Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!harpo!eagle!hou5h!hou5a!hou5d!hogpc!drux3!ihnp4!fortune!crane From: crane@fortune.UUCP Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: gay is wrong Message-ID: <1708@fortune.UUCP> Date: Thu, 3-Nov-83 12:32:00 EST Article-I.D.: fortune.1708 Posted: Thu Nov 3 12:32:00 1983 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Nov-83 17:53:00 EST References: <587@ssc-vax.UUCP>, <156@ihu1e.UUCP> Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA Lines: 80 I have a true story to tell. My wife had a friend who used to have spells where she would periodically blank out and forget things. She didn't know what was wrong, but she knew something was wrong, so she went to various people for help. She went to a MD-type doctor. He said she needed some medicine. The medicine didn't work. Then she went to a psychologist-type doctor. He said she was crazy and needed therapy. The therapy didn't work. Then she saw the bishop of her church. He said it was nothing and would probably go away. He also said that a little more fasting, praying, and going to church couldn't help. The woman also turned to her family and supposed friends in her church. They all thought she was "nuts" and shuned her. Even her own kids! This next part didn't happen. But supposing she lived at the time of the Salem witch trials. She would probably be burned at the stake for being a witch or possessed by demons. This part did happen. The woman was lucky enough to have my wife for a friend. My wife is a nutritionist who does her homework. My wife recognized the woman's symptoms as petite mal epileptic seizures. She analyzed the woman's eating habits, got her taking some vitamin supplements, and within a month the seizures went away and she has been perfectly normal since then. The point I am making is this. People are usually trained only to look at problems from their own prospective and see the solution as comming from their own disciplines. e.g. MD's see everything as a medical problem. Shrinks see everything as a psychological problem. Religionists see everything as a spiritual problem. A lawyer would probably see it as a legal problem. Thank God she didn't see one of us or we'd try to convince her it was a software problem. My wife was in the same boat as the rest, but in THIS case, my wife just HAPPENED TO BE RIGHT. Moral: No single discipline has all the answers. A lot of things that were once condemned as evil spirits and wickedness are easily handled as medical, psychological, emotional, or nutritional disorders. Or maybe the person is just plain lonely and needs a friend. I am not trying to say that gay-ness is a physical or emotional abnormality. But there is a lot of evidence comming out which suggests that it be a structural condition in the body or genes developed before birth. If this is true, it makes no more sense to speak or sexual orientation as an abnormality as it does to speak of maleness or femaleness or of race as an abnormality. How do you define what is normal? The answer seems to be: abnormal is something that departs from society's accepted standards. When taking about race or sex, most of us can see how crazy that definition is, because of what we know about science. Someday when science gives a definitive answer as to what causes homosexuality, all the superstition and mystery will be cleared up in this area too. Attention those of you who call yourselves "Christians": Nowhere in the Bible does it claim to be the last word on anything. The Bible is one channel for God to communicate to man. It is only ONE channel. By the way, God IS the last word on anything, NOT the Bible. What I want to know is what has God said LATELY about this subject. If you people want to be taken seriously, stop beating people over the head with the Bible. Talk to them one to one, as friends. Don't talk to them through the Bible. The Bible is only a tool, like a computer. Learn how to use it to help yourselves and other people. Can you honestly point to ONE INSTANCE where somebody instantly changed their ways forever as a result of having scripture spouted at them? Can you point to ONE INSTANCE of where quiting chapter and verse of something made somebody change from being gay to straight? If you can, I'm sure the entire network would like to hear about it. If you can't you still have your right to speak out and the rest of us have their rights to inject a little sanity.