Anti-gay Republican should be pitied for hypocrisy and hubris

Agema

Dave Agema won't go away.

Agema is the Republican National Committee member from Michigan whose past and recent comments about lgbts and Islam are so noxious that members of his own party are demanding that he resign. Agema, however, refuses to. Instead, he has chosen to nail himself to the cross of martyrdom.

In a recent interview, Agema makes himself seem like the victim of an alleged left-wing plot to silence conservatives:

"They will use fear, intimidation, physical threats – I can't tell you how many of those I got," he said on the air.  

"... They put fear into everybody's heart when they see me and other people like Chick-fil-A and Phil Robertson, Evander Holyfield, even 'The Bachelor' now." . . . "So I think we need people to stand up," he continued. "It's the old saying: All that's necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing ... and my wife and I prayed about it, we were on our knees, we had people here praying about it – and we just came to the conclusion: If I don't stand, then who?"

Of course, the article, published by the right-wing One News Now, didn't say exactly what Agema has been saying. Allow me to rectify that error with a little enhancement on my part.

Last year on his facebook page, Agema claimed that he had "reams of studies" proving homosexuality to be a so-called dangerous lifestyle.  He originally cited information from Dr. Frank Joseph, a physician whom no one has ever heard of.  The information cited is called Everyone Should Know These Statistics on Homosexuals.

But there is something I noticed about Joseph's information which needs to be stated.

Those who have read this blog should remember this book on the left because I have referred to it many times. It is an awful comic book published in the late 1980s by a man named Dave Hafer called Deathstyle. It, as Joseph's piece cited by Agema, also purported to give "statistics" about homosexuality.

In fact, if one would compare Hafer's comic book and Joseph's piece, one would see startling similarities.

Joseph:

Homosexuals live unhealthy lifestyles, and have historically accounted for the bulk of syphilis, gonorrhea, Hepatitis B, the "gay bowel syndrome" (which attacks the intestinal tract), tuberculosis and cytomegalovirus

Hafer:

 

Joseph:

37% of homosexuals engage in sadomasochism, which accounts for many accidental deaths. In San Francisco, classes were held to teach homosexuals how to not kill their partners during sadomasochism.

Hafer:

Joseph:

Homosexuals are 100 times more likely to be murdered (usually by another homosexual) than the average person, 25 times more likely to commit suicide, and 19 times more likely to die in a traffic accident. 21% of lesbians die of murder, suicide or traffic accident, which is at a rate of 534 times higher than the number of white heterosexual females aged 25-44 who die of these things.

Hafer:

Joseph:

 Homosexuals prey on children. 33% of homosexuals ADMIT to minor/adult sex. There is a notable homosexual group, consisting of thousands of members, known as the North American Man and Boy Love Association ( NAMBLA). This is a child molesting homosexual group whose cry is "SEX BEFORE 8 BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE." This group can be seen marching in most major homosexual parades across the United States. Homosexuals commit more than 33% of all reported child molestations in the United States, which, assuming homosexuals make up 2% of the population, means that 1 in 20 homosexuals is a child molester, while 1 in 490 heterosexuals is a child molester.

Hafer:

 

Both Hafer's comic book and Joseph's piece are filled with false information coming from cherry-picked sources published decades ago or just plain bad studies from junk science sources. One source in particular which they both share, Paul Cameron, is a man who has been either censured or dismissed from several medical associations for his bad research methodologies and outrageously homophobic claims. Amongst other things, Cameron has claimed that gay men "seduce" children on a regular basis, that is when they are not stuffing gerbils up their rectums.

But Agema not sees nothing wrong with citing Joseph. In fact he thinks it's more than appropriate.

One word which comes to mind whenever I read about Agema is not morality but hubris. Hubris is defined by extreme pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power. 

In this case, it's Agema's insisting that his statements against homosexuality is akin to standing up for Biblical principles but every time he utters them, he contradicts those principles because while it is up for debate whether or not homosexuality is a sin, it is definitely factual to call bearing false witness a sin.