Another Blunder at Stevenson High School

Yet another bone-headed decision at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. A few weeks ago, it was the student newspaper article on debauchery — I mean, “hooking up,”– which was approved by the newspaper sponsor Barbara Thill. And now we have the first dance for students who self-identify as homosexual, which was approved by English teacher, Bill Fritz.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that this kind of corrupt event would be supported by an English teacher. Although nowadays moral mischief emerges from all quarters in public schools, taxpayers should be especially vigilant about the activities of English and theater teachers, many of whom arrogantly believe that the community members who pay teacher salaries have no right to oversee how their taxes are spent and believe that a central task of theirs is the moral reformation of other people’s children.

One theoretical view of homosexuality is that it is biologically determined and hence inherently moral. The current research, however, has in no way proved that homosexuality is biologically determined, and the hypothetical presence of biological factors in influencing feelings or impulses has precisely nothing to tell us about whether volitional conduct is moral.

For a school to permit a dance specifically intended for homosexual students means that the administration has likely taken a position on the nature of homosexuality (i.e., that homosexuality is completely biologically determined like eye color or skin color) and most certainly has taken a position on the morality of homosexuality. They had to have concluded that homosexual conduct is moral conduct, or they would not have approved the use of school property for such a dance.

These teachers and administrators are wrong. Volitional homosexual conduct is morally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically destructive to the lives of these young people who were created in the image and likeness of God and intended for heterosexuality only.

The fatuous thinking of adults who are charged with guiding students into truth render those adults complicit in the destruction of adolescent lives; and each and every Stevenson taxpayer who says nothing while their taxes subsidize this travesty are complicit in the destruction of the lives of the students who came to this dance to act upon disordered impulses.

However did we get to the point where we facilitate children in their moral and psychological disorders and call our actions loving. These teens do not choose their feelings anymore than others who are attracted to children or multiple partners or relatives or pornography choose their feelings. They no more choose their feelings than those who suffer from aggressive, selfish, impatient, greedy, or lustful feelings choose theirs. But as moral beings living for a time in a fallen world suffused with brokenness of all kinds, we are all charged with the same moral task: We all must determine which of our myriad messy feelings are morally legitimate to act upon. Adults are supposed to help children navigate those murky waters.

Leaders, especially teachers, are charged with a task of enormous gravity and consequence. They are charged with the task of teaching and leading rightly. I find repellent the silly, nescient words of dance sponsor Bill Fritz who waxed smarmily sentimental about the students at the dance, saying, “‘It was really touching,’. . . ‘They were so proud of themselves. They felt lucky.'” No adults should ever affirm teens in their pride over homosexual feelings any more than they would affirm teens in their pride over their polyamorous feelings. No adult should view a roomful of confused, vulnerable teens acting on homosexual feelings as “touching.” And these teens were not lucky; they were harmed.

Somehow foolish, superficial thinking has resulted in educators believing that affirming students in their feelings is the zenith of wisdom and compassion. These educators fail to recognize that the minds and hearts of humans are rife with thoughts and feelings that ought not to be affirmed, even as we affirm the people who experience them.

Sometimes real love and real wisdom demand that we say and do things that others don’t like. A colleague once asked if I realized that some of the things I said were hurtful. I responded that her question implies the erroneous idea that the moral legitimacy of speech is determined by the subjective response of the hearer.

The moral legitimacy of speech–as well as its compassion–is determined not by the subjective response of the hearer but by its content and delivery. If we speak truth and speak it civilly, our speech is morally legitimate–and compassionate.

Affirming through word and deed the homosexual feelings of teens is profoundly unloving. Stevenson teens deserve better.

Source: First Gay Straight Alliance dance attracts 100 students (Pioneer Press)