Expected to Experiment

I wonder how many of the estimated millions of heterosexual men who went to see Brokeback Mountain are now experiencing a 'sexual identity crisis'? I'll bet quite a few. I know this because I've experienced it myself. No, I haven't seen the movie but one doesn't need to, one needs only to know that homosexuality exists.

As a young boy of 12 or 13, I first learned the meaning of homosexuality from the school yard. I remember being instantly confused and questioning every emotion I had for my own male friends. And in the months that followed, I paid careful attention to the feelings I had when I was around them. To be sure, my own growing attraction to girls provided some relief from the crisis but it didn't eliminate my fear altogether.

All this from simply learning that men, some men have sex with other men. Just imagine the harm that can come from a mainstream movie like Brokeback Mountain.

Last month, Dr. Albert Mohler in his own commentary "Sexual Confusion and the End of Friendship" wrote this about Anthony Esolen's article in Touchstone magazine, "A Requiem for Friendship: Why Boys Will Not Be Boys and Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution,"

In a truly haunting section of his essay, Esolen asked us to imagine a society in which the taboo against incest has been removed. Under such circumstances, no uncle would be free to hug his young niece without an accusation of sexual interest. Relationships between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and relatives of all varieties would be corrupted and undermined by the imposition of sexual suspicion.

As Esolen understands, this is exactly what is happening as homosexuality is normalized in the culture. Normal, non-sexual, fraternal friendships among men now come under suspicion. This is especially true for teenage boys and young men, who are less secure about their manhood and more concerned about their own--and their peers'--sexual
identity.

The normalization of homosexuality destroys the natural order of friendships among men. "Think about that friendship, the next time you see the perpetual adolescents and feather boas as they march down Main Street, making their sexual proclivities known to everybody whether everybody cares or not," Esolen instructs. "With every chanted slogan and every blaring sign, they crowd out the words of friendship, they appropriate the healthy gestures of love between man and man. Confess--has it not left you uneasy even to read the words of that last sentence?"

Earlier in his commentary, Dr. Mohler wrote that boys need an "uncomplicated heterosexual expectation." Such an expectation would do wonders for boys who now have to contend with a society that expects them not only to question their sexuality but to experiment as well.