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Thursday, March 28 2024 @ 10:39 AM CDT

The Christian Right on Cats, Condoms and Charles Taylor

Whited Sepulchers

Mel Seesholtz

Are fundamentalist Christians now attacking cats? Do they continue to condemn teaching condom use in the age of AIDS? Yes they are, and yes they do. And an architect and patriarch of the Christian Right was “in bed with” a dictator wanted for crimes against humanity.
“Are cats for true Christians?” is the title of an article posted by “J.R.” His (or her) basic argument was:

Many conscientious ones among Jehovah’s people today have wondered if Christians should own cats in view of their somewhat sordid symbolic history and the many health risks associated therewith. … This can become a life-or-death issue since to move the steps of a brother away from the path of Christ’s ransom sacrifice is tantamount to ‘putting a millstone around the neck and being thrown into the sea.’ -Matt. 18:6. Clearly, in a matter where our eternal salvation is involved, the mature Christian will not pursue a purely selfish course based on his own personal choices, but will adopt a congregational viewpoint as scripturally prescribed.

In other word, cats are evil and demonic, as J.R. continued to explain in what seemed to be a call to holy war against felines:

Clearly, the Bible … shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the basic nature of cats, while created perfect by God, has become evil or ‘beastlike’ since the fall of Adam six thousand years ago, and more probably, since the Great Flood of Noah’s time (c 2350 B.C.E.). This is a development of the condition borne by the ‘Original Serpent’, the ‘Great Dragon’ Lucifer himself. (Gen. 3:1) Indeed, modern studies of classification of cats, while not necessarily being reliable as they may be based on the discredited ‘theory’ of evolution, strongly associate felines with serpents (despite some external differences in physiology and morphology, which confuse those who do not study these matters deeply). (italics mine)

“Some external differences in physiology and morphology” between mammals and serpents? Apparently J.R. flunked Biology 101.

Noah’s flood in 2350 BCE? Apparently the worldwide flood swept around the Egyptian civilization as well as Saragon the Great of Akkad, who began the conquest of Sumeria and founded one of the first great empires in 2350 BCE.

Okay, so J.R. is a lunatic from somewhere beyond the fringe of the Christian Right. But the Traditional Vales Coalition is “mainstream.” Its executive director Andrea Lafferty was as well informed and reasonable as J.R. when she said on the June 1, 2005 edition of Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, “We know these kids [teenagers] cannot pick up their towels. How are they going to know how to put on a condom correctly, when adults have at best a 15 percent failure rate?”

If “kids” don’t know how to put on a condom correctly, could that be a consequence of TVC’s and their allied organizations’ obdurate objection to, lobbying against and suing of any school, school district or organization that produces a sex ed program which teaches the correct method? TVC considers the graphics used in condom education to be “pornographic” and, of course, “promoting homosexuality”: two things they adamantly oppose. (But apparently it’s okay for the GOP to accept campaign contributions from the pornographer and his porn star date George W. Bush and Karl Rove will dine with.)

In responding to Lafferty’s comments, mediamatters.org pointed out her numerous factual errors and distortions. She based hers on those propagated by the faith-based abstinence-only sex “education” programs advocated – and funded – by the Bush administration: more than $900,000,000 since George W. took office, despite such programs’ failure and their preposterous lies.

The most recent evidence of these programs’ failure came from Yale and Columbia University researchers in an article entitled “After the promise: The STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges” in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. The research of Dr. Hannah Brückner and Dr. Peter Bearman was also the subject of an Associated Press story: “Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to take chances with other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, a study of 12,000 adolescents suggests.”

Evidence of the programs’ preposterous lies came in December 2004, when the office of Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) issued a scathing report on the failure and dangers of “abstinence-only” sex education programs. From Doreen Brandt’s 365Gay.com report on the report:

The Waxman staff report found that two thirds of the abstinence programs in use in schools distort the facts on the use of condoms.



It also found that the program is teaching teens that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half of the gay male teenagers in the U.S. have tested positive for HIV, and that touching a person's genitals can result in pregnancy. … (italics mine)

“Abortion can lead to sterility and suicide” (italics mine). Like any OB/GYN surgically invasive procedure an abortion “can” lead to complications that “can” sometimes lead to sterility. But when performed by a licensed physician in an appropriate medical setting, such cases are extremely rare. Simply saying that abortions “can” – without the necessary explanations, qualifications and supporting information – is nothing more than disinformation and a scare tactic.

