How to spot a complete @$$hole or "Why I'll probably be banned for life from the Baptist Seminaries"

[warning: if you are easily offended,... you should probably stop being such an idiot]

Stanley Hauerwas once said that conservativism is hard to overcome. I should know. It's how I was raised. A southern baptist brought up by another southern baptist who was raised by a southern... well, you get the point. I say this because it is my upbringing in that particular and peculiar tradition that qualifies me to be an outspoken critic of it if need be. Let me broaden that a bit. I believe most denominations result from the spiritualization of our preferences (which is why I don't consider myself to be anything but a simple christian). With the larger picture being that soley of Christ, it frustrates me to see a particular sect do so much damage to that cause.

This week Albert Mohler, president of the Souther Baptist Theological Seminary, posted an article on his blog which you can read here. Most of the blog attempts to show how liberals now face a conundrum... Having pressed for years that homosexuality is biological and therefore normative, they must now figure out how to keep their fellow leftists from selectively aborting (and therefore discriminating against) prenatal babies with genetic carriers representative of homosexual tendencies. In short, having historically supported our GLBT brothers and sisters, will they now have the courage to allow their children to join those ranks if they have the choice? While this would normally seem like the kind of issue-bating that you would see on the O'Reily Factor or Bill Maher, Al Mohler takes it one step further. I direct you attention to #8 on his list at the bottom of his blog. "If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin." Come again?!

Ok, so as a member of the SBC (Souther Baptist Convention), Mohler believes that stem-cell research, which could be used to cure untold numbers of diseases and disabilities is morally wrong but hormonal influence of the sexual preference of an unborn baby is ok? Because that would be an appropriate step to "avoid sexual temptation"? But why stop there? Perhaps we just should carry this line of thinking to its logical conclusion... Chemical castration for all newborns. That way they won't lust, masturbate, have pre-marital sex, dance inappropriately, wear tight fitting clothes, or swear! Right? Plus since the entire world population would be gone in the next 100 years then... no more global warming! No more destroying the habitat of endangered animals! No more listening to rock music! I guess God's a little to busy to bother to create people the way he wanted them to be. Congratulations Al. You've single handedly managed to make ALL christians, and not just the southern baptist variety, look like complete @$holes.

If you were to ask me, I would tell you that both the old and new testaments state that homosexual acts are sinful. I would also tell you that most science points towards a biological cause for homosexuality and that the bible must be read carefully lest we incorporate cultural anachronisms. I would finally tell you the its greatest commandment is to love each other more than we love ourselves (ok,... 2nd greatest). Albert Mohler would do well to take this to heart (as would a lot of other christians i know). The moral fabric of society is not our to take hold of and weave into a cross shaped blanket which we can then use to smother sinners.

"What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture and a going under." - Friedrich Nietzsche