The coalition that advocated last year for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota has continued to fight as legislators now consider a marriage equality bill. The so-called “Minnesota for Marriage” coalition is urging pastors to use their sermon on April 7 to take a stand against same-sex marriage, and the provided materials — a “Sermon starter,” accompanying PowerPoint presentation, and bulletin insert — are gratuitously anti-gay. Notably, one passage not only condemns gay people as having a chosen behavior, but then compares the LGBT movement to Nazis for peddling untruths:
Third, there is a definitive problem. Homosexuals claim: “We were born this way; it is in our genes; God made us gay.” They cite old “gay gene” studies predominantly conducted by researchers who are homosexuals; studies that have been repudiated by credible research. Yet these same biased and discredited studies have been widely publicized by the liberal media as true and factual. They essentially practice Joseph Goebel’s Nazi philosophy of propaganda, which is basically this: Tell a lie long enough and loud enough and eventually most mindless Americans will believe it.
Hear this: God did not make anyone homosexual. The Bible declares that the definitive problem is ours: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…” (Isaiah 53:6). Every one of us has a sin nature that twists and perverts God-given desires not only toward homosexuality, but toward all sorts of sin, including sexual sins such as promiscuity, adultery, pedophilia, etc. Our sinful nature is the root of all manner of evil, but with God’s help, we can choose not to give into those evil desires.
Dr. James Dobson says: “I am certain that homosexuality does not result from irresistible genetic influences, as some would have us believe.” Scientifically speaking, there is no gay gene. Listen, I do not believe that God would not place in your genetic code something that would damn your immortal soul. Again, it is our sin nature and its perverted and twisted desires that people give into, just as the Bible says in Rom. 1:24–27. That’s the definitive problem.
To sum up: LGBT activists use Nazi propaganda techniques, homosexuality is comparable to promiscuity, adultery, and pedophilia, and gays are sinners who have “perverted and twisted desires.”
The books this sermon claims have been “repudiated” were published in the early 1990s, and generally aren’t cited anywhere by anybody. The American Psychological Association explains that sexual orientation does have a biological component, and the latest research suggests that sexual orientation is determined by epigenetics — this means the “environmental factors” impacting gene presentation take place in the womb and have little to do with upbringing.
The clear takeaway is that Minnesota for Marriage has little interest in preserving “tradition” or “responsible procreation”; theirs is a mission of hateful condemnation.