University of Idaho student Alanna Engle sat in the second row of the International Ballroom of the Bruce Pitman Center Thursday night, ready to hear the words of visiting speaker Voddie Baucham.
She said she came with no expectation as to how she’d feel toward Baucham’s message.
“I’m here because this is a really hot topic, and I just want to listen,” Engle said.
That hot topic came in the form of Baucham’s lecture, titled “Why Gay Is Not The New Black,” hosted by Moscow’s Collegiate Reformed Fellowship. Baucham, currently the dean of seminary at African Christian University in Zambia, spoke to a packed house about the state of homosexuality in the United States and his belief that homosexuality does not operate as an identity in the same way as ethnicity — namely, blackness.
“The argument is that (homosexuality) is an immutable characteristic that is akin to ethnicity,” he said, pointing out that he, as a black man, is visibly black. “Where is the proof that anybody was a gay person, like I am a black person? It doesn’t exist.”
Baucham said despite a lack of scientific evidence, many people see homosexuality as an identity in the same way ethnicity is an identity.
“But you can’t tell me why,” he said.
Baucham referred to the 1989 book “After the Ball” by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen, which outlines a three-step process for gay people to overturn homophobia in the United States during the ‘90s. Baucham outlined the three steps for the audience — desensitizing, jamming and conversion. He said desensitizing meant exposing Americans to homosexuality so much they become accustomed to it, jamming meant associating the anti-gay community with Nazi supporters and the like, while conversion referred to feeding pro-gay propaganda to the media and school system.
“Here’s why this conversation is so important. We’re told two things that can’t both be true,” Baucham said.
First, he said, Christians are told changes need to be made in American politics because homosexuality is an innate characteristic such as ethnicity, and should be treated as such under law.
“That’s what we’re told on the one hand. And on the other hand we’re told, ‘We’re not trying to force anything on anybody,’” he said. “And people want us to live in this cognitive dissonance, because the two of these things don’t work.”
Baucham said if gayness is equated to blackness, then the way the government enforces laws related to racial discrimination then apply to how it enforces laws on same-sex marriage.
“You don’t need a law degree to figure that out,” he said.
Baucham’s lecture revolved mainly around same-sex marriage. He said, under past law, he sees himself as having the same marriage rights as a gay man — they are both allowed to legally marry a woman.
When asked why he felt so strongly that marriage be upheld by courts as an act solely between and man and a woman, Baucham said allowing same-sex marriage opened the door to other forms of marriage seen as “taboo,” such as polygamy and incest.
“We’re not just talking about two individuals and what they can do. We’re talking about an institution that is thousands of years old,” he said. “When we make decisions like this, we’re not just making decisions that people in isolation are going to experience and no one else is going to be affected by. You’re not free to not participate in this when this becomes law. This definition changes for everybody.”
The Q&A portion of the night consisted of differing views on scripture translations, people asking for clarification and others asking about the next steps to take in defending heterosexual marriage as the rightful form of marriage. Baucham thanked speakers for their participation.
Baucham said with a topic like gay rights, “argumentum ad hominem” is a common strategy. He said hominem arguments happen when one party attacks the other not because they disagree with a certain view, but because they decide to disagree with the other party based on who they see them as a person based on that view.
“It’s not that you’re wrong on an issue — you are, at your core, in your being, a bigot,” he said. “It shuts down all discussion.”
Baucham said with his lectures, he hopes to foster discussions about same-sex marriage and the homosexual movement in the United States.
Pullman resident Kelly Van Nuland said he attended Baucham’s talk because he’d hoped to see several perspectives.
“We’re here to support Voddie,” Van Nuland said of himself and his friends. “We definitely hold the same views he does, but it’s going to be interesting to hear the whole perspective … We love to be able to hear it in the setting of a university where there are going to be some conflicting worldviews and kind of gain a full perspective of what everybody thinks on the subject.”
Perspectives attending “Why Gay Is Not The New Black” came from both sides of the spectrum. Downstairs, UI’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance hosted a silent protest.
“I’m here in support of human rights, that human rights are important for all humans, no exceptions,” said Jess Darney, a UI student who attended the protest. “We’re hearing one side of the story tonight, and I just want to make sure that my side is here also, especially at my university.”
At one point during the lecture, Baucham discussed how homosexuality went from being “sodomy” to a “condition” to an “identity.” He said homosexuals as a minority didn’t even formally exist a century ago, and that the group has somehow “managed to overwhelm and overhaul a universal social institution thousands of years old.”
About 25 people began to leave during his speech.
“Remember, I said, discussion doesn’t happen on this issue,” Baucham said.
One of the people who began to leave said — just loud enough to hear over the crowd’s laughter — “I will not debate my right to exist.”
Lyndsie Kiebert can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lyndsie_kiebert
Larry W. Jones
Baucham is attempting to be the Lord of the Flies, but he's too stupid to make it work.