I am going to begin this column by admitting a sin.

No, not that I’m gay. That’s not a sin. Besides, everyone – including my poodle Gracie – already knows that I’m gay.

Contrary to what Mr. Allsup wrote about the genetic basis of homosexuality having been “generally discarded,” I consider my sexuality to be as much a part of who I am as my beautiful blue eyes. (Blink! Blink!)

(FYI: I found a copy of the text that Mr. Allsup cited on Amazon.com for 24 cents, which is about how much that study is worth.)

Back to my transgression, which is not so much a sin as a peccadillo: I haven’t been reading the DC opinion page of late. In my defense, I have graded approximately 45 essays and around 100 quizzes (give or take) in the last week.

So imagine my surprise when a friend asked me today what I thought about Russell Allsup’s recent column on Pastor Ted’s fall from grace – and the two subsequent columns, one by Travis Acreman and another by Harrison Kaufman, taking Mr. Allsup to task for his tortuous use of junk science to justify his homophobia.

This is where I should probably say that I respect Mr. Allsup. I respect his right to write what he believes. I respect his conviction. I respect his effort to engage the University community in debate. I even salute his courage in taking an unpopular stand.

What I don’t respect is his delusory and perverted use of religion to vilify and demonize gays. More on that later.

I won’t repeat here the obvious flaws in Mr. Allsup’s citations, flaws which both Messrs. Acreman and Kaufman adeptly pointed out. At best, Mr. Allsup is guilty of intellectual laziness. At worst, intellectual dishonesty.

Only he knows if he willfully cited flawed studies. It would not surprise me, having read those and similar studies on a myriad of websites, if he naively accepted them as credible. Frankly, I cannot imagine a senior history major being so easily duped.

By citing discredited science to support his thesis, what Mr. Allsup has done is no different than citing texts like “The Myth of the Six Million” by Willis Costo or “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century” by Arthur Butz to defend Holocaust denial.

The studies that Mr. Allsup naively (intentionally?) cited are often trotted out anti-gay bigots who believe that citing (junk) science will lend credibility to their bigotry.

Unfortunately, the Internet is teeming with websites for organizations that regurgitate the same pseudoscience Mr. Allsup cited, most notably, the so-called ex-gay or reparative ministries.

The notion that anyone can pray away homosexuality is as na’ve as it is profitable. An entire industry – embraced by groups like Focus on the Family and Concerned Women of America – has grown out of the duplicitous and misguided venture that claims to be able to cure people of homosexuality – as if they were helping someone stop smoking.

Unfortunately, portraying homosexuals as depressed, unhappy, miserable, drug-addicted and promiscuous people benefits people who push the ex-gay myth. It also justifies their existence. It fills their coffers with millions of dollars.

Mr. Allsup would have you believe that homosexuality is a temptation that can be prayed away – not unlike masturbation. He would have you believe that homosexuality is borne out of an uncontrollable carnal desire that faith in God will subside, a spiritual weakness that can be strengthened through confession and a group hug.

He writes, “[Ted] Haggard admitted he did not have a community of believers with whom he could disclose his struggle with homosexuality.”

Pastor Ted did have a “community of believers” – albeit a small one. His name was Mike Jones. He was a male prostitute. He met with Haggard, sometimes weekly, for three years. According to Jones, the meetings rarely lasted an hour. Haggard, it turns out, did not seek out a prostitute in order to engage in acts of sexual depravity that preachers like Haggard earn their living condeming in Sunday sermons. On the contrary, according to Jones, their encounters were, as sexual trysts go, boring.

Contrary to what Mr. Allsup would have you believe, the true Ted Haggard was not the Pastor Ted who preached against homosexuality every Sunday to an audience of 14,000. Pastor Ted was a character Haggard played on TV. The true Ted Haggard was Art, the tortured, conflicted gay man who visited a prostitute out of desperation.

Earlier I said that I respected Mr. Allsup’s sincerity. I have no doubt that he sincerely believes that men “struggling to deal with their perverted desire to seek physical and psychological affection from other men” can be cured.

Apparently, the Reverend Lou Sheldon, founder of the Traditional Values Coalition, isn’t as convinced about the value of prayer and counseling.

Last week, the newspaper The Jewish Week reported that “Sheldon disclosed that he and ‘a lot’ of others knew about Haggard’s homosexuality ‘for awhile … but we weren’t sure just how to deal with it.'” So much for being their brother’s keeper.

Maybe Rev. Sheldon and his colleagues can attend a Celebrate Recovery meeting.

George Henson is a Spanish professor at SMU. He can be reached at [email protected].