“Half of the gay male teenagers in the U.S. have tested positive for HIV.” When were all the gay teenagers (in and out of the closet) in America tested? Was this a national event – the “Day of Testing” – completely missed by the liberal, mainstream, conservative, and evangelical media?

“Touching a person’s genitals can result in pregnancy.” But that’s not the only lie the Bush administration and the Christian Right call “sex education.” In a “Crossfire” program broadcast on CNN in December 2004, Genevieve Wood of the Family Research Council repeatedly refused – five times, according to the transcript – to disown, qualify, explain, or document her claim that masturbation can cause pregnancy.

Reality Check I: most teenagers today, like most of their parents and grandparents and most of their parents before them, are going to experiment with pre-marital sex in one form or another. In the age of AIDS, would knowledge of condoms and how to use them effectively be better than no knowledge?

An alternative to such knowledge was proposed by Lafferty’s boss, Rev.Louis Sheldon, founder and chairman of Traditional Values Coalition. He suggested rounding up all HIV+ people (and gays, of course) and putting them in concentration camps.

Reality Check II: the Bush administration has consistently censored scientific and medical research and turned them into faith-based ideologies. Philadelphia Inquirer science writer Faye Flam’s November 30, 2003 article entitled “Spinning Science as a Political Tool” listed several books that documented “how scientific results are being contorted to fit political agendas”:

In recent months, editors of major science journals have complained that the Bush administration is distorting science to push an agenda influenced by religion and by industry wishes. The journal Science published editorials accusing the [Bush] administration of stacking panels on lead poisoning and pollution with people with ties to the lead and petroleum industries, and loading panels on HIV/AIDS prevention with Christian pro-abstinence groups.

The same concerns were raised in an October 31, 2004 New York Times editorial entitled “Subverting Science.” A recent article in the Toronto Globe and Mail noted TVC’s key role in aiding the faith-based distortion of science:

[S]cientists across the United States [find] themselves in a surreal era of self-censorship. Conservatives used key-word Internet searches to compile their watch lists, so researchers are hunting for euphemisms for homosexuals and prostitutes. …



Never before has the U.S. scientific community been embroiled in such a broad, sustained battle with political leaders, and not just over sexuality matters. The government ignored the protests of its top geologists in 2003 when it decided to allow the sale of a book at Grand Canyon National Park [in the “science” section of the bookstore] claiming that Noah's biblical flood created the chasm just 4,500 years ago.

That’s the same Noah’s flood that J.R. believes perverted the nature of cats.

Further down steam in the mainstream of the Christian Right is televangelist and personal confidant of God, Pat Robertson, who claims to know a lot about the fall of man, hell and, no doubt, demonic cats and condoms. This excerpt is from one of his “teachings” on hell:

That’s the choice people have. But to tell them it’s all sweetness and light, you can live the way you want to, I’m okay, you’re okay. If you’re drinking and fornicating and cheating and stealing and lying and greedy and all the rest of it, it’s okay. You’re okay. You’re an American, don’t worry about it. Boy, that, folks, is what you’d call a lie of Hell. And the one thing the devil would like to do is to keep us from believing in him, or believing in any kind of punishment because we don’t like punishment.

-- Pat Robertson, February 2004

Aside from the usual litany of sins, how interesting Robertson would include greed. Journalist Bill Sizemore followed Robertson’s political and economic activities for years. In 1999 he published an article in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reporting that Robertson had signed a development agreement with then Liberian President Charles Taylor, a man frequently criticized by international human rights groups. Robertson established a for-profit corporation known as Freedom Gold, Ltd. based in the Cayman Islands, with himself as President and the firm’s only director. Televangelist Robertson reportedly told President Taylor, “I pray that this investment may become a wonderful blessing to the people of Liberia and will be one of the many significant investments that will be made under your administration in the nation of Liberia.”

According to Sizemore, there are similarities between this venture and an earlier enterprise Robertson was involved in with another African strongman, Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Siko. In that arrangement, Robertson was wined-and-dined on Mobutu’s private yacht and established the African Development Company after receiving lucrative concessions to develop timber and diamond reserves. Mobutu – dubbed the “President of Kleptocracy” for his looting of Zaire’s wealth – was driven into exile in 1997, and subsequently died of cancer. It is estimated that he embezzled as much as $2 billion from his nation, but Robertson remained firm in defending Mobutu as “a good Christian” despite the televangelist’s own words: “If you’re…cheating and stealing and lying and greedy.”

