Spring Break
Pamphlet sparks controversy
John Mack Freeman
Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: Opinions and Editorials
On February 2, 2009, Dr. Aaron J. Werner, the Dean of Chapel and an Assistant Professor of Religion at Shorter, published a pamphlet entitled "Is Homosexuality Morally Wrong?" The pamphlet, posted outside his office door under a dusty panoply of other unread papers, didn't become well known until right before Spring Break. And since that time, I've been thinking about how best to respond.
In his pamphlet, Dr. Werner makes some good points. Yes, the Christian community, if they want to "redeem" the LGBT community, should stop aggrandizing LGBT's and forcing a wedge between these groups.
Yes, Christians should attack the problem with love, both to the world and within the Christian faith.
However, I do take issue with some of his claims. I am friends with approximately fifteen out LGBT people at Shorter College. And none of us fit these statistics, all claimed on pages 22-25 of his pamphlet:
• 75% rate of STD
• 65% rate of Hepatitis B
• 40 % rate of anal warts
• Higher instance of depression
• Life expectancy without AIDS at 45
• 11 of us (75%) will have more than 100 different sexual partners in our lives, half of which will be complete strangers
• 20 different sexual partners for year for the average gay man
• 3 times more likely to be problem drinkers
• Gay men are significantly more likely to be pedophiles
All of the nineteen footnotes in this section except for one refer back to a single book: William Lane Craig's Hard Questions, Real Answers (echoing the possible title for Dr. Werner's own book Good Answers to Great Questions). I think it's dangerous to cite all of these statistics from just one source, especially considering that it isn't scientific in nature.
Further, when Dr. Werner refutes an argument about depression being caused by the intolerance that the LGBT community is faced with, his counter-arguments (that no one knows the causes of depression and that others are going through the same thing without similar results) are marred by a lack of quantifiable evidence in favor of his arguments.
In his pamphlet, Dr. Werner makes some good points. Yes, the Christian community, if they want to "redeem" the LGBT community, should stop aggrandizing LGBT's and forcing a wedge between these groups.
Yes, Christians should attack the problem with love, both to the world and within the Christian faith.
However, I do take issue with some of his claims. I am friends with approximately fifteen out LGBT people at Shorter College. And none of us fit these statistics, all claimed on pages 22-25 of his pamphlet:
• 75% rate of STD
• 65% rate of Hepatitis B
• 40 % rate of anal warts
• Higher instance of depression
• Life expectancy without AIDS at 45
• 11 of us (75%) will have more than 100 different sexual partners in our lives, half of which will be complete strangers
• 20 different sexual partners for year for the average gay man
• 3 times more likely to be problem drinkers
• Gay men are significantly more likely to be pedophiles
All of the nineteen footnotes in this section except for one refer back to a single book: William Lane Craig's Hard Questions, Real Answers (echoing the possible title for Dr. Werner's own book Good Answers to Great Questions). I think it's dangerous to cite all of these statistics from just one source, especially considering that it isn't scientific in nature.
Further, when Dr. Werner refutes an argument about depression being caused by the intolerance that the LGBT community is faced with, his counter-arguments (that no one knows the causes of depression and that others are going through the same thing without similar results) are marred by a lack of quantifiable evidence in favor of his arguments.
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