1

My Name

HIS 13

5/26/2009

The Christian Crucifixion of Human Progress

Throughout history, organized religion has been at least

partially responsible for innumerable atrocities, but many people in

today’s culture refuse to acknowledge its role in these crimes against

the human race. It continues to take part in the persecution of several

peoples, but in the US, homosexuals are the biggest target. Despite

Mel White’s assertions to the contrary, Christian dogma is to blame for

the prevalent homophobia in American culture. From a young age,

children are taught that any moral behavior that strays from what the

Bible teaches will lead them to an eternity of torture and suffering in

hell. With this in mind, it is easy to see why passages such as Leviticus

20:13* and 1 Corinthians 6:9-101, would lead strict Christians to

promote homophobia. Minority groups are not the only victims of

religious dogma. Those who are raised on strict religious values are

brainwashed from an early age, and are thus victims of religious

dogma. Former evangelical minister Mel White was one of these

*
* "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a
woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall
surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them."
1
+ "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the
kingdom of God."
 2

brainwashed children. His grandmother, Noni, “kept the fires of hell

burning just beneath [his] feet”1. This kind of upbringing led Mel White,

a homosexual, to develop a sense of self-hatred and to live in denial. It

caused him a great amount of guilt, fear, and anguish throughout his

earlier years and led him to become a well-known supporter of the

religious right, a group that openly condemns homosexuality and

lobbies to the government in an attempt to prevent homosexuals from

attaining equal rights. They often resort to dishonest tactics, as was

recently the case in their support of California Proposition 82. Thus,

being raised as a conservative Christian ultimately led Mel White to

essentially make a career in persecuting himself and his people. He

helped promote Christian bigotry aimed at gays in America because he

had been told his entire life that it was God’s will. When he truly

believes he is doing the right thing, it is difficult to lay the blame on

him; it must be passed on to the ideology that led him to believe that

homophobia was a virtue. What fundamentalist Christians are doing to

homosexuals today draws a frightening parallel to their horrid crimes

of the past, but strict religious adherents have been blinded by their

faith and are incapable of seeing the obvious wrongdoing. In today’s

times, the religious right fights to prevent homosexuals from being

granted the right to marry (all the while claiming their religious

freedoms are being attacked3), and one century ago, they were fighting

against women’s suffrage. It seems as if every time America starts to

move towards a more just society, religious institutions (Christianity in

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particular) fight it every step of the way, trying its best to make sure

minority groups aren’t granted equal rights.

Throughout the first several decades of his life, Mel White was

understandably reluctant to admit his sexual orientation. This is most

definitely due to the fact that he was raised as a strict Christian and

lived in Santa Cruz, CA, which at the time was a small, conservative

town. While today there are many cities all over the nation that are

very gay-friendly and abundant information about homosexuality is

available to almost everyone, the early 50’s were much more

conservative and people lived more sheltered lives. At this time, during

the McCarthy Era, even being accused of being connected to the

Communists was a crime, regardless of whether or not the accusation

was true. American society was so conservative at that time that the

“Hollywood Ten” were sentenced to jail for exercising their First

Amendment right to refuse to answer questions regarding their

supposed but unproven left-wing political leanings4. In addition to the

Red Scare, racial segregation still plagued America during this era.

Although he Civil Rights Movement was getting started, racism still had

a very strong hold on American culture.

The religious climate at the time was just as conservative as the

political climate. In 1954, Congress added the words “under God” to

the Pledge of Allegiance5. Although this very clearly violates the

principle of separation of Church and State upon which the American

government and legal system was founded, they somehow were

successful in adding religious language to a political motto; forever

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setting the standard that Americans would continue to figuratively rip

the Constitution to shreds by integrating religion and politics. Another

important moment for conservative Christianity took place in the 50’s:

evangelist Billy Graham rose in popularity. Billy Graham can very fairly

be considered a precursor to today’s televangelists, such as Pat

Robertson. Graham has preached to more people than anyone else in

history6. Billy Graham is responsible for coining the hideously ignorant

phrase, “The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have

freedom of religion, not freedom from religion”7. Graham set the

standard for all evangelist preachers, changing the beliefs of

conservative Christians in America forever.

