Lights Out for Logic

Last week, Andrew Sullivan linked to a segment of Albert Mohler's radio show, during which Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, asked his listeners to engage in a conversation about Christian views of homosexuality. He wondered whether Christians really were "on the wrong side of history" with the issue, as many people (including many Christians, to be fair) now believe. He's an articulate host, and he spends much of the show honestly confronting the fact that evangelicals are losing the culture's attention when it comes to homosexuality. He admits it's embarrassing that, in the past, the Bible was used to justify things like slavery, and he wonders if a similar mistake is being made now. (He ends up firmly arguing that a similar mistake is not being made now, because of scripture, and this always amuses/horrifies/enrages me, when someone says, "Hey, I know that interpretation of scripture has been used in the past for pretty evil ends, but that's not happening now, and let me point out the scripture that proves it." Ugh. Failure of Logic 101.)

Articulate heads screaming for the fire exit, though, when Mohler opens his phone lines. Most entertaining was an exchange between Mohler and a caller from Louisville named Phillip. The caller before Phillip dusted off the old argument that sex is meant for reproduction, so if we were all gay, it would be "goodbye" to the human race...

Phillip: I think no matter what, (Christians will) be in the minority, because Jesus states in John 7:7 that the world will hate him because he testifies that their deeds are evil. And on top of that, the Bible clearly states that homosexuality is against Christianity in 1st Corinthians 6. But not only that, survival of the fittest and Darwinism contradict homosexuality, going back to the comment earlier that, you know, we are not created to be reproductive in homosexuality, so we would die out eventually, so they contradict themselves in that sense, too.

Mohler: You know, that's a very interesting point, Phillip. And you remind me of the Enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant.

Wha? Really, Albert?? Phillip reminds you of Kant? Do they have the same haircut?

Mohler then goes on to greatly abuse Kant's categorical imperative in the service of that argument, the one about reproduction. Science increasingly finds evidence of homosexual behavior across the entire biological spectrum, so the notion that we might all wake up tomorrow and choose to be gay is even dumber than it used to be, which was already As Dumb As Possible. Mostly, I just wish that people making claims about morality would just admit it and fight it out as best they can, and stop trying to appeal to practicality. Look around the planet, people -- reproduction is not our problem.