The country needs a surgeon-general and President Bush picked one a few days ago, nominating a prominent cardiologist, James W. Holsinger, a member of the faculty at the Lexington, Ky., University of Kentucky Medical School, a seminary graduate, a member of the United Methodist Judicial Council since 2000 and its president since 2004. Dr. Holsinger also served as secretary of the Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services for two years, returning to the university in 2005. He has taught at several medical schools and spent more than three decades in the Army Reserve, retiring in 1993 as a major general.
There's a problem, to wit, the homosexuals are out for his scalp-(el). He comes before Senator Kennedy's committee, on which also sit senators Clinton, Obama, and Dodd, all president wannabes and therefore anxious for all possible votes, meaning a huge pandering to the homosexual community. This will be a humdinger of a hearing, also taking into account that anything goes – even the weird concept of men marrying men – in Massachusetts, Kennedy's state, as well as that of Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and the highest-profile homosexual in the nation.
The "gay and lesbian" groups are having a hissy-fit over the appointment, primarily because of a paper prepared by Holsinger in 1991 for a United Methodist Church committee studying homosexuality. Holsinger said this: "When the complementarity of the sexes is breached, injuries and diseases may occur." Obviously, he merely stated the obvious, but he also produced studies showing higher rates of sexually transmitted disease in gay men and the likelihood of injury from anal sex to argue that homosexuality isn't natural, according to a Lexington Herald-Leader article that also noted that Holsinger's nomination is opposed by the groups Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and AIDS Action.
A further fly in the ointment is occasioned by the fact that Holsinger helped found a Lexington, Ky., church, Hope Springs Community Church, that has a ministry dedicated to helping gay people who want to become heterosexual. The homosexual community insists that its perversion is not correctable since it's not a disease, something Holsinger apparently doesn't accept.
The question, of course, has to do with whether or not Holsinger will be able to separate what many feel to be his religious beliefs from his secular duties in the high-profile surgeon-general job that has to do with purely scientific/medical/health matters. The question is moot, however, since Holsinger is already on the record as having outlined the physical damage caused by homosexual behavior. His religion, whatever his beliefs, does not intersect with the cold, hard, physical facts of the matter. In any case, the brains of a genius are not needed for one to understand that homosexual behavior is unnatural, and just the publicity given to the AIDS epidemic in the last 25 years is proof of the horrific damage it causes.
Dr. Joel Ginsberg, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association based in (where else) San Francisco, said, "He's (Holsinger's) pathologizing homosexual practices to make a point, and we think that's inappropriate scientifically." If Ginsberg considers the "point" to be religious in nature, he, of all people – a medical doctor – needs to understand that Holsinger's religious convictions (Golden Rule) should impel him to level with the public about the physical problems associated with homosexual behavior, and that's a purely scientific approach with religion an issue only as it relates to one's being his "brother's keeper," a spiritual concept that also can be held without benefit of any religious conviction.
If Ginsberg considers the "point" to be that Holsinger's position is that people are not "born that way," meaning they can't change, the point is still moot in that, regardless of the origin of homosexuality (genetic or not), Holsinger must deal with the facts on the ground and let the "experts" continue the never-ending discussion of whether or not people are "born that way." Holsinger obviously feels that change is possible, regardless of the circumstances, and shouldn't be faulted for it. Indeed, his approach should be welcome for the very reason that the "converts" become much less susceptible to the physical damage that the studies – not to mention just plain common sense – indicate accrue to homosexual behavior.
According to the Herald-Leader, Holsinger's colleagues insist that his "personal objections to homosexuality -- if he had any -- would not affect policy decisions as surgeon general." He is, indeed, a highly respected citizen and profoundly well-qualified in both medicine and administration, so Kennedy's committee – Health, Education, Labor and Pensions – should have no trouble with this nomination. Kennedy also serves on the Judiciary Committee and on the Armed Services Committee, the latter particularly germane to the hearing and the job, since known homosexuals are not allowed in the military.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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