by Kimberly Blaker

Gay and lesbian adults seeking opportunities to give back to their community now have more options. This summer, Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) informed its nearly 500 U.S. affiliates that gays and lesbians must be afforded an equal opportunity to serve as mentors in the youth program.

Conservative Christians immediately condemned the move and the BBBSA for its policy.

One of the anti-gay arguments that’s been purported by conservative Christians is that 86% of men who molest boys are homosexual. This alarming argument, however, is deceiving.

For instance, the vast majority of those who molest girls are heterosexual men. This does not make the vast majority of men child molesters. Therefore, the argument is both hypocritical and lacking in substance.

While most youth programs offer children same-sex leaders for a variety of reasons, there are numerous instances where heterosexual men work with children or volunteer in positions where they potentially have opportunities to exploit young girls. Should adult males not be allowed to serve as counselors, teachers, group leaders, or coaches of girls or co-ed programs simply because they are male?

As a result of careful screening, the BBBSA has previously had fewer than 10 child abuse allegations per year with which to contend.

Compare this to the rampant sexual abuse of boys and girls by the clergy. While there has been much publicity surrounding the indiscretions of Catholic clergymen, according to a March 25, 2002 Los Angeles Times article, child sexual abuse is equally distributed among the various Christian denominations, the difference being that it is more adequately dealt with in mainline churches.

It has even been charged that the Southern Baptist Convention to which many, if not most Christian conservatives belong, routinely covers up sexual misconduct. The number of cases involving children appears to be staggering.

car insurance qoutes Perhaps it is time for the critics to take a look within and begin sanitizing their own organizations and affiliations rather than looking elsewhere to place the blame.

Southern Baptist James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family has threatened according to an Associated Press article, to “delete favorable references to BBBSA in future editions of his recent book ‘Bringing Up Boys.’”

Should we assume he will discontinue his endorsements and favorable references to the Southern Baptist Convention as well? It concluded in 2000 in its Baptist Faith and Message that “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” even though nearly all sexual misconduct, including child molestation, is perpetrated by males.

If a parent is strongly opposed to a gay mentor, or even has religious or racial preferences, the parent can make a special request to the BBBSA.

For the Christian right, this insufficient; the Christian right must speak for all parents even for those of children that are aware of their own homosexuality and therefore, need a gay or lesbian mentor that can relate and help the child in coming to terms with his or her difference.

What Christian conservatives may be most concerned with is that allowing gays and lesbians to do something positive for children will reveal to Americans that not only are gays and lesbians good citizens, but that they are not the sinister child molesters and sexual predators that conservative Christians would have them believed to be.

Moreover, as youth come to see gays and lesbians as equally good role models without becoming homosexual themselves, the myth that homosexuality results purely from acceptance of it will come crashing down. Who would the religious right blame for society’s ills then?

While Christian right attempts are made to coerce the BBBSA to reverse its anti-discrimination policy, it should be noted that the BBBSA and its affiliates do receive some public funding through government grants. Therefore, it would be unconstitutional for the organization to discriminate based on sexual orientation as equally as it would be to discriminate based on race or religion.

While not a matter of church and state in the usual sense, to allow the religious beliefs of a group to dictate the policies of an organization that receives public funds would still seem a violation.

Although opposition to homosexuality and discrimination against gays and lesbians has become a predominant conservative Christian “value,” such bigotry is not an American value!