12AR17-44

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Apologia Report 17:44 (1,136)

December 19, 2012

Subject: Study: Children of homosexual parents problem prone?

In this issue:

MARRIAGE - "The perils of politically incorrect academic research"

+ Missing the obvious in divorce-rate comparisons between Christians and non-Christians

MORMONISM - an unflattering (but overdue) new biography of Brigham Young

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MARRIAGE

"The Regnerus Affair," an interview by Katelyn Beaty -- begins by suggesting that the past summer has been tough for University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus. The conservative Weekly Standard magazine's cover for July 30 introduced their feature: "Revenge of the Sociologists: The perils of politically incorrect academic research" [<www.ow.ly/g85tF>], which "hints at the situation sparked by the publication of Regnerus's newest research as well as the broader political discourse over same-sex marriage.

"The survey, known as the New Family Structures Study (NFSS), is remarkable in its scope [<www.ow.ly/gdidI>]. It's a random national sample, considered 'the gold standard' of social science surveys. NFSS measures the economic, relational, political, and psychological effects on adults ages 18 to 39 who grew up in families where the father or mother engaged in homosexual behavior. Despite Regnerus's repeated caution that the NFSS does not account for stable same-sex marriages (since same-sex marriage as such didn't exist when the survey participants were children), he has undergone professional censure. Social Science Research conducted an internal audit on the peer-review process of the NFSS, and the University of Texas at Austin investigated Regnerus following allegations of 'scientific misconduct.' (The school has since cleared Regnerus of the allegations.)"

Regnerus explains to Beaty that "Since 2001, and picking up steam more recently, scholars have been increasingly quick to declare 'no differences,' and some have even moved to suggest that same-sex parents may be more competent than a man and woman in a traditional family arrangement. Ten years is pretty speedy to overthrow a long-stable paradigm, and frankly, some of us found it a bit suspicious, so we decided to look into it ourselves.' ...

"Almost all studies that came before this one were small and 'nonrandom.' That is, we have no idea how similar most other studies' research participants are to the general population they seek to study. ...

"The NFSS, on the other hand, is much larger than most others, and is a random sample of the population of American adults ages 18–39. I focused not on their parents' sexual orientation—after all, it was a quite different era back then—but on their parents' relationship behavior. ...

"Another scholar writing on this subject notes that 'the literature on same-sex-couple parenting has tended to feature studies of the kind of women who can afford ART [assisted reproductive technology]: white, upper-middle-class women.' But that is the media stereotype of gay and lesbian parents, even though data from the National Study of Family Growth [<www.ow.ly/gdiqT>] reveal that they're less apt to want children than nonwhite gay and lesbian parents. ...

"What the NFSS does describe is that the young-adult children of men and women who have had same-sex relationships appear more likely to have experienced problems, and in some cases continue to struggle, than those whose biological parents were and are still married. Why exactly this is the case is an important question that should continue to be explored and debated." Christianity Today, Oct '12, pp50-53. <www.ow.ly/g85MY>

We received more input than usual from Apologia Report readers about a summary that ran under the topic of marriage titled: "Bad News about the Good News" (AR 17:41, Nov 28). It describes a secular study of an "unintended effect" from exaggerating the negative in reports about Christian divorce rates. The most important thing about the study was how it debunked as an urban legend the idea that born-again Christians have the same likelihood of divorce as do non-Christians.

One of our readers, Bob MacLeod <bob.macleod@ccci.org>, wrote: "I so appreciated that article. What really gets me about the fallacious divorce rate argument is that the premise is WRONG. Saying that the divorce rate among Christians is equal to or higher than non-Christians ignores an extremely important point: The overall marriage rate is plummeting, but not among Christians.

"Here is a link is for an instructive chart showing the 'never been married' population by age group. While not broken down by belief, it certainly makes clear that the overall number of marriages is trending WAY down <www.ow.ly/fX32P>.

"Since most true Christians believe that marriage is a pre-requisite for cohabitation/sex and is still the 'desired' relationship in general, they are going to marry more. Conversely, since non-Christians typically don't feel that constraint, they don't marry as much. As a result they don't divorce. When Christians feel they must marry, their only option for dissolution is divorce. However, for an unmarried non-Christian the solution is to simply move out. Boom: No corresponding divorce statistic.

"If we combined this marriage statistic understanding with a general separation statistic (i.e., label as a 'divorce' ANY separation after a couple have lived together and then split up), I believe the 'divorce rate' figure for non-Christians would skyrocket and therefore, the disparity between Christians and non-Christians would reappear."

MORMONISM

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, by John G. Turner, assistant professor of religious studies at George Mason University [1] -- Young gets a lot less attention than founder Joseph Smith, yet he certainly deserves Turner's scrutiny. Alex Beam's review explains why. (For example: Young "swore like a sailor and prayed like a saint.") But to say so as an LDS historian is to tempt fate. "As recently as 19 years ago, Salt Lake's guardians of the Saintly flame excommunicated several prominent writers and historians for what the old-line Soviets would have called 'deviationist' points of view. (Some of them have since rejoined the church.)"

Turner "unflinchingly recounts the notorious 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Mormons and their Paiute Indian allies killed a group of emigrants from Arkansas. ... What Turner calls 'the dark stain the Mountain Meadows Massacre' left on Young's reputation remains to this day."

Beam suggests that Turner sticks his neck out when he "describes Joseph Smith's seduction of the teenage servant girl Fanny Alger as the prophet's 'first well-documented nonmonogamous relationship.' The business was more sordid than that. Their hasty coupling occurred in a barn on a haymow and was witnessed by Joseph's wife Emma Hale Smith through a crack in the door, according to Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, Emma Smith's biographers. Turner imbues their union with a dignity it doesn't deserve. More likely, it was 'a dirty, nasty, filthy affair,' as Joseph Smith's confidant Oliver Cowdery called it.

"Polygamy loomed large in the life of Young, 'probably the most oft-married man in America,' according to Turner. Young married an estimated 55 women....

"In January 1863, the 61-year-old Young fell in love with and married the beautiful Amelia Folsom, 37 years his junior. Predictably, the May-December love match was the subject of much gossip and caviling from Young's many other wives. 'Polygamist as he professes to be,' fumed Ann Eliza Young, restive wife No. 19, 'he is, under the influence of Amelia, rapidly becoming a monogamist, in all except the name.' Well, not quite. In 1868 he married two 23-year-old women and he wasn't done yet. His final marriage, to the already-married Hannah Tapfield, occurred four years later. ...

"Young's theological impulses may seem off-kilter to mainstream Christians - for instance, he preached that Adam was God and the father of Jesus Christ - but Turner elucidates 19th-century Mormon theology with sympathetic intelligence. He makes no secret of Young's espousal of 'blood atonement,' the 'chilling perversion of the golden rule,' which allowed Mormons to kill sinners before they were able to forsake salvation. 'Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?' Young asked. 'That is what Jesus Christ meant.'" New York Times Book Review, Oct 21 '12, p16. <www.ow.ly/g89ct>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, by John G. Turner (Belknap Prs, 2012, hardcover, 512 pages) <www.ow.ly/g89sX>

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