Predictably, the Lexington Herald-Leader had as a front-page account in the June 8 issue the positions of two members of the Senate committee that will hold hearings regarding the president's nomination of Dr. James Holsinger of the University of Kentucky Medical School faculty to the position of U.S. Surgeon General. Senators Obama and Dodd, both members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Massachusetts democrat Ted Kennedy, are already on the record as looking with a jaundiced eye at the nomination. Their beef, ostensibly: Holsinger just might be anti-homosexual, thus an absolute violator of political correctness, the ruling ideology of the day. So, a deep incision into Holsinger is appropriate.
Coincidentally, Obama and Dodd are also running for the democrat nomination vis-à-vis the presidential sweepstakes next year, as is fellow democrat Senator Hillary Clinton, who is also a member of Kennedy's committee. It will be interesting to see if or how she responds to this nomination, especially in light of the fact that Obama is reputed, according to polls, to be gaining on her. The candidates made much of their religion in the last debate, so one wonders if Hillary, taking into account the aversion to homosexuality held in the community of evangelicals and her unique unpopularity in the South, stronghold of the evangelicals, will join Obama and Dodd, keep quiet, or actually look with favor upon the nomination, consequently putting space between her and Obama. Dodd doesn't register, at least yet, as being a serious contender.
Holsinger, just as does everyone else, undoubtedly has personal views regarding homosexuality, but the surgeon general's responsibility has nothing to do with religion, but only with the health and well-being of the society. Obama said in a statement, "I have serious reservations about nominating someone who would inject his own anti-gay ideology into critical decisions about the health and well-being of our nation. ... This administration must know that the United States Surgeon General's office is no place for bigotry or ideology that would trump sound science and good judgment."
Dodd said in his statement, "I fear that Dr. Holsinger's previous comments and actions will prevent him from representing each and every individual." So…these two politicians have apparently already made up their minds about Holsinger and found him unacceptable. In a paper prepared for a United Methodist study of homosexuality in 1991, Holsinger, using documentation, remarked the physical damages related to participation in homosexual behavior, as well as the fact that such behavior is unnatural, though this is readily understood by anyone with walking-around sense. His statement had to do with the science and obvious nature of the matter, which would be his only concern as S-G.
As a church matter, according to the Herald-Leader, Holsinger is on the record as officially ruling with others, that a practicing lesbian could not continue to be a minister and that a pastor could withhold church membership from a gay man. This has nothing to do with the science regarding homosexuality or with the medical ramifications of homosexual behavior, the parameters of the surgeon general's responsibility. Ironically, Senator Dodd is a Catholic, in whose denomination homosexuality is not acceptable and considered immoral.
The Lexington Herald-Leader sort of declared war on the Baptists (Holsinger is Methodist) just over a year ago. It began about 08 April at which time the paper started a run of seven front-page-above-the-fold articles out of nine front pages (six consecutively), complete with huge pictorial displays and equally huge interior sections of the (A) section, devoted to the expulsion by the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., of a student who “outed” himself as homosexual on two Web sites (including details about his “dating life” and pictures of young men kissing each other). The editorialists also had a field day(s) in excoriating the school.
In the regulations governing the student body and spelled out in the student’s handbook was the school policy making homosexual behavior cause for expulsion, as well as fornication, adultery, drinking on campus, etc. In this regard, it is noteworthy that homosexuals are routinely discharged from the military, as well. In a statement made in March, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Peter Pace said this, "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts." One wonders if Obama or Dodd will call for Pace's resignation before his retirement later this year.
Also in the H-L Op-Ed section of 24 April 2006 was a column by Christina Gilgor, the executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, headquartered in the state capital to advance the homosexual agenda. Citing Kinsey’s statistics, Gilgor claimed 10 percent, or some 400,000 Kentuckians, are homosexual, a claim so absurd as to be laughable. There will be more front-page stuff about Holsinger and homosexuality, all of it as unflattering as possible. Stay tuned.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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