Mobutu is dead, but Charles Taylor is in the news again. Recall Robertson’s words: “And the one thing the devil would like to do is to keep us from believing in him, or believing in any kind of punishment because we don’t like punishment.” Apparently neither does Pat’s friend and former business partner.

Charles Taylor is currently in protected exile, living largesse in a government guesthouse in Nigeria (where homosexuality is a crime punishable by a mandatory 14 year prison sentence). His former actions – during the time of his association with Robertson – have resulted in him being wanted by the United Nations-backed war crimes court, where he faces 17 counts of “crimes against humanity.”

That charge could be leveled against the leaders of the Christian Right and their political minions. From J.R. to Lafferty and Sheldon to Robertson, their words and actions are nothing less than a call to commit crimes against humanity (and felines).

********************

Crimes Against Humanity
Religious dogma as a weapon of mass destruction

Mel Seesholtz


In the 1980s Africa was caught in the throes of a terrible drought and famine. Pope John Paul II, replete in his papal splendor, was addressing a huge crowd under the blazing hot African sun.

As the television cameras panned out, viewers saw a sea of people, mostly women, most with a child on each breast, many with older children at their feet. All the fly-covered children were emaciated and had grotesquely distended abdomens: the marks of famine.

“His Holiness” John Paul II was preaching against birth control.

Concurrent with John Paul’s message in Africa were events in America during the 1980s. A new, mysterious retrovirus was wiping out a generation of Americans. But on the advice of “religious leaders,” the Reagan administration did… nothing. Even Jesse Helms admits that was a mistake.

With a new pope there was, momentarily at least, new hope, as New York Times writer Nicholas D. Kristof expressed: “Let’s hope that Pope Benedict XVI quickly realizes that the worst sex scandal in the Catholic Church doesn’t involve predatory priests. Rather, it involves the Vatican’s hostility to condoms, which is creating more AIDS orphans every day.”

Hope quickly ended. More dogmatic than his predecessor, Benedict XVI opposes birth control as well as condom use to prevent the spread of HIV.

The use of religious dogma as a weapon of mass destruction took other forms as well.

We never met face-to-face, but we communicated almost daily. “Joshua” was an accomplished dancer, musician, painter and sculptor living in Kampala, Uganda. His art had been purchased by the President of Uganda. He was finishing his studies in Organizational Studies at the university. The future looked bright, until his evangelical Christian parents discovered he was gay. His father informed the police and had his twenty-five year-old son arrested.

Ugandan law punishes same-sex love with life imprisonment. Under this harsh law, even individuals who elude imprisonment face constant fear, stigmatization, and the threat of extortion by the police.

-- Kamal Fizazi, Regional Program Coordinator for Africa and Southwest Asia, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Upon his release -- pending further legal action -- frightened straight friends abandoned him. He was dismissed by dance companies and barred from art exhibits that received public funds, which was virtually all of them. His family disowned him and his unfinished art was destroyed. Homeless, broke and alone, naturally he considered suicide but, as a practicing Christian, he felt “God” had something planned for him.

Finally, after months of harassment, rearrests and releases “pending further legal action,” the police appeared at the home of the woman where he’d been hiding. Since he couldn’t pay the officers the 1.5 million Ugandan shillings (then about $756 US) they required to “lose” his file, he was told to leave the country or be arrested. But because of his previous arrest record he could not leave the country. Two days later I lost touch with him. Some time later I learned his fate: arrested, convicted, sentenced to life without parole. But his life sentence lasted only ten days. He was beaten to death in prison by a group claiming to be doing “God’s work.”

One of the last e-mails I received from him ended with...

Ps: there is no hope to find help/refugee from churches here. They are very much against us [homosexuals] and since the church in America embraced a gay bishop it has become almost the main topic of condemnation in the churches all over here. It’s all very terrible and disgusting and I believe they are all just selfish and with hatred hearts -- yet claiming to be of God!! I don’t go to churches here any more.

Uganda lead the way in the “final solution” to the homosexual problem. From 365Gay.com, November 30, 2004:

(Kampala) The government of Uganda has issued a warning to the UN joint program on HIV/AIDS that it risks being thrown out of the country if it offers AIDS education to gays. Homosexuality is illegal in the country and [Information Minister James Nsaba] Buturo said that contacts with gays in which UNAIDS gave sexual advice would be a crime. The government has recently called on police to crack down on homosexual activity.

