Despite the consistent and regular linkage between gay bashing ministers and politicians who are themselves gay, I have never given much thought to the psychology (often related to sexual abuse during childhood) underlying this linkage. Surely there is the hypocrisy, but this is description and not explanation.
Over at Slate, Christopher Hitchens has written about the [...]
Entries Tagged as 'homosexuality'
Homophobic/Homoloving Pastors
September 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Daily Devolutions, Morality
Tags:Bishop Eddie Long·business of religion·Christopher Hitchens·closet homosexual·gay·gay bashing·homophobia·homosexuality·hypocrisy·LongFellows·New Birth Missionary Baptist Church·religious tax exemptions·repressed desire·same sex attraction
The Nature of “Natural”: Foucault and Wittgenstein
July 14th, 2010 · No Comments · Emotions, Evolution, Methodology, Morality, Power
In my last two posts (The “Sin” of Sodomy and “Natural Moral Law“), I have been considering the naturalness of sexual physiologies and preferences. By serendipitous accident, yesterday I read Bob Plant’s (2006) article, “The Confessing Animal in Foucault and Wittgenstein,” in which he observes that these famous philosophers are connected by their shared suspicion [...]
Tags:Bob Plant·dogma·expertise·Foucault·gender ambiguity·genealogy·history·homosexuality·human nature·moral law·natural·natural science·Naturalization·naturalizing·Nietzsche·opinions·sexual physiology·sexual preferences·sexuality·social construction·sodomy·the body·The Confessing Animal·Wittgenstein
The “Sin” of Sodomy and Demographic Imperatives
July 13th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Ecology, Economy, Evolutionary Adaptation, History, Morality, Power, Ritual
When attempting to determine whether something is “natural ” (vis-a-vis yesterday’s post on Catholicism and homosexuality) one good way of investigating the issue is to use the genealogical method. So far as I can tell, there are no hunter-gatherer or pre-Neolithic societies that had taboos against homosexuality. We can therefore trace the history of the [...]
Tags:Assyria·Assyrian Empire·Aztec sacrifice·Babylolian captivity·Catholicism·Christians·demographics·demography·early Christianity·Egyptian captivity·fertility·group size·Hebrews·homosexuality·India's sacred cow·Jewish diaspora·Jews·Judaism·Levant·Lost Tribes of Judah·marriage·Marvin Harris·Mesopotamia·Michael Harner·Mormons·natural law·persecution·pork eating proscription·procreation·prohibition against homosexuality·Ralph Tanner·ritual regulations·same-sex preference·sin of sodomy·slavery·sodomy·taboo·taboos·The Social Ecology of Religion·Vernon Reynolds·warfare
Professor Condemns Homosexuality on Basis of “Natural Moral Law”
July 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Axial Age, Ecology, Evolution, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Morality, Philosophy
Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers discusses the case of a professor — teaching at a public university — who presented his Catholic views, disguised as philosophy, on homosexuality to his students. One student complained to the administration, calling the professor’s position “hate speech.” PZ Myers disagrees and calls it “stupid speech.” Myers then proceeds to [...]
Tags:berdache·biology·bisexuality·Catholic·Catholic belief·Catholic Church·Catholic dogma·Catholic Moral Law·Catholic theology·essentialism·ethnographic record·evolutionary fitness·extended kinship·fictive kinship·genetics·hermaphrodites·history·homosexuality·Kenneth J. Howell·Missives from Marx·moral·morality·mystification·Native Americans·natural moral law·Naturalization·nature·nuclear family·Pharyngula·procreation·PZ Myers·reality·Reification·reproduction·sexual anatomy·sexual development·sexual ontogeny·sexual physiology·sexual preferences·sexual variation·sexuality·social construction·societies that accept homosexuality·Two Spirits·University of Illinois·utilitarianism
Exorcising Autistics and Gays
June 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age, Cognition, Daily Devolutions, Magic, Ritual
Evangelicals love their demons — which they claim to see or sense in just about everything bad that happens. All it takes is some exorcism or “casting out” and all will be well.
As I have mentioned in several previous posts, one of autism’s effects is a lack of “theory of mind.” This in turn renders [...]
Tags:autism·casting out demons·demons·evangelicals·exorcism·gay·homosexuality·Pentecostals·theory of mind
