Celibacy is never forced

Randy Roberts Potts, gay grandson of Evangelist Orel Roberts, talks about how to make gay people palatable to the Fundie. He is prompted to write about the topic because of a new book, God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines.

Previous efforts to reconcile gays and fundamentalism appealed to Fundies through the heart or mind. Appealing through the heart didn't work because the work of salvation is supposed to be difficult. Too bad if it is more difficult for the gay person to overcome his sexual tendencies. That couldn't be any harder (in their eyes) than a sex addict or pedophile. The struggle of salvation is what makes it worthwhile.

Appealing to the mind didn't work because Fundies don't come to their faith through intellect, reason, or logic. They come by faith.

So Vines takes the argument inside fundamentalism. His reasoning works this way:

* Celibacy has always been a choice, never forced on someone. Yes, some people choose to be celibate, and priests choose celibacy as they choose their profession.

* Orientation cannot be changed. This idea is gaining acceptance with the collapse of Exodus International, the prominent ex-gay ministry. Its leaders began to say that 99% of their clients remain gay. Yes, older Fundies won't buy into that idea, but younger ones assume it to be true.

* So if it is unethical to demand gays to be celibate and unethical to demand they change then there must be some other conservative Christian approved expression of sexuality for gay people. According to Vines, there is: same-sex marriage.

And that means being gay no longer needs to be a right to be different, a right to flout norms. It becomes the right to fit in.