Ugandan President Museveni was quoted in the state-owned newspaper New Vision as saying, “I have told the CID [Criminal Investigations Department] to look for homosexuals, lock them up, and charge them.” The directive followed press reports, apparently false, of a marriage ceremony between two gay men in a suburb of Kampala. Following Museveni’s statements, Daniel Arap Moi, then president of Kenya, declared he would also vigorously combat the “scourge” of homosexuality, and Kenya’s Anglican archbishop Abp Benjamin Nzimbi vowed to increase his and his church’s efforts to deal with the “plague” of homosexuality.

Uganda’s use of religious dogma as a WMD against gays seemed to have two stages. First, imprison as many homosexuals as possible. Then, kill off as many more as possible by barring UN-sponsored education, prevention and treatment programs and by refusing humanitarian funds from Western churches that were trying to help Ugandans battle the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic: “Jackson Nzerebende Tembo, the Bishop of South Rwenzori in Uganda, has rejected the money, worth almost £185,000 [U.S. $350,000], from the US diocese of Central Pennsylvania, saying its clergy and bishop, Michael Creighton, endorsed the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.”

Like any war against a specific group of people, this one inevitably destroyed many more than intended: “collateral damage” as it’s euphemistically called. A December 10, 2004 Reuters’ story by Daniel Wallis entitled “Virgins Rally to Promote Abstinence” reported on the “hundreds” of women, most in their teens, who gathered in Kampala to proclaim their virginity. The event was sponsored by several church and youth groups, including the U.S.-based True Love Waits program.

Rally leader Pastor Martin Sempa said “We are promoting abstinence because Uganda is under attack from an agenda driven by homosexuals and Western experts.” A common myth propagated in Africa by evangelical Christian clergy and their political brethren is that homosexuality was brought to Africa by white westerners. The prehistoric rock paintings left by the San people in what are now Botswana and Zimbabwe clearly demonstrate otherwise.

The collateral damage was spreading.

According to the 2004 annual report from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization, in Uganda and other African nations AIDS was fast becoming a disease that disproportionately struck young women. Why? The report suggested the soaring infection rates among young women were fueled in part by religious teachings that required women to remain ignorant of sex and sexuality until they married. And once they married, the religious prime directive was procreation, which meant unprotected sex.

Confirmation of the trend came from New York Times writer Nicholas D. Kristof in the March 30, 2005 story “When Marriage Kills” he filed from Zambia and Zimbabwe: “The stark reality is that what kills young women here is often not promiscuity, but marriage. Indeed, just about the deadliest thing a woman in southern Africa can do is get married.”

As previously noted, in this country the Traditional Values Coalition and allied organizations in the Christian Right have repeatedly fought sex education programs that teach proper condom use. Their reasons are always the same: condoms don’t work, the teaching tools used are “pornographic” and the programs promote homosexuality. For example, in offering congratulations for the destruction of another proposed comprehensive sex education program in Maryland last May, TVC’s report claimed “The program pushed explicit homosexual sex, provided inaccurate information on the dangers of condom use; and discriminated against religious viewpoints that opposed sodomy.”

The Bush administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have consistently obscured the fact that condoms are 86-93 percent effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases. But in true “moral” fashion, when Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit organization that supports comprehensive sex education publicized the subterfuge, they were rewarded with three government audits of their finances, all within an in eight-month period.

As for the “pornographic images,” they usually involve a banana or, as in the case of another Maryland program, a cucumber used to demonstrate how to put on a condom. Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum did that program in. Spokesman for the group Steve Fisher said “They’re featuring a very graphic video that’s going to be shown to tenth-graders, for example, [showing] a young girl how to put a condom on a cucumber.” One has to wonder what Mr. Fisher would use to demonstrate how to put on a condom.

A New York Times June 9, 2005 editorial by Michael Janofsky referenced the Maryland cases and made the point that

Emboldened by the political right's growing influence on public policy, opponents of school activities aimed at educating students about homosexuality or promoting acceptance of gay people are mounting challenges to such programs, at individual schools, at statehouses and in Congress.



Chief among the targets are sex education programs that include discussions of homosexuality, and after-school clubs that bring gay and straight students together, two initiatives that gained assent in numerous schools over the last decade.

Those “after-school” clubs that promote understanding and knowledge are particularly threatening to the evangelical Christian Right. Understanding and knowledge don’t go well with their head-in-the-sand retro-agenda, as evidenced by recent efforts in Cleveland, Georgia where gay and lesbian students were barred from forming a high school club of gay and straight youths:

“They’re just scared of change,” said Kerry Pacer, 17, who is leading the students’ effort [toward understanding]. “We live in the Bible Belt. Anything that threatens change, people here don’t want that.”

Among the most threatened are politicians like Georgia state senator Nancy Schaefer. She and schools superintendent Kathy Cox introduced a bill that would require a parent’s written permission before a student could join such an after-school club. The legislature referred the measure to the Georgia School Board.

Parental consent might have some merit, especially in red-neck areas where violence against gay teens is often ignored. But Sen. Schaefer’s justification for the measure was the epitome of hypocrisy: “I just don’t feel like homosexual clubs have anything to do with readin’, writin’ and 'rithmetic.”

Sen. Schaefer, prayer in public schools, the “under God” Pledge of Allegiance (as compared to the original version written by a Southern Baptist minister) and the “In God We Trust” poster campaign also don’t “have anything to do with readin’, writin’ and 'rithmetic,” yet you seem to have no problem supporting them.

(The Schaefer-Cox measure was rejected by the Georgia School Board on June 14, 2005.)

But the Christian Right’s highly publicized campaigns against sex ed programs and gay-straight clubs are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Traditional Values Coalition leads the less publicized, more subversive attempt to stop scientific research and funding for programs (at home and abroad) that may help people and bring knowledge and understanding to those most in need.

A November 2004 article by Dale Keiger in Johns Hopkins Magazine attested to TVC’s efforts. The article explained how “In October 2003, conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives prompted a hearing on 10 research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).” But when “NIH staff member contacted the House Energy and Commerce Committee, co-sponsor of the hearing, and requested a list of the grants in question,” they

got back more than expected: not summaries of 10 projects, but page after page of NIH grants, dozens of them, all seemingly listed because the research involved prostitution, substance abuse, homosexuality, or sexually transmitted diseases. By mistake, someone on Energy and Commerce had revealed a list that was making the rounds of Republican members of Congress, a list of 181 NIH-funded researchers whose studies had been targeted by a conservative religious lobbying group, the Traditional Values Coalition.

TVC’s executive director Andrea Lafferty -- notorious for her dogmatic illogic -- defended the hit list by saying, “The list was a draft. It wasn’t even finished. We’ve been compiling this information through various means, and also through the Internet. A lot of it is public information. The accusation has been that I was put up to this by the administration. I had this information long before Bush was even a candidate for president, and had been tracking it and tracking it.”

Lafferty’s response simply confirmed that TVC’s assault on medical research and scientific knowledge that could help people -- especially those American citizens she and TVC object to (and profit from damning in the name of religion) -- has been a well planned, long standing campaign of the most sinister kind and another example of politicized religious dogma used as a weapon of mass destruction.

A June 10, 2005 editorial in The New York Times documented still more collateral damage:

The United States will never contain deadly diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C until it prevents them from spreading behind bars, where infection levels are many times as high as in the world outside and the diseases spread easily, thanks in part to unprotected sex among inmates. Routine testing and education programs in prison are a must. But so are common-sense programs that distribute condoms behind bars. These programs have long since been standard operating procedure in prison systems abroad, but are unavailable in about 95 percent of this country’s prisons.

As the Times editorial noted, public health officials “have pointed out time and again that the highest AIDS rates are typically found in the communities where the largest numbers of ex-offenders live.” So prison condom programs are not just about prisoners in prison.

Not surprisingly, TVC objects to such programs. On April 19, 2005, their California lobbyist and “legislative analyst” Benjamin Lopez testified against the proposed California condom distribution program for prisons sponsored by state assemblyman Paul Koretz. Lopez used the usual argument: “encourages sexual activity among inmates.” But as The New York Times editorial noted, the generally conservative California Assembly passed the measure and “wisely rejected the spurious argument that distributing condoms would promote sex in prison -- understanding that sex among inmates is common and will continue no matter what lawmakers say.”

“Reality” does not figure into the Traditional Values Coalition’s “thinking” on any issue that involves sex or sexuality. Their only reality is the religious dogma they concoct and use to increase their own political power and advance their goal of controlling everyone’s personal and public lives. That reality also figures prominently into the “thinking” of other groups within the Christian Right.

On June 14, 2005, president of the American Family Association Don Wildmon issued an “Action Alert: Networks give OK to condom ads during primetime.” Wildmon was in a tizzy and asked his readers “Aren’t you tired of the networks abusing the use of public airwaves to air offensive and inappropriate material?”

As usual for the Christian Right, it’s called “abusing” when the broadcast message is not to their liking. It’s akin to the “activist judge” rant and the latest faith-based, Republican-sponsored gutting of the funding for the Public Broadcasting System that dares to air documentaries on the scientific basis of evolution and cartoon shows like Postcards from Buster.

Moreover, how Wildmon or anyone else could consider a life-saving measure “offensive and inappropriate” is, frankly, beyond me.

Nevertheless, Wildmon continued his rant: “It is inconceivable to think that the networks can get away with broadcasting these kinds of ads when they know our children will be watching.”

Good! Make sure the kids watch. In fact, pop some popcorn and make it a family affair so mom and dad can explain why using condoms is a must in the age of AIDS. The sooner young people get that message the better. But if good “Christian” parents don’t want their kids to see these ads, maybe they should not allow them to watch television during the primetime hours. Who knows, the kids might also see commercials by companies whose products Wildmon and AFA are boycotting.

WMD deployment and another call to crimes against humanity came from Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition. Rev. Banuchi believes gay people should be required to wear “warning labels.” From his June 12, 2005 press release:

We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes 1 to 2 years off the average life span, yet we “celebrate” a lifestyle [a Gay Pride event] that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average lifespan according to the 2005 issue of the refereed scientific journal Psychological Reports.

As a 365Gay.com article noted, Psychological Reports “regularly publishes articles described by many mainstream psychologists as misleading and faulty. The homosexuality morbidity study was conducted by the conservative anti-gay Family Research Institute.”

Psychological Reports’ own web site identifies the “refereed” journal’s agenda: “Psychological Reports: experimental, theoretical, and speculative articles in the field of general psychology; comments; special reviews. Controversial material … is welcomed…”

Even a cursory visit to Family Research Institute’s web site confirms they are almost as obsessively homophobic as the Traditional Values Coalition, whose chairman Louis P. Sheldon has suggested rounding up all HIV+ people (and gays, of course) and putting them in concentration camps. Banuchi’s “warning labels” are a natural corollary, and right in line with Uganda’s “final solution” to the homosexual problem. As 365Gay.com noted, “It is not the first time gays have been told they should wear labels. In Nazi Germany gays were forced to wear the pink triangle to differentiate them from other internees at concentration camps.”

A final thought:

In “The Christian Right on cats, condoms and Charles Taylor” I made reference to the research of Drs. Hannah Brückner and Peter Bearman that appeared in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health and was the subject of an Associated Press story: “Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to take chances with other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, a study of 12,000 adolescents suggests.”

In typical fashion, when independent research does not support their faith-based conservative views, they simply “reinvent” the research. That was the case with The Heritage Foundation’s recent “reevaluation” of the study by Drs. Brückner and Bearman. The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think-tank applauded by Rush Limbaugh: “Some of the finest conservative minds in America today do their work in The Heritage Foundation.”

The Heritage reevaluation by Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson used a sleight-of-hand change in statistical methodology and analysis to come up with results favorable to virginity pledges, as New York Times writer Lawrence K. Altman noted:

Independent experts … criticized the Heritage team’s analysis as flawed and lacking the statistical evidence to back its conclusions. … The independent experts who reviewed the study said the findings were unlikely to be published in their present form. … The team needs to do "a lot of work" on its paper, said David Landry, a senior research associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York. He said … it was "a glaring error" to use the result of a statistical test at a 0.10 level of significance when journals generally use a lower and more rigorous level of 0.05.

Mr. Landry also criticized the Heritage team’s reliance on self-reporting: “The underreporting problem is so severe that it makes that data highly questionable.” Similarly, Dr. Bearman, a co-author of the original study, noted that “Our analyses showed that pledgers are less likely to get tested for S.T.D.’s, be diagnosed as having an S.T.D. and to see a doctor because they are worried about having an S.T.D. Most S.T.D. infections are asymptomatic, and therefore, people don’t know that they have an S.T.D. unless they get tested. The use of self-report data for S.T.D.’s is therefore extremely problematic.”

The Heritage “study” was funded in part by the Bush administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which, as previously noted, has a record of faith-based bias, especially when it comes to condom use and abstinence-only sex education programs. The CDC has announced that it will review all AIDS programs that receive federal funding. The decision was prompted by efforts of Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) who has repeatedly criticized the CDC’s funding of projects that promote “obscene activities” or “homosexual sex acts.”

Note: I first relayed “Joshua’s” fate in “Out of Focus on the Family: A Response to Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage,” Popular Culture Review, 16:1 (February 2005), 45-75. The article responded to James Dobson’s “eleven arguments against same-sex marriage” in his book Marriage Under Fire: Why We Must Win This Battle (Multnomah, 2004).

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