According to The British Journal of Sociology, Christian

homosexuals are more likely to feel a greater amount of anxiety with

regard to their sexual orientation. They also feel more alienated and

are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem8. Mel White experiences

this anxiety at several moments throughout his teenage years. In

addition, the report states that several gay Christians, even in their

forties, are forced to hide their sexuality for “practical reasons”,

especially clergy members.

Dogma has the potential danger to brainwash its victims beyond

the point of possible recovery. When people, especially children, are

commanded to accept dogmatic principles on faith alone, it is very

difficult to “stop believing” said principles. Mel White writes that,

although he resents the religious right’s views on homosexuality he

“will not forget the good they did” for him9. Because the group he is
 5

referring to is a religious institution, it unfortunately gets a “free pass”

for all the pain and suffering it had caused him. This could not be said

of any other dogmatic system. For example, in the aftermath of World

War II, most German citizens would never say, “Although I regret the

fact that Hitler and the Nazi Party stripped my right to join a union and

my right to quit my job, outlawed strikes, threatened to send me to a

concentration camp if I asked for a wage increase, and misinformed me

using propaganda, I will never forget the increase in GNP that Germany

experienced, and for that I am thankful”. Nobody says this because it

has become common knowledge that Hitler and the Nazi Party were

responsible for countless atrocities and the little good that they may

have brought about does not make up for those atrocities. Organized

religion is just another form of dogma, and the fact that is doesn’t

receive the blame for the tragedies for which it is at least partially

responsible (such as The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem

Witch Trials, and the justification of slavery in America10) is very

unfortunate.

Mel White exhibits this inability to speak out against his religious

upbringing when he states that “ignorance about homosexuality”11, not

religious belief, is the cause of homophobia in American culture.

Modern studies have suggested the contrary. Rowatt et al recently

conducted a study inquiring as to whether or not there is a connection

between religiousness and acceptance of other groups of people. They

found that although there is a strong negative correlation between

religiosity and acceptance of homosexuals, religiosity’s relationship

 6

with racial prejudice is very weak. And although right-wing political

beliefs also correlate negatively with acceptance of homosexuality and

positively with religiousness, religiousness still shows a correlation with

homophobia even when the factor of right-wing politics is controlled.12

This study seems to suggest that religious people are less likely to

tolerate people who act differently than they do.

Evangelical Christians will argue that homosexuality is a choice13,

and that choosing to be gay is a mortal sin. There are even stories of

gay youth and adults receiving therapy and being successfully

“converted” to heterosexuality. However, leaders of conversion therapy

programs have failed to provide hard statistics to prove their claim that

their programs have a high success rate in making homosexual men

and women become heterosexual. In reality, the idea that

homosexuals can simply become heterosexual is erroneous. There is

strong evidence to suggest that homosexuality is inherited from birth14,

and, therefore, gay people do not have the power to “convert”.

In 2003, a report by well-known psychologist Robert L. Spitzer was

released. The report suggested that it is, in fact, possible for one to

change one’s sexual orientation. In the study, 11 percent of men and

37 percent of women reported to have become completely

heterosexual.15 But the methods used in this study have been

criticized. First, the sample used was not truly random, as the subjects

were selected by voluntary response (meaning that the subjects could

have been more likely to want to participate). The amount of bias that

taints Spitzer’s study is illustrated by the fact that 43 percent of the

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subjects that participated were provided by national conversion

therapy organizations and 78 percent supported conversion therapy as

a legitimate method to change one’s sexual orientation. In addition to

these facts, 93 percent reported that their religion was very important

to them. As if these statistics were not blatantly biased enough, 19

subjects (10 percent) were actually directors of ex-gay programs.16

What were they supposed to say? That the programs that provide their

livelihood are not effective? These problems have called in to question

the legitimacy of this study, and even Spitzer himself has said “…it

would be a serious mistake to conclude from my study that any highly

motivated homosexual can change his or her sexual orientation, or

that my study shows that homosexuality is a ‘choice’”17 In spite of all

this, the religious right continues to cite this study as evidence of their

claim that homosexuality is not inherited genetically, but is actually a

choice.18 This should not be surprising, though, as it is quite typical for

fundamentalists to ignore facts that contradict their faith-based beliefs.

