McMINNVILLE, Ore. (BP)–“The Sky Didn’t Fall in Mass.,” was the headline of a column that appeared in the May 17 edition of USA Today. The piece marked the one-year anniversary of “gay marriage” in the Bay State.
According to the report, support for “homosexual matrimony” among Massachusetts voters has risen from 35 percent in February 2004 to 56 percent in March 2005. According to an article in the June 20 of edition of The Village Voice, the “breathtaking turnabout” in Massachusetts “can only be explained by the fact that some 6,000 couples got married without incident during that period.”
The Voice goes on to say, “The hysterical claims made by conservatives, such as James Dobson’s May 2004 contention that same-sex marriage would ‘threaten the entire superstructure of Western civilization,’ were simply not borne out.”
If the analysis offered by The Village Voice is accurate and support for “gay marriage” grew due to the absence of massive social disruption in the wake of “same-sex matrimony,” then 21 percent of Massachusetts voters suffer from a severe case of what I call Foresight Deficit Disorder.
Foresight Deficit Disorder is the inability — or unwillingness — to comprehend that it takes years, sometimes decades, for the consequences of social behavior to be fully realized.
In the first century, the Apostle Paul articulated the following: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” It is the failure to consider the truth of sowing and reaping that results in Foresight Deficit Disorder.
When Paul communicated the aforementioned insight, he did not have agriculture in mind. However, by examining a few principles germane to the cultivation of crops it is easy to apply the truth of sowing and reaping to societal trends.
First, the reaping of fruit always takes place some time after sowing. A plant takes time to grow, mature and finally produce. In some cases it takes years.
Second, when it comes to fruit-bearing plants and trees, the amount reaped is often more than what is sown. One single seed can produce a tremendous amount of fruit for years to come.
Finally, the fruit that will be reaped is in keeping with the seed that was sown. In other words, if you plant peach seeds you can expect peach trees to grow — and not watermelon vines.
An understanding of the principles inherent in sowing and reaping reveal that it would be a huge mistake to think that a year into Massachusetts’ experiment with “gay marriage” could reveal anything significant.
In order to predict the probable “fruit” of any social behavior, it is necessary to examine the nature of the “seed” being sown. There are some aspects of homosexual behavior that give us some indication of what to expect as “gay marriage” matures.
The examination of only one area, child rearing, is enough to show us that while the sky may not have fallen during the first year of “same-sex matrimony” in Massachusetts, if allowed to continue the heavens eventually will come crashing down.
When it comes to producing the next generation, homosexuals not only do not have the capacity to reproduce, but the results of same-sex parenting are dysfunctional at best.
A recent study conducted by a coalition of pro-family groups in Spain found that children raised by homosexual couples report a significant increase in: “low self-esteem, stress, confusion regarding sexual identity, an increase in mental illness, drug use, promiscuity, sexually transmitted disease, and homosexual behavior.”
The Report on Infantile Development in Same-Sex Couples also found that “same-sex relationships betray a much higher instance of separation and break-up than heterosexual relationships, increasing the likelihood that the child will experience familial instability.”
Other research confirms the findings of the Spain study. In short, the “sowing” of “gay marriage” will guarantee a future harvest of dysfunctional families.
Legitimizing homosexual behavior by sanctioning “gay marriage” is sheer folly. To think the consequences of such societal validation will be realized in only a year is symptomatic of a severe case of Foresight Deficit Disorder.
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Kelly Boggs is pastor of the Portland-area Valley Baptist Church in McMinnville, Ore. His column appears each Friday in Baptist Press.
