IS A MAN'S SEXUAL ORIENTATION FIXED IN THE WOMB?
The following report could herald the beginning of an eventual change in approach towards gays and lesbians by Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelicals - but don't hold your breath!
Please carefully read the following report:
Tuesday,
Jun 27, 2006. 12:38 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A man's sexual orientation appears
to be determined in the womb, a new study suggests.
Past research by Dr. Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in
St. Catherines, Ontario and colleagues has shown that the more
older brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be gay. But it
has not been clear if this is a prenatal effect or a psychosocial
effect, related to growing up with older male siblings.
To investigate, Bogaert studied 944 gay and straight men,
including several who were raised with adopted, half- or
step-siblings or were themselves adopted. He reasoned that if the
relationship between having older male siblings and homosexuality
was due to family environment or child-rearing practices, it
would be seen whether or not a man's older brothers were
biological or adopted.
Bogaert found that the link between having older brothers and
homosexuality was present only if the siblings were biologically
related -- this relationship was seen between biological brothers
who were not raised together. The amount of time that a man was
reared with older brothers had no association with sexual
orientation.
"These results support a prenatal origin to sexual orientation
development in men and indicate that the fraternal birth-order
effect is probably the result of a maternal 'memory' for male
gestations or births," Bogaert writes in his report in PNAS Early
Edition.
A woman's body may see a male fetus as "foreign," Bogaert
explains, and her immune response to subsequent male fetuses may
grow progressively stronger.
"If this immune theory were correct, then the link between the
mother's immune reaction and the child's future sexual
orientation would probably be some effect of maternal anti-male
antibodies on the sexual differentiation of the brain," he
suggests.
Other lines of research also support the sexual
orientation-maternal immune response link, he notes.
SOURCE: PNAS Early Edition, June 26, 2006. (End of
quote).
There is no doubt
that the Bible condemns homosexual indulgence as sinful. Large
sections of evangelical and - especially - hard-line US-based
fundamentalist Christianity appear, at times, to 'major' on
"the modern evil of rampant homosexuality" (as one
fundamentalist wrote), but I have long noted that most
homosexuals claim that they have felt the way they do from a very
early age and that they are unable to do anything about it. Some
of these people become Christians and a few of them have
contacted UK Apologetics for advice in the past. They have
a terrible conscience problem and have been so determined to be
"normal Christian men" that several such men have often
(foolishly, I'm afraid) married. Armed with the prayers of their
friends they felt that marriage could cure them; of course, that
usually did not happen. Some of these tragic men have only a
slender hold on masculinity - unable to perform marital functions
with a woman, for instance.
In some cases that we know of, research into their sexual status
at birth has revealed that sexual status was undecided. Usually
in such marginal cases babies are raised as girls, but sometimes
they are raised as boys. I don't want to offend anybody but I
also need to comment that I have it on good medical authority
that sometimes a rather poor penis has turned into a clitoris as
childhood progresses and sometimes - conversely - a well
developed clitoris turns into a penis. These are medical facts!
Moreover, I have it on good authority that these things affect
rather more children than some would like to believe! Sure,
nobody talks about this much because nobody would want to admit
that their new baby has "questionable sexuality."
Unfortunately this reluctance to admit possible problems of this
delicate nature contributes to a growing child's confusion where
the problem is very real.
Put this together with the proven medical fact that modern men have a far lower sperm count than their grandfathers did and I think we should not be surprised that some modern men are confused about their sexuality - indeed I think we should not be surprised that some modern men are occasionally attracted to members of their own sex. I also understand that if a man has a low sperm count he will also be less masculine and have a stronger female side to his personality. Why do modern men have this problem? Nobody appears to know. But there is a possibility that as we eat more and more carefully processed and 'refined' food and as we eat more cheese and butter (which probably comes from cows which received extra female hormones in order to aid milk productivity!), then masculinity might continue to be undermined. Of course, the average man will have no problem, yet even the "average man" is, apparently, less masculine that his grandfather was! And a few who are a little less than what one might call "average masculinity" may encounter real problems - at least at certain stages of their lives. I feel that, as evangelical Christians, we should face up to some of these issues since it is too easy to just keep screaming "homosexuals are going to hell" (as a few love to scream), when there are real problems here which are regularly encountered by otherwise wholly decent men.
As we see from the above report, men who have several older brothers appear to tend to be less masculine with a greater tendency towards homosexuality - though I have no doubt that one will find many exceptions to this. If this statistical tendency becomes established (and we may be getting close to that), we have to accept that such men probably cannot help the tendencies which they find within themselves. That does not mean that we should encourage such men to acknowledge possibly latent bi-sexual/homosexual tendencies (as society always seems to want to do), but that we encourage them more toward the biblical heterosexual norm and stress even more the Bible's clear condemnation of homosexual behaviour! To note such tendencies within oneself, then, is absolutely no sin and certain individuals may always be troubled by this tendency/failing - that is one thing - but for such a person to recognise such a tendency and then to purposely and intentionally seek out homosexual partners in order to enjoy regular homosexual acts is, of course, to commit sin and to engage in biblically forbidden acts - it is a serious sin. Forgivable? Sure - all sin is forgivable except one as all we believers know. But whenever a thing is sinful according to biblical standards, UK Apologetics and The Christian Hawk will always say so! Nevertheless, we should always show compassion to people struggling with human weakness and we fear that certain Christians do not do so enough.
Christians, of course, must oppose sin, although truthfully we all fall short every single day, but we must be on guard against an assumption that one particular human failing (homosexuality) is the greatest sin of all. The Bible shows that 'All have sinned and fall short of the grace of God' - a serial adulterer who has had many female partners unknown to his wife is no less evil that two lifelong practising homosexuals (and the former probably does a lot more harm). The older sort of homosexual (before the dreadful 'gay coming out' movement came along), probably did little harm. They often seemed able to find life-long partners of the same tendency and never tried to influence anybody else. The great danger is in the modern assertive homosexual - especially as such people come into contact with younger people. It is appaling that here in the UK gay couples are now not only allowed to adopt children but many local councils strongly encourage gay adoption!! This is almost unbelievable, for one thing we must definitely say about homosexuals is that they should not have access to children and to young people.
The Christian Hawk-8