AMSA Presents on the LGBT Community

I'll get back to my previous post later. For now, I want to hash out some reactions to the presentation that the American Medical Student Association made today on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community.

Before proceeding, understand that love is to be our motivation in all things. If we lack love, we are a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. My comments and replies here to what was said or observed are motivated out of love. For instance, I have told and will continue to tell someone who is a homosexual that they are wrong in what they are doing because I love them. It is not motivated by hate. So we must throw out the accusation of homophobia. I am not afraid of homosexuals or homosexuality. I am secure in the love and grace of God, and I pray that His love flows out through me even in this very post. If my rhetoric is sharp and my language appears piercing, then remember that the scalpel is also sharp, but it is for our good. And we would not accuse the scalpel of being the sword.

Do you choose to be sexually attracted to someone? Whether you answer yes or no is not the point. The question is a red herring. The desired response is "no." Why? Because we have this perception that if something is innate then it is also excusable. But is this correct? First, if someone hits you out of malice what is your initial response? Anger? Ok. Do you choose to have that anger? Initially, no. But can you facilitate that anger? Yes. Are you deemed responsible for your reaction, both that initial reaction and the follow-up? Yes. Does it follow then that a homosexual attraction is permissible simply because it is innate? Second, is an innate impulse self-justifying? The argument for homosexuality on this point is that since we cannot control who we are attracted to then it must be ok to be attracted to the same sex. It's natural. There is evidence, and we have discussed it in classes, that there exists a genetic component to alcoholism. Thus, there are those who are strongly predisposed to becoming alcoholics. Their first drink is like the clank of the cell door behind them. Forever they try to escape the constrictions of their addiction, but they are their own prison wardens, bringing themselves back time and time again. Do we excuse these substance-abusers because of their natural predispositions? Not at all. We - the medical community at large - still condemn their drunkenness, and advocate a meaningful choice towards a change in lifestyle. We ought to deal gently with them, but the "natural component" of their condition does not justify their actions. If we are to learn our morals from nature then women ought to murder their husbands and eat them; thus says the praying mantis.

Appropriately so, as a future physician I need to know how to make for an environment that allows for an LGBT individual to open up to me about their lifestyle. I need to know about their sexuality because it affects their health and health treatment. I want to be welcoming to them. But how? What does it mean to be welcoming? It does not equal approval. The supreme example of this is found in the parable of the prodigal son. The father welcomes his younger son home, but he does not give his approval to what he has done. His longing for his son's return is evident. He waits on the street. He looks down the dusty road. He gives his child his ring and his robe. But never does this loving father condone his son's journey into that far country of promiscuity and profligacy. My point is this: beware of spin doctoring. I can be a welcoming doctor towards the LGBT community. But I will not be an approving doctor towards them. To endorse their actions would be against the proper practice of medicine. To facilitate their actions would be against my conscience.

At this point, we do well to observe God's mercy and forbearance towards us all. I am no different than any other human being in nature. I am a sinner. I deserve death and hell. My sin is equally as bad as any homosexual act or desire. Yet God shows me mercy, and not just me; He shows mercy to all. He makes His sun to rise on the just and on the unjust. His Son died that all who believe in Him might live. Christ is the grounds for God's mercy towards me as well as my neighbors' mercies towards me. Likewise, He is the basis for me to show mercy to others, to love them even though they may defy God and wrong me.

My main points are as follows. First, the reasoning behind the approval of homosexuality makes for an inconsistent worldview. Second, we can welcome homosexuals while not approving of their homosexuality. Third, our motivation for telling a homosexual that what they are doing is wrong flows, or ought to flow, out of a wellspring of love towards them. Defining homosexuality as wrong is not indicative of homophobia. Fourth, we ought not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We all are undeserving recipients of mercy, especially those of us who believe.

God have mercy on us all.