That type of thinking – accepting the so-called word of God

without being provided sufficient evidence- is very prevalent. The vast

majority of the world’s population holds some kind of religious belief,

and many of them are fundamentalists. According to Gallup, in 2008,

54% of Americans considered their religion “very important”, 38%

reported to attend church or synagogue seven days a week, and a

surprising 40% considered themselves “born again or evangelical

Christian”. If these statistics are not enough to illustrate just how

religious the United States is, Gallup also states that in 2008, 30% of
 8

Americans said that they believe the Bible is the actual, literal word of

God.19 This is in spite of the fact that several of the stories told and

claims made in the Bible have been proven to be fallacious (such as

the age of the earth20 and the story of Noah’s Ark21). As a matter of

fact, Abraham, one of the most important people in Jewish, Muslim,

and Christian scripture has not even been proven to exist22. If the

world’s most educated people on the subject cannot find evidence to

suggest Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob (all very central characters in the Old

Testament) ever existed, why do people hold this conviction as their

most treasured belief? Because the Bible (a book with no proven

factual basis) says they existed? The 30% that reported believing in

the Bible as the literal word of God have unfortunately been

brainwashed to the point at which evidence, logic, and reason don’t

mean anything to them.

What they believe is almost equivalent to believing “2+2=5”23, as

Winston Smith was made to believe in George Orwell’s dystopian

novel, 1984. In 1984, those who worked for the government, or “Big

Brother”, tortured and threatened Winston, a skeptic of the oppressive

government, until he gave up his beliefs and actually believed that

2+2=5. In organized religious institutions, children, almost from birth,

are told that if they do not obey the rules laid out by the leaders of the

bureaucratic religious hierarchy (a real-life “Big Brother”), they are

doomed to an eternity of hellfire. Any kind of questioning or skepticism

of the truth of the Bible is not only discouraged; it’s condemned, as is

illustrated in the story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16).

 9

This is exactly the kind of brainwashing that White was subject to

while he was growing up. Even after being ostracized by his fellow

believers, he refuses to speak unfavorably about Christianity. He even

claims that the religious right is misusing biblical passages to “enforce

their own secular agenda”24. In order to arrive at this conclusion, White

must have used some seriously flawed logic, if he bothered to apply

any logic at all. Their motives are very clearly religious. Christianity, as

a missionary religion, commands its followers to spread the “Good

News” to as many people as possible. One of the beliefs that the

members of the religious right claim to be a part of the Good News is

the belief that homosexual behavior is an abomination (Leviticus

18:22). Mel White has it backwards. The religious right misuses the

political system to promote their religious agenda. Even though it is

very clear the United States was meant to be a secular nation, as is

explicitly stated in the Treaty of Tripoli25, they continue to push their

religious beliefs into the political arena, completely disregarding the

will of this nation’s founding fathers. While the religious right is

correctly acting on the exact words of Leviticus 18:22, they are directly

opposing one of the most basic principles of American government: the

separation of Church and State. White’s claim to the contrary either

comes from blatant dishonesty or frightening ignorance. Considering

his upbringing, it is likely the latter.

Although Mel White may think he was enlightened when he was

able to openly admit his sexual orientation, the fact is he is still a

prisoner of religious dogma. Even now, he refuses to condemn the very

 10

belief system that caused him to live the first decades of his life in

denial and despair. The brainwashing his grandmother Noni and the

rest of the conservative Christian society performed on him was so

thorough that it would be virtually impossible to ever convince White of

the possibility that the God of the Bible might not actually exist, no

matter how much supporting evidence may arise in the future. He

accepts the Bible as the word of God simply because he was told that

was the case by his elders as he was growing up. It is very obvious he

possesses a high intellect, but he unfortunately refuses to apply his

critical thinking skills to his religious beliefs. Sadly, White is not alone

in this respect. 86% of the world population is religious. This means

that approximately 5.16 billion people worldwide believes in some sort

of religious doctrine. This is a depressing fact because religious dogma

has not only held back mankind as a whole, it has led to countless,

unjustifiable deaths, and continues to perpetuate bigotry globally.

