Homosexuality: Is It Compatible With Scripture?

By: J. Daniel SpratlinHomosexuals have come out of the closet. Though many are stilluneasy about going public, there are equally as many or more who are notembarrassed about their sexual preference. They tell us that homosexualityis gay, an alternative sexual orientation, a genetically inherited characteristicand even compatible with the teaching of Scripture.It is difficult to estimate accurately how many adults are homosexuals,since that depends a great deal on how one defines homosexuality. JohnMoney of Johns Hopkins University, a well-known sex researcher, defined ahomosexual as one who had six or more sexual experiences with membersof the same sex. Using this as the definition, he found that 13 percent of adult males were gay and about 7 percent of adult females were lesbians.

A more recent study published in 1989 using data gathered from adultmen in the U.S. in 1970 and 1989 suggests lower estimates. Charles F. Turner, a coauthor of the study, said that the estimates made abouthomosexuals were the most conservative possible, since they took thelowest possible numbers that could be drawn from the data. There was also a lack of information from which one might establishthe true number, which could be higher. Some of the estimates were asfollows: At least 20.3 percent of American males had had a same-gender sexexperience by the age of twenty-one, and 6.7 percent had that encounter bythe age of twenty. The study further suggests that after the age of twenty,perhaps as few as 1.8 percent

rarely

had a sexual encounter with the samesex, 1.9 percent

occasionally

, and 1.4 percent fairly often.

It is clear that homosexual men have traditionally been quite activesexually. In 1982 a study of fifty AIDS victims done by the Center for DiseaseControl in Atlanta discovered that the median number of lifetime sexualpartners for these men was 1,100, some claiming as many as twentythousand. The median number for a control group without the disease was550. This study’s findings are consistent with those of a 1978 survey of 685gay men living in San Francisco. Psychologist Alan P. Bell and sociologistMartin S. Weinberg of the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research headed a studythat showed that 15 percent of these men reported sex with between fivehundred and one thousand partners, while more than 25 percent claimedmore than a thousand partners. Lesbians showed a relatively lower rate of

Tom and Nancy Biracree,

Almanac of the American People

(New York: Facts on File, 1988),pp. 180-182.

Robert E. Fay, Charles F. Turner, Albert D. Klassen, and John H. Gagnon, “Prevalence andPatterns of Same-Gender Sexual Contact Among Men,”

Science

243 (January 20, 1989): 338-348. See also the

Chicago Sun Times

, January 20, 1989. Here I would add that a furthercomplicating factor in determining how many homosexuals there are is the distinctionbetween having homosexual tendencies and acting on those tendencies. It is likely thatthere are people who have those feelings at one time or another but have never engaged inhomosexual activities. Do the feelings make them homosexuals; does acting on thosetendencies make them homosexuals, or what?

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sexual activity. Better than 70 percent reported fewer than nine lifetimepartners, 3 percent claimed to have had more than a hundred, and nonemore than five hundred.

There is no question that AIDS has reducedpromiscuity, but how much is not yet determined.

Genetics and Homosexuality

Homosexuals have long claimed they are different not just in theirbehavior but

constitutionally. That is, they feel their sexual orientation is nota matter of choice or

even formed through interaction with their socialenvironment, but something they were

born with.

Recently, there have beentwo studies that seem to confirm that claim, one by

Swaab and Hofman

andanother by Simon LeVay.

While both studies dealt with the

hypothalamus of homosexual men, they were somewhat different. The Swaab and

Hofmanresearch studied the volume of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) inhomosexual men. The SCN is a cell group located in the basal part of thebrains of mammalians. It has been thought to be a principal component of the biological

clock that generates and coordinates hormonal, physiologicaland behavioral body

rhythms. Thus, it has been thought to have involvementin sex because of the varying body rhythms in sexual desire as well as thesexual changes that come with aging. The

study observed the brains of thirty-four subjects. There was a reference group of eighteen

male subjectswho died of a variety of causes. There was a second group of tenhomosexual men who died of AIDS and a third group of six heterosexualswho died of

AIDS. This last group consisted of four males and two females.

The conclusion of this

study is that “…the human hypothalamus revealedthat the volume of the…SCN in

homosexual men is 1.7 times as large as thatof the reference group of male subjects and

contains 2.1 times as manycells.”

Simon LeVay examined the anterior hypothalamus in the area thatregulates male-type sexual behavior. Four cell groups, called INAH 1, 2, 3, 4,were studied. Postmortem tissue was measured from three subject groups:women, men presumed to be heterosexual and homosexual men.

LeVayfound there were no differences in the volumes of INAH 1, 2 or 4. The INAH 3,however, was more than twice as large in heterosexual men as in women

and

homosexual men. Thus, LeVay concluded that there is a significantdifference in the hypothalamus of heterosexual and homosexual men. Hedoes caution that his results should be considered speculative. Moreover, theresults of his study do not allow one to decide if the changes in the

Nikki Meredith, “The Gay Dilemma,”

Physch T

(January 1984): 56-57.

Maria Barinaga, “Is Homosexuality Biological?”

Science

253 (August 1991): 956.

D. F. Swaab and M. A. Hofman, “An Enlarged Suprachiasmatic Nucleus in HomosexualMen,”

Br Res

537 (1990): 141-148.

Simon LeVay, “A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual andHomosexual Men,”

Science

235 (August 30, 1991): 1034-1037.

Swaab and Hofman, pp. 141, 143.

Ibid., p. 141.

LeVay, p. 1034.

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hypothalamus are the cause or consequences of an individual’s sexualorientation.

The caution expressed by LeVay was not exhibited by all. Many haveconcluded there is a genetic reason for homosexuality. Of course, this claimis extremely important to homosexuals for at least two reasons. First, if homosexuality is something innate or constitutional, then homosexuals areno more responsible for their sexual orientation than for eye color or height.Attempts to get homosexuals to change their sexual orientation will also beuseless. Second, this claim has political ramifications. If there is a biologicalbasis for homosexuality, then there will be pressure to grant them minority-rights status. This is a special civil rights status that would protect them fromdiscrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.

We must be cautious about what we conclude from these studies. It iswrong to conclude from these and other studies that

genetic factors gointo the homosexual’s sexual orientation. On the other hand, it alsoconcludes too much to think that these and similar studies show thathomosexuality is genetical and beyond change. Let us set forth our views onthese studies and the broader issue of the biological basis for homosexuality.First, LeVay’s study seems more significant than Swaab and Hofman’s.Both study the hypothalamus, a gland that is important both hormonally andsexually. However, LeVay’s research dealt with an area that is directlyrelated to sexual response.

Having said that, we would not simply dismissthe Swaab/Hofman research, for it constitutes some collaborating evidence.Second, in both studies the number of subjects studied was very small. The Swaab/Hofman study was based on thirty-four subjects, while LeVayexamined forty-one patients. Of the thirty-four subjects in the Swaab/Hofmanresearch, only ten were homosexuals.

There were nineteen homosexuals inLeVay’s study.

Thus, the two studies examined the brains of only twenty-nine homosexual men. This is hardly the kind of sample from which to makeglobal pronouncements. Third, in both studies an important group of subjects were

presumed

tobe heterosexual. In the Swaab/Hofman research there was a reference groupof eighteen subjects. As to their sexual orientation, Swaab and Hofman write:“Sexual preference of the subjects of the reference group was generally notknown.”

In LeVay’s study, he called the second group of subjects “men whowere presumed to be heterosexual.”

Thus, in both studies thehypothalamus of homosexuals was compared with subjects from groupspresumed to be heterosexual. Obviously, that could be wrong, and if it is,any conclusions from these studies become extremely dubious.

Ibid., pp. 1035-1036.

Cal Thomas, “Sexual Preference Is Not Determined by Genetic Factors,”

, September 6,1991.

Barinaga, p. 957.

Swaab and Hofman, p. 143.

LeVay, p. 1035.

Swaab and Hofman, p. 141.

LeVay, p. 1035.

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