Mohler Says Gay Gene Should Be Manipulated, if Possible

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The president of a prominent Southern Baptist seminary says he would support medical treatment, if it were available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb from homosexual to heterosexual. The idea was floated by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The president of a prominent Southern Baptist seminary says he would support medical treatment, if it were available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb from homosexual to heterosexual.

The idea was floated by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., on his blog, http://www.almohler.com, last Friday (March 2).


“If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin,” Mohler wrote in advice for Christians.

Mohler’s view, in some ways, could signal a shift away from traditional evangelical thinking on homosexuality, from a condition that is changeable to one that is actually determined by genetics. Mohler said there is “no incontovertible or widely accepted proof” that sexual orientation is based in biology, yet “the direction of the research points in this direction.”

In addition, the idea of genetically altering a fetus _ and which characteristics to alter _ raises deep ethical and theological questions about Christian parents’ ability to change a baby they believe was created by God.

Even though such treatments _ if ever developed _ could be years away, they are not out of the realm of possibility, said Nigel M. Cameron, president of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future in Chicago.

“Certainly interventions of this kind are going to be possible,” Cameron said. “This is certainly the time to have the conversation of what we’re going to do with them.”

Mohler’s comments cited recent articles in Radar, a pop culture magazine, and the London Sunday Times that suggested the potential for such hormone patches for pregnant women. The Times story was retracted, and a researcher involved in sexuality studies of sheep told The Oregonian newspaper that it was “the most ludicrous thing I’ve heard of.”

Mohler could not be immediately reached for further comment. He noted on his blog that he opposes aborting fetuses or embryos who “are identified as homosexual in orientation,” but said advancement on determining a biological basis for such orientation should be used “for the greater glory of God.”


Cameron, the Chicago bioethicist, said Mohler was “venturing on very dangerous ground.”

“Ultimately, we have people who essentially are the Legos products of other people who tried to put them together,” Cameron said, adding he’d have the same discomfort with treatments that could change genetic impulses towards crime or political ideology.

“I’d be very wary of using these manipulative technologies,” said Cameron, a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

One prominent gay rights group, the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign,was outraged by Mohler’s suggestions. Harry Knox, who directs the group’s Religion and Faith Program, accused Mohler of “playing God.”

“Sexual orientation is an immutable, unchangeable gift from God,” Knox said, “and Dr. Mohler insults the Creator by suggesting that genetics or hormones or other treatment be used to change that wonderful gift.”

Knox said if such a treatment existed, his organization would oppose it.

“The gifts of (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) people to the realm of God and to God’s church … should not be forfeited,” Knox said. “And they would be if this kind of genetic manipulation were used to cause us not to be.”

But Tim Wilkins, the founder of Cross Ministry in Wake Forest, N.C., which promotes the belief that gays can “change” through faith in Jesus Christ, said he concurs with Mohler.


“If in fact a biological basis is ever shown to produce homosexual orientation … just as it is incumbent on mankind to research and to find remedies for all sorts of conditions, there would be, I believe, the need to find a remedy here,” said Wilkins, who says he was once gay but now is married with three daughters.

He said he believes that even if some kind of treatment were developed that could change someone from gay to straight, Christian faith is the key for such a change.

“The answer to our sinfulness is not in a patch but in a person, and that remedy is Jesus Christ,” said Wilkins, who is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Task Force on Ministry to Homosexuals.

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Editors: To obtain a file photo of Albert Mohler, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

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