Hopefully, at some point in the future, people will realize that they

have no need for organized religion, and religious dogma will cease to

delay human progress, both in the social (as it has with regard to the

abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and legalization of interracial

marriages in the past and with regard to legalizing homosexual

marriage and abortion in the present day)26 and scientific (as it has

with regard to discovering the true center of the solar system and the

shape of the earth in the past and with regard to Evolution and stem-

cell research in the present day) arena.

1White, Mel. Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. New York: Plume, 1995. Page 22. Print.

2Lansley, Nick. “Yes on Prop 8? Dishonesty Exposed at 'iprotectmarriage'.” 12 Oct, 2008.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv1Oc5VDMyI>

3Reinach, Alan J., Esq.. "Same Sex Marriage Challenges Religious Liberty." Pacific Union Recorder. 2008
<http://www.pacificunionrecorder.com/108/7/35882.html>.

4Simkin, John. "Hollywood Ten." Spartacus Educational. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhollywood10.htm>.

5Merriman, Scott A.. Religion and the Law in America: An Encyclopedia of Personal Belief and Public Policy. ABC-CLIO,
2007. Page 111. Print.

6Gibbs, Nancy. "God's Bully Pulpit." Time Magazine 15 Nov 1993

Web.<http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979573,00.html>.

7Billy Graham Quotes. <http://www.icelebz.com/quotes/billy_graham/>

8Yip, Andrew K. T.. "Attacking the Attacker: Gay Christians Talk Back." The British Journal of Sociology 48 (No.1)(1997):
113. Print.

9White, Mel. Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. New York: Plume, 1995. Page 25. Print.

10Haynes, Steven R. Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery. 2002. Print.

11White, Mel. Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. New York: Plume, 1995. Page 43. Print.

12Rowatt, Wade C., Jordan LaBouff, Megan Johnson, Paul Froese, and Jo-Ann Tsang. "Associations among religiousness,
social attitudes, and prejudice in a national random sample of American adults." Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
1(1)(2009): Print.

13Worthen, Frank. "EX-GAY: Fact, Fraud or Fantasy?" 2003. Exodus International.

<http://www.exodusglobalalliance.org/exgayfactfraudorfantasyp49.php>

14Zyga, Lisa. "Is there a homosexuality gene?" PhysOrg.Com. 07 Dec 2006.

<http://www.physorg.com/news84720662.html>

15Spitzer, Robert L. “Can some gay men and lesbians change their sexual orientation? 200 participants
reporting a change from homosexual to heterosexual orientation.” 2003. Archives of Sexual Behavior
v32
16Cianciotto, Jason, and Sean Cahill. “Youth in the Crosshairs: The Third Wave of Ex-Gay Activism”. 2006. 62-63. Print.

17Spitzer, Robert, L. Open e-mail letter to Kari Karkkainen, MP. Cited in Stalstorm, O. & Nissinen, J.
24 Sep 2001. “The Spitzer study and the Finnish parliament”. 2003. Journal of Gay & Lesbian
Psychotherapy, 7(3), 83-95.
18"Counseling for Unwanted Same-Sex Attractions." 31 Dec 2008. Focus on the Family. 26 May 2009
<http://www.citizenlink.org/FOSI/homosexuality/concerns/A000008047.cfm>

19"Religion." 2008. Gallup. <http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/Religion.aspx>

20"Age of the Earth." 09 July 2007. U.S. Geological Survey. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html>

21Barnett, Adrian. "Noah's Ark - A Sinking Ship." 27 June 2000. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html>

22Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2001. Page
274. Print.

23Orwell, George. 1984. London, UK: Secker and Warburg , 1949. Print.

24White, Mel. Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. New York: Plume, 1995. Page 39. Print.

25The United States Senate, Treaty of Peace Between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary.
1797.

26Curry, Jason. "Why do You Believe in God?” 2005. <http://www.humanist.org.nz/letters/whygod.html>