Homosexuality: Legally Permissible or Spiritually Misguided?1

Lockard, Homosexuality3.6. Multiple causation of homosexualityOther behavioural scientists (Matheson 2003; LeVay 1996; McFadden 1998;Goldberg 1994) share the view that sexual orientation is shaped for mostpeople at an early age through complex interactions of either environment,parent-child relationships, social interactions and/or psychologicalcomponents, thus comprising multifactorial causation for homosexuality.Simon LeVay (1996) concurs: “At this point the most widely held opinion (oncausation of homosexuality) is that multiple factors play a role”.Neuroscientist, Dennis McFadden, from the University of Texas, opines:Any human behavior is going to be the result of complexintermingling of genetics and environment. It would beastonishing if it were not true for homosexuality (CharlotteObserver 1998).Steven Goldberg concludes: “I know no one in the field who argues thathomosexuality can be explained without reference to environmentalfactors” (Goldberg 1994).Thus far, this paper has critiqued and analysed two important components inassessing the issue of homosexuality: Firstly, the historical dimension of theorigin and accepted practices of same sex behaviour and, secondly, thepresentation of the scientific community’s empirical studies and evaluation ofthe biologic determinism for homosexual behaviour versus the multifactorialcausation.The third essential component for evaluating the issue of homosexuality is thatof the tradition and witness of scripture interpretation. Throughout the span ofhuman history, the moral values of civilized societies have given credence tothe stated moral code of the holy scriptures as given by God himself tomankind. History is a witness to the fall of sophisticated societies that turnedfrom biblical mandates on accepted human behaviour. Therefore, let uscarefully examine the theological determinants on the moral behaviour of menand women.156