The same gang that for decades has warred against any invasion of the womb in which a developing fetus (which they call an “unborn child)” resides now hopes to put a fetus on a sure road to heterosexuality.
As interesting as the concept of a gay fetus may seem, the image of hordes of so-called Christians fretting about the sexual orientation of the not-yet-born boggles the mind. Yet the Reverend R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Louisville’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, claims that in utero gays can find salvation through hormonal interventions that might make them straight from the moment when the obstetrician whacks their newly born bottom.
Mohler belongs to the same faction that has opposed pre-birth medical tampering in the past. Gender selection, in vitro fertilizations, even some pre-birth surgical procedures have all been deemed wrongful interference in divine territory. Now that these people see a way to diddle with the sexuality of the unborn, however, many of them are all over that possibility.
In the award-winning film Far From Heaven, Dennis Quaid plays a successful 1950s executive with the de rigueur lovely suburban home, beautiful wife (Julianne Moore) and two children (one of each gender.) His only problem is that he is a closeted homosexual who gets revealed when his thoughtful wife brings his dinner to the office, where he is allegedly working late one night.
What follows in the film is a series of tragic and painful views of the couple’s naïve attempts to change the sexuality of Quaid’s character, most poignantly with a series of “therapy” sessions in which his genitals are connected to a machine that delivers electric shocks whenever the “therapist” shows him gay porno.
Is this the kind of thing that “people of God” really support?
Predictably, in the film, Quaid’s character remains his innate self, the marriage collapses, and he goes off to live with a young blond lover — a man he met when he took Moore on a “second honeymoon” in celebration of the alleged success of the aversive electric shock therapy.
If Mohler is allowed to have his way, and society begins to tamper with the sexual preferences of about-to-be citizens still floating in the womb, the probable result will be a generation of would-be heterosexuals who eventually revert to their preferences for same-gender lovers.
Some of Mohler’s fellow believers oppose his proposal because they need to believe gayness is a sinful choice, not a natal anomaly. These folks hate to give up what they see as a legitimate “biblical” reason to hate homosexuals. Such ends of the far right spectrum squeeze from any possible comfort zone those gays and lesbians who may wish to embrace evangelical Christianity.
Ironically, there seems to be “no room in the inn” for them, either.
Related:
Glitter and fade, Let's talk about sex, Commedia tonight, More 
- Glitter and fade
Dear Dr. Lovemonkey, I recently stopped seeing an ardent admirer, who, over the last six months, had given me a few very nice pieces of jewelry.
- Let's talk about sex
It's not that Eve's religious but sisterly mother wouldn't understand, it's that Eve is apprehensive about her not understanding.
- Commedia tonight
David Grimm's entertaining The Miracle at Naples , which the Huntington is premiering in a lively production by artistic director Peter DuBois at the Calderwood Pavilion (through May 9), is a commedia dell'arte.
- Living with HPV
The results are “normal.” I breathe a sigh of relief. But should I be relieved? It’s been two years since I heard a registered nurse tell me “You have HPV,” and I am still getting scraped from the inside out, still making appointments to see doctors, and still terrified that I’ll get cancer.
- 'Sleepover? I thought you said rapeover!'
Dear Dr. Lovemonkey: My name is Sheila and I'm 17 years old. I met a guy through a dating website. He thinks I'm 18 and I actually will be 18 in five months. We have arranged to meet ...
- Bad destination
Dear Dr. Lovemonkey, I have never tried drugs, but a friend recently saw a show on acid and LSD.
- Privacy invasion
Let’s talk about Susan Collins’s sex life.
- Save Me
Mark (Chad Allen), a trashy young gay man into motel sex and coke, makes a sea change by agreeing to reside at a Christian halfway home, where the once-gay clientele are weaned away from homosexuality and into the arms of Jesus.
- School for wannabe Don Juans
Daniel Rose used to be a dork. Now he’s a sex machine.
- Grow jobs
Until a few years ago, Tom Hubbard didn't put much stock in penis enlargement.
- Letters to the Portland Editor, June 2, 2006
Readers sound off on Casey Sheehan, and last week's Phoenix sex survey
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Culture and Lifestyle, Health and Fitness, GLBT Issues, More
, Culture and Lifestyle, Health and Fitness, GLBT Issues, Special Interest Groups, Medicine, Dennis Quaid, Medical Specializations, Relationships, Sexuality, Family, Less
