By Dr. Karen Gushta
It’s a common ploy in political discourse to try to redefine the terms of debate so that your opponent, by accepting your definition of key terms, will concede ground in the argument.
Take for example, the term “pro-choice.” Those of us who believe in the sanctity of life avoid using this term, for to do so would concede that the argument rests on the false claim that what counts is “a woman’s right to choose” rather than protecting the life of the unborn.
In similar fashion, in order to make recent Congressional legislation more palatable to the public, legislators have given bills lofty sounding names that are more propagandistic than descriptive. For example, the gargantuan stimulus bill was named the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” And the biggest government grab for control over health care is officially titled the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Conversely, those who refer to it as “Obamacare” are accused of using “pejorative language.”
We should be on the alert for efforts such as these to use language to stack the deck in an argument, or to obscure the real intent of legislation.
Likewise, we should also be aware of efforts to reclassify certain immoral behaviors as “normal.” Those pushing the homosexual agenda are making every effort to do just that. They are driving the effort to get pedophilia accepted as normal sexual behavior.
The latest example of this was reported in LifeSiteNews.com by Rebecca Millette. Two psychologists testifying before the Canadian Parliament claimed that pedophilia should be viewed as a “sexual orientation” equal to heterosexuality or homosexuality. The psychologists, Dr. Vernon Quinsey and Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem, were called to testify in reference to a bill to amend the Canadian Criminal Code. The bill was actually designed to increase the penalties or punishments imposed on sexual offenders who assault children.
But Van Gijseghem, a psychologist and retired professor at the University of Montreal, told the members of Parliament, “Pedophiles are not simply people who commit a small offence from time to time but rather [they] are grappling with what is equivalent to a sexual orientation just like another individual may be grappling with heterosexuality or even homosexuality.”
Jack Minor, of the Greeley, Colorado Gazette, pointed out that “Van Gijseghem and Quinsey’s views are not unique. Harvard Health Publications said in July 2010 that, ‘Pedophilia is a sexual orientation and unlikely to change. Treatment aims to enable someone to resist acting on his sexual urges.’”
Minor also noted that Linda Harvey of Mission America has warned of the effort to link the normalization of pedophilia to the “children’s rights” movement, which claims that children should have the “right” at younger ages to make their own choices regarding sexual lifestyle and “health care” such as abortion.
Such recommendations dovetail with pedophile organizations that advocate lowering or even abolishing consent laws. As Linda Harvey pointed out, “Gay rights groups are attempting to open up sexuality to children at younger ages. There are also gay community centers around the country that accept children as young as 10 or 11 without parental consent.”
Previously, organizations such as the North American Man Boy Love Association were considered on the fringes in pushing for the legalization of child pornography and normalization of pedophilia as a “sexual orientation.” As the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, (NARTH) pointed out in an article, “The Problem of Pedophilia,” “For many years, Western society has considered adult-child sex to be legally, socially, and morally taboo. Pedophiles have been judged criminal by the courts, sinful by theologians, and psychologically disordered by the mental-health profession. Slowly, however, that situation has been changing.”
Over the years, homosexuals have consistently been pushing their agenda. In 1990, the Journal of Homosexuality devoted a double issue to adult-child sex under the title, “Male Intergenerational Intimacy.” Articles in this issue clearly show the direction and intent of those who want to normalize pedophilia. One writer claimed that a man who counseled troubled teenage boys could achieve “miracles… not by preaching to them, but by sleeping with them.” Another claimed that the “loving pedophile” could offer a “companionship, security and protection” which neither peers nor parents can provide. According to the Journal, parents should accept the pedophile, “not as a rival or competitor, not as a thief of their property, but as a partner in the boy’s upbringing, someone to be welcomed into their home….”
While some social scientists classify sins such as homosexuality and pedophilia as a “sexual orientation,” and what is considered “normal” human sexual behavior is now being defined downward to include sexual deviancy, Christians must continue to speak out to defend biblical truth.
Among those doing so are Americans for Truth, which is dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda; NARTH, which has challenged school superintendents to inform students about the availability of ex-gay ministries and sexual reorientation therapy; and Exodus International, which offers help for those seeking to leave homosexuality.
There is hope and help for those who seek it—for we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, who “breaks the power of cancelled sin.”
Dr. Karen Gushta is research coordinator at Coral Ridge Ministries and author of The War on Children: How Pop Culture and Public Schools Put Our Kids at Risk. Dr. Gushta is a career educator who has taught at all levels, from kindergarten to graduate level teacher education, in both public and Christian schools in America and overseas. Dr. Gushta served as the first international director of Kid’s Evangelism Explosion. She has a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from Indiana University and Masters degrees in Elementary Education from the University of New Mexico and in Christianity and Culture from Knox Theological Seminary.
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