Abomination?

Just listened to an old interview on The Hour with Dr. Alicia Salzar.  It was dated June 2007 and was promoting the movie she Directed called Abomination.

As I listened to her talk, there were things I agreed with.  Using shock therapy as a way to change your sexual preference isn't human, nor should it be used EVER.  But what was bothersome was the degree of what was left unsaid.  I was actually left feeling quite saddened by that fact.  She left us devaluing thousands of people. 

Now you may think..."Kenny...many LGBT people have felt devalued for many years and still do!"  I want to ask you to stop for one minute...and think...does this make it right to devalue another person?  Do two wrongs make a right?

As we dialogue with people and come to know their hearts, their dreams and desires, it becomes quite evident that their lives are complex and rich with experiences that have helped shape them to who they are at that moment.  We cannot delineate and separate those experiences from who they are today.  Each of us is affected by our parental lineage and what they did as they raised us.  We also take into full account that children are the best recorders of information but the worst interpreters and yet we live in a society that would say...they can be trusted to interpret correctly and as such, we place in their hands decisions that will affect them for the rest of their lives. 

Dr. Alicia Salzar left me with the idea that anyone with a faith or religious belief that would cause us to live our life toward holiness is a negative and hurtful thing.  When in reality, finding our place at the Cross of Jesus is a wonderful and freeing place.  Knowing that we find our selves FREE is good news indeed.  As we let go of shame and guilt, we can walk with greater dignity and love for ourselves and for others.  Even with continued struggles, no matter what they are. 

Maybe the bigger issue is that for years the "church" has proclaimed that once saved your life is without struggle, which left those who did continue to face issues in their life, wondering and question the authenticity of their worth and faith.

For many years, I looked at everyone around me as perfect, without blemish and spot and this left me feeling that I never measured up to the standard of what it was to be a Christian and especially as I struggled with my gender.  It wasn't going away so what was I not doing right? 

How I've come to look at it now is a place of grace and mercy.  This took years of self discovery and submission to Jesus.  Yes Submission.  In today's culture, it is a word that makes people cringe.  With self expression, self motivation, self help, self...self...self...we internally view that we are more important than any other being...even God.  So to submit my sexuality, my gender identity and my worth was significant to me.  It wasn't any longer a feeling of self sabbatoge or that God was this mean creator who wouldn't allow me to identify as a gay man, rather, a wonderful creator who called me into the fullness of who I was as a man and defined my sexuality in His terms. In submitting I am honoring Him not in a fear of discipline, but rather out of love and respectful acknowledgement that He is holy and just. 

Another aspect of the interview that was left out was the impact Dr. Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Institute has had on this generation.  For years he has been lauded as the pioneer of the sexual revolution when in reality he has affected many people's lives with his studies on male sexuality in negative ways.  Kinsey's research included sexually abusing many men.  He is also linked to the Nazi experiments that were going on during their regime...


Quoted from CWA...it states...

THE NAZI CONNECTION
This statement referred to Kinsey’s correspondence with Dr. Friedrich Karl Hugo Viktor von Balluseck, a Nazi who was in charge of a small Polish town during World War II. Von Balluseck, according to testimony during his 1957 trial for a child sex murder, molested boys and girls from 1927 to 1957. 4

As reported by the Franfurter Allegemeine Zeitung on May 22, 1957:

“Dr. Balluseck…[recorded measurements] of his crimes committed against children between 9 and 14
years old … in four thick diaries … of a pseudo-scientific character … while in correspondence with the American sexual researcher Kinsey … about his research, which as he said himself, took place over three decades.”5

Another German newspaper, the Berliner Zeitung, reported on May 16, 1957:

“Kinsey had asked the paedophile specifically for material of his perverse actions. The presiding judge, Dr. [Heinrich] Berger, noted that it was Kinsey’s duty to get Balluseck locked up, instead of
corresponding with him.”6

In an attempt to soften the impact of the crimes, the current director of the Kinsey Institute, Dr. John
Bancroft, told the Indianapolis Star on September 19, 1995, that the information in Tables 30-34 came from one pedophile, a man called Mr. X, later revealed to be Rex King.  Regardless of the number of pedophiles involved, it is clear that they had a skewed perception of child sexuality, that Kinsey encouraged the abuse, and that they left sexually abused children in their wake.
                                           .
4 Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D., Kinsey: Crimes & Consequences (Crestwood, Kentucky: Institute for Media Education), 2000, p. 165, based on German newspaper articles.
5Quoted in Kinsey, Crime & Consequences, p. 166. 
6 Ibid, p. 167.

If people did the research past the surface, we would in society deem Dr. Alfred Kinsey a criminal and yet we still applaud his efforts in the sexual revolution.  REALLY? 

I think if we took the time to face the realities of who he was, we'd have to re-examine EVERYTHING that he put forth as 'GOOD', which wouldn't make us feel good.  You see we would have to be faced with the truth and reality of what was not substantial work or respected research. 

So let's get real and honest for a moment.  My struggle with same gender attraction used to define me and cause me to believe I was born gay.  As I have discovered and faced the ways I was parented and how I perceived the world around me and interpreted events that took place, I have uncovered the real Kenny.  I'm not pretending, rather extremely honest with myself and with others about my life.  This includes the realities of walking in submission to the one I call Father...a God who doesn't make mistakes, but the one who calls we worthy, loved, cherished.  I am his favorite son!  Blemishes and all!

It's sad really that so much untruth is formulated by those who think they "know it" yet when in truth have perpetuated hate and superstition. 

I wish Dr. Salzar could see the joy and peace that I have in my life.  The ways my faith has been positively affecting not just me, but my family and those around me and essentially causing me to love those deemed unlovable.  Maybe one day!