Kirk Cameron on Homosexuality

Actor and Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron stirred a hornet’s nest when he honestly answered a direct question about homosexuality during an interview.  According to Cameron homosexuality is “unnatural … I think that it’s detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.”

Although I disagree with Cameron’s theology and interpretation of scripture, he is entitled to his opinion no matter how distasteful I or anyone else finds it.  Hence, calling his opinion “un-American,” as one celebrity did seems contrary to the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.  Let’s stay clear of “un-American” labels.

Instead, persons who support marriage equality and ending discrimination based on sexual orientation would better serve their advocacy by using Cameron’s comments as an educational opportunity.  How, for example, can rights for lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals, or transgender (LGBT) people be “ultimately destructive” to the “foundations of civilization?”  Not one civilization at any time in history has fallen because of LGBT people.  Homosexuality has always existed.  Books have been written about the contributions of LGBT people to art, music, sports, literature, and military victories.  Hence, what does Cameron mean?  Has anyone had a detailed discussion about this with him?

Cameron was asked a question and he answered it honestly.  It probably has given his agent and publicist a great deal of heartburn because Cameron didn’t have the political deftness to avoid the subject or manage the question differently.  Although to many the issue of marriage equality or civil and human rights is long overdue, it doesn’t mean there aren’t inherently good people who still need to be patiently and perhaps glacially brought around to another point of view.  Being too quick to condemn, marginalize, or ostracize persons who disagree will likely make them, as a matter of pride if nothing else, more committed to a certain view point.  It’s always good to give someone a way out, a chance to save face, or an opportunity to soften a hardcore position.

In Cameron’s case, perhaps it will never happen.  Some people never change for whatever reason.  Yet his comments are an invitation to discuss or debate in a civil manner some of the reasons that keep folks from supporting certain civil and human rights.  What makes something “unnatural?”  Whose standard is to be used?  What about Christians who disagree with scriptural interpretations that condemn homosexuals?

More often than not Christians on opposite sides of this issue talk at and sometimes shout over one another instead of listening and speaking face to face.  Sometimes we forget that our Creation is defined in part by how we react to the opinions, attitudes, and behaviors of others.  In addition, if we react with the love of neighbor as the starting point we will serve the greater good.

Before anyone thinks me naïve or having entered the world by crawling out from beneath a cabbage leaf, I believe with every fiber of my being that Holy Sophia the Holy Spirit, Divine Wisdom Herself, stands ready to assist, guide, and help us in our quest for a fairer, more just world.  It is my belief that holy logic, holy science, and holy common sense brought by Sophia the Holy Spirit, sent by God, will triumph and reign supreme.

Paul is author of Crucifying Jesus and Secularizing America – the Republic of Faith without Wisdom.