Wingnuts Continue to Lie About True Science and Homosexuality

As I have noted numerous times, the professional gay-haters of the "Christian" Right have a real problem when it comes to telling the truth. Especially when it comes to distorting legitimate scientific research that undermines their quest to maintain the "choice myth" as I call it. And once one Christianist organization tells the lie, others jump on the band wagon and parrot the untruth over and over again, hoping, apparently, that if the lie is repeated enough times it will some how become true.

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A case in point is the manner in which wingnuts who are crazed by gospel singer Ray Boltz's coming out are misquoting - I dare say intentionally - statements by noted geneticist Francis S. Collins. For example, both the Baptist Press in Bob Stith's monthly column on homosexuality and the even less reliable OneNewsNow, a "news" arm of the American Family Association have engaged in the dissemination of patently untrue information. Here are highlights of what Ex-Gay Watch (to which I have contributed in the past) reported on these lies:

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Working with the New Jersey Family Policy Counsel and speaking to the American Family Association’s (AFA) One News Now, ex-gay Greg Quinlan made statements on behalf of noted geneticist Francis S. Collins that were untrue — specifically that his work on the human genome project had led to the “fact” that homosexuality was 100% nurture, with absolutely no genetic component.

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As noted in that previous post, we contacted Dr. Collins last May and printed, with permission, his correction of what was falsely being credited to him by NARTH. In this latest challenge, Quinlan has accused XGW of fraud, claiming that quote was not accurate. While this accusation is absurd at best — XGW has never been seriously accused of fraudulently posting anything, let alone has this ever been shown to be the case — it seemed prudent to seek public validation of the quote’s veracity.

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Collins has now confirmed this to Warren Throckmorton, who has posted about it on his own blog. For the record, here is a message I received from Collins yesterday, after making him aware of the challenge to what we had quoted:

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Dear David, Thanks for the heads up. I am truly sorry to hear that there is a continuing effort by Mr. Quinlan and others to distort this information about genetic factors in homosexuality. The facts have not changed since the e-mail message I sent you on May 20, 2007.
Regards, Francis Collins

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The dishonesty of these self-styled "Godly Christians" never ceases to amaze me. They act as if the Commandment against false witness and lying did not exist. It demonstrates their actual contempt for the Bible they claim to worship.