I won't tell you that this story is of immediate national importance. I won't pretend that reading this will keep us from being pushed over an artificially created, "Fiscal Cliff". It's simply another sad, silly story, someone covered at Alternet, regarding the bizarre, dare I say it, medieval concepts that some Christian groups are applying to Gay Identity and Gay Sexuality.
But then again, this is important. This could be construed as a distraction from other big issues in the press right now, however, I believe this demands that we take note. This is no less offensive to Gay people, than the "Legitimate Rape" movement by the GOP is to Women.
In fact, I will offer you that these two concepts arise from the same materials and mentality, as well as the same [better forgotten] centuries.
Follow me through the flaming orange portal if this interests you as a topic.
You can read the entire story here,which I highly recommend doing:
Christian Group Says Demon Sex Makes You Gay.
First I want to say, that Occultists everywhere are slapping their heads, epic palm style, because this is out there, even by their standards. Seriously, Incubii and Succubii? Put away the D&D Monster Manual already and join us in the 21st century.
There is an entire movement that has been afoot in the United States, generically called "Deliverence Ministries," and this movement reassigns most social ills, and personal problems to the realm of the supernatural, most specifically the demonic.
From a psychological view point, something of this sort of approach can be handy with low level problems. It mimics in some ways, the treatments offered by Shamans in pre-literate societies. However, sadly, this can and has gotten out of hand in the U.S. to the point that it has undue influence on our politics.
First of all, Gay is not Evil. It is not bad. That makes no sense in terms of understanding the spectrum of human sexuality, nor does it make sense from a theological standpoint.
So equating gayness, or gay sexuality with the demonic is inappropriate and unnecessary.
Reducing the innate characteristics of a person, to the demonic, however is very harmful. Shunning them publicly, bullying them physically or emotionally, until they give in and pretend to live life by standards that go against the core of their being though, is evil.
Is it demonic--meaning supernatural? I will leave that question alone, but I will say it is harmful, selfish, and that it puts a twisting force inside that person that will warp their entire sense of self in very negative ways.
Demons don't make you gay any more than they make you like chocolate ice cream or fast cars. If hypothetically a disembodied being were able to settle in your brain and make you have gay sex, when that being is gone from your person, you will go back to being what you were before.
So their tale doesn't hold water on any level, whether one applies logic, or some different "standard".
Normally when we look at propaganda, the aspect of demonization of an unpopular social group is generally more subtle than this. I mean this literally puts the demons in demonization.
But what does this say about the insecurities of the "faithful" pushing this garbage? It says they don't feel secure in their own sexuality, that they don't feel secure in their own faith. Hence the need to overcompensate with controlling behavior and vilification of perceived "others" with the label "Demonic".
It's a cry into the dark: "We can't control anything, so our lack of control must be, due to demons and demonic activity, and we must find a human agent of evil--oh look it's someone different from us, that must be the root!"
To which I reply: Any feelings of being in control are at best a temporary illusion. You suffer the same fears and feelings of inadequacies as the rest of us. The difference being, the rest of us don't have to turn those fears into anything larger or more dramatic than what they are.
It's time, more than time, for these people to look within. Is it really the desire for gay sex attracts evil, or is it perhaps something darker like hatred? hatred of others, and of the self. If Christianity is indeed under constant spiritual assault, then one has to ask, with all these exorcists running amok for the past 30 years--what is it that Christians are doing wrong? Why are these exorcisms not working?
Could it be that they are blaming the wrong people for their troubles? Could it be, that their sanctimonious arrogance is the root of their problem, and that perhaps the best exorcism could start with a long hard look in the mirror? Maybe it's time to call an arborist for a little log removal?
More disturbing to me is that when a group is demonized as subhuman, that group becomes a target for violence. If one is gay, and therefore possessed by demons, then it's okay to beat the demons out of that person, to beat the gay out of person. One only has to look at the anti-gay legislation and the gay bashing in Africa, to see the end result of that.
We know torture doesn't work. How would this behavior, spiritually or physically, or socially be construed as anything other than an attempt to torture a fellow human being?
Gayness is not an illness. Gayness is not a supernatural sign of evil either. It's simply a space or a series of spaces on the broad and varied spectrum of human sexuality. The fear mongering is unfounded bullshit. Gay people are not interested in straight people, they don't proselytize like some groups we know. Gay people simply want to have relationships just like the rest of us. There are no dark secrets, no deeper meanings. It's just humans, looking for human warmth and acceptance.
Finding another human that accepts you as you are--now that is miraculous and way more interesting than this desire to ferret out imagined evil.