Bush Aligns Himself With Southern Baptists (homophobic?)

[Ben.]

Does that make me a homophobe?  

Technically he's not a homophobe, he doesn't hate people because their gay, hell! "hate" isn’t even the right word imho, he dislikes it because he sees it as a contravention of "gods will" as set forth in the bible, also at some level he saw this as a way of warding off Roy Moore entering the race, then again Moore opposes a constitutional ban so actually the position is to the right of Moore...  

[Ben.]

also at some level he saw this as a way of warding off Roy Moore entering the race, then again Moore opposes a constitutional ban so actually the position is to the right of Moore...  

so Bush is to the right of Moore. How is NOT a right wing extremist then?

You asked weather it was "homophobic" not if it was "right wing extremism"... its rightwing, but in larger sense its playing to a section of his base a Democrat might play to the "pro-choice" lobby and for many conservatives and some moderates that could be viewed as left wing extremism... either way the move succeeded on one level (securing the religious right) but failed as it was patently unconstitutional. Yeah it was a very selective partisan thing to do (as many republicans disagree with it) but "extremist" not as radically as you may think, radical would be a better word the same goes for a Dem who might pander to the secular-liberal Left... thing is the GOP can't win with just the religious right and the Dem's can't win with the Secular-liberal Left....    

[Ben.]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122795,00.html

What really concerns me about Bush:
But he hit the hot-button issue in his address to the Southern Baptists, who are the biggest Protestant denomination in the country with 16 million members. Conventioneers rewarded Bush with the longest applause of his remarks.

Earlier this year, the Southern Baptist Convention started an initiative to "liberate" gays from their homosexuality by befriending them and convincing them they should accept Jesus as their savior. Church leaders asked their 42,000 churches to reach out compassionately to gays, focusing on how Christianity can save them.

Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" in 2000, and is trying anew to bridge the divide between his conservative base and critical swing voters. Some advisers fear any hint of intolerance would alienate middle-of-the-road Americans.

The church has a right to be AGAINST a homosexual lifestyle because the bible teaches that homosexuality is wrong. If a church wishes to try to help gays recover from their bad decisions and help them seek medical treatment for a obvious mental condition then I have no problem with that either.

As it looks like we're getting on to the nature vs nurture debate...

Here's my two cents...

Attitudes to sexuality are largely a result of the society we are members of… ie. Homosexuality was the norm in Sparta and many Ancient Cultures, In the Renaissance period Homosexuality was seen as a way of “testing” you sexual ability and up until the eighteenth centaury all sexuality other than sex for the purposes of procreation was seen as equally sinful (no differentiation made between men and women, women and women or men and animals).

This would strongly suggest that no one is "born gay" just as no one is "born straight", to a degree we could be genetically predisposed to be one or the other but just as that which repels us is derived from our experiences and the various social “mores” the same is true of that which we are attracted to.

That all said while there is no genetic reason for a person to be attracted to one person or gender or species, equally it would be difficult to discern from person to person what factors in their lives lead them to their present orientation, as these factors differ radically from one person to another. That said this very likely situation means that those on the Conservative Right side (people are born straight ) and those on the Libertarian Left (people are born gay) are both wrong you are not born either, you simply draw conclusions, aversions, attractions from your experience throughout life and that leads to your changing perceptions and attitudes being a certain way, you are no more born gay or straight than born conservative or liberal.