"Gay" child, evil father.... yawn

The media only know two family situations featuring homosexual children.

The first: a homosexual child is portrayed as a warm, vulnerable human being, whose parents wisely and lovingly approve of his choice to embrace his homosexual passions. These are good parents. There are (in the media's eyes) a lot of these.

The second: a homosexual child is portrayed as a warm, vulnerable human being, whose parents hatefully, narrow-mindedly, ignorantly and irrationally reject his choice to embrace his homosexual passions. These are evil parents. There are (in the media's eyes) not many of these.

There is no third category.

For the most recent example, see the Washington Post's Marc Fisher regaling us all with the little morality story, When Sexuality Undercuts A Family's Ties. It it we learn what was previously suspected: that Alan Keyes has a lesbian daughter. He does not approve of her embrace of her homosexual passions. Therefore, he is a type-two parent -- according to this column.

Now, my own admiration for Alan Keyes has charted a downward course over the years. The first Keyes address I heard was an electrifying, marvelous, passionate speech on abortion. It literally had me want to stand and applaud. (As I was driving, I had to suppress the impulse.) After that, however, I found him to be insufferably full of himself, repeatedly sabotaging his own more-brilliant points by his arrogant attitude and behavior.

Further, Keyes is a Roman Catholic. So I can have no assurance as to what he told his daughter, beyond (by her own admission) that homosexuality is evil, and that she should pray for God's help to leave it. Thus far, I'd certainly agree -- and he's done better by her than parents who enable such a destructive choice by their embrace of it.

I hope someone, somewhere along the way, preaches Jesus Christ to this girl. I hope that someone tells her that, indeed, she shares with all the rest of us that she was born a slave to sinful passions, and under the just condemnation of God (Romans 3:10-18; 5:12). I hope that someone will tell her that no ritual, no effort, no sect, no discipline, no program, no external pronouncement of any kind can help her in the least bit to be free from her sins, and from their inevitable consequence. I hope that someone tells her that her only hope is not in a sect nor its rituals, but in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom alone we can be forgiven and freed from both our sins and our sin (Acts 4:12; 13:38). And I hope that someone tells her that, in Jesus, she can be freed from her the death-grip of immoral homosexual passions as well (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Whether anyone has ever told her these things, I can have no certainty nor confidence. I pray someone does, if no one has. And I pray she will listen, will respond in repentant faith in Jesus, and will know the wonder of God's great salvation in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone.

UPDATE (2/16) — as I look again at the title, I reflect -- aren't fathers always evil, though? Either they do evil things, in which case they're, well, evil; or they let their wives do evil things, in which case they're passive and evil; or they don't let their wives/children do wonderful things, in which case they're oppressive and (you guessed it) evil.... Maybe they can only be good by letting their wives/children do good things, or supporting them when they do. No, wait; when they do that, they're disengaged.

And evil.

UPDATE II — there is an essay at FreeRepublic that gives some other thoughts and considerations on this. What is particularly striking about it is that Maya herself, or someone claiming to be her, entered a post in the thread. This gave me an opportunity to try to be used of God in answering my own prayer; I sent a private response to her, with just what I wished above that someone would tell her. If it was she, now I can know that someone has tried. Pray that God will give her the ears to hear, and do His work of grace in her life.