Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate. – Rick Warren
Over the past three weeks I have written on certain exterminators of marriage relationships, which I called snipers or sharpshooters. I took a shot at three of these sharpshooters: cellphones, pornography and adultery. Today, the homosexual (gay and lesbian) sniper will be examined with specific reference to HIV and its male target group.
It is common knowledge that there are about 34 million people living with the HIV virus and it would be ridiculous to think that HIV is exclusively a homosexual disease.
In fact, the highest percentage of the spread of HIV is among the heterosexual community. The reality, however, is that there is a problem with men who have sex with men (MSM).
There is “very little research done regarding women having sex with women (WSW)”. In fact, on March 14, 2014, the Centres for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States said: “The potential for HIV transmission by female-to-female sexual contact includes unprotected exposure to vaginal or other body fluids and to blood from menstruation, or to exposure to blood from trauma during rough sex.”
My focus therefore is not on the lesbians but more so on the sniper’s intent to target potential male heads of households.
Numb
The homosexual sharpshooter seeks to mentally and emotionally numb these men from an early age, so that the chances of their formulating straight social relationships, including marriage, would be seriously short-circuited.
The CDC seems to confirm the sniper’s strategy for the men of our societies. “Male-to-male sex (MSM) accounted for more than 78 per cent of new HIV infections among men and nearly 63 per cent of all new infections in 2010.”
The government agency also states that HIV infection among MSM is 44 times higher than among other men. In France it is “59 times the rate seen in the general population”. In London it was more than half, 54 per cent of all new diagnoses in 2011. In Australia 67 per cent of transmissions occurred among men who have sex with men.
Alarmingly the CDC report also states that the 13-24 MSM age group accounted for 72 per cent of new infections and 30 per cent among all new infections in the US. The homosexual sniper generates some grave health concerns beyond HIV among the young that in the short and long term will spill over into the population, economic as well as social, financial, mental, educational, political and spiritual dynamics of the whole society.
Stigmatisation
I firmly believe that no one should seek to devalue, reject, stigmatise or discriminate against anyone who is unfortunate to be infected with the HIV virus that can lead to AIDS. Those whom I have seen and counselled are wonderful people, who are often struggling with non-HIV issues but are still made in God’s image.
Some have made mistakes and are living with the consequences, while others, because of no fault of their own, have contracted the virus. They should not be deprived of proper medical and emotional health care. They may carry the disease but are not themselves a disease.
The sniper knows that the 13-24 age group is a crucial transition period for the adolescent male.
It is a time when many chemical changes are taking place. The emotions are bouncing around in different directions, the mind is trying to grasp the reality of the world around it, the physical body is growing faster and sometimes unevenly; and the sexual feelings are periodically going haywire.
What an opportunity to strike at the heads of these potential husbands and fathers and condition them to think away from God’s model for marriage.
I met a young man within this age group in a certain country who told me he was gay. I asked him how he knew he was gay and his response was that he could not tell me but he felt so. Another young man told me his friends told him that he was homosexual and he believed them.
The two examples cited are not isolated cases. Such young men are very vulnerable and are targeted by human sharks via several means, including the Internet, which draws them away from developing a healthy marriage relationship, God’s style.
This sharpshooter
has won the approval of influential human allies, like human rights Professor Robert Wintemute who said that “it is a much better future for the world if men who love men marry men and women who love women marry women”, as reported in the Sunday Sun of February 9, 2014.
The lie of his statement seems to be refuted in the statistics highlighted, especially as it relates to men.
Another ally is the late Paula Ettelbrick, former chair of International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, who is quoted as saying in The Weekly Standard on August 4, 2003: “Being queer is more than setting up house, sleeping with a person of the same gender and seeking state approval for doing so. Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex, sexuality and family,
and in the process, transforming the very fabric of society. We must keep our eyes on the goals of providing true alternatives to marriage and radically reordering society’s view of reality.”
From Ettelbrick’s proclamation, the sniper is true to its nature – the destruction of the pillars of a united society, the family.
Our men are valuable assets for our families’ future, our homes, children and workforce. My challenge is for every parent and concerned citizen to be very vigilant and work towards empowering our nation’s children, and especially our young men, against this wolf in sheep’s clothing.
God’s foundation still stands – healthy marriage relationships are between men and women; no other model will work. Let us safeguard the integrity of our society.
• Reverend Haynesley Griffith is a marriage and family life consultant. Email griffitharticles@gmail.com.
