent "Bring It On" segment on CBN.com, Pat Robertson answered questions from youth regarding various issues. Two of them pertained to homosexuality and the answers reeked of ignorance.

To one teenager asking about attending events with a gay classmate, Robertson replied "If you go to these places, the next thing you know, you will be enticed into their lifestyle instead of him being enticed to yours."

To another youth asking about how to relate to a friend with two gay parents, Robertson responded, "It’s wrong for homosexuals to adopt. I think that they will lead children into the lifestyle they have."

I'm not saying Pat Robertson is an ignorant man. He has many published books to his credit and has built a media empire with CBN. That's why his statements really bother me. In his guise as a schollarly christian counselor, he is pushing his own agenda and propigating ignorance.

People don't get turned into homosexuals by hanging out with them or having gay parents. In the later example, the child may never learn how to throw a football, but he won't be physically attrected to people of the same sex unless he was born with that instinct.

Pat Robertson and his ilk don't want people to know that. He wants us to think homosexuals are evil, deviant beings who don't deserve some basic human rights.

I am happy to present evidence that there are a lot of people tuning him out. Results of a survey just released by The Pew Research Center shows that support for same-sex marriage and gay adoption is growing. According to the survey, 51% of the respondants were opposed to same-sex marriage, down from 63% in February 2004. Those who favor it are up from 30% to 39% during the same time period. Over a longer period of time, the survey shows support for gay adoption up from 38% in 1999 to 46% now.

Despite all the money and resources the "fundamentalists" have devoted to convincing people to discriminate or even hate homosexuals, it appears there are more people seeking the truth for themselves and arriving at a point of acceptance.

There is still a lot of work to be done here, though, and the efforts of our opponents will only intensify with results such as these. Those who are open-minded and accepting of people the way God made them will need to match the intensity of the narrow-minded to advance the cause of acceptance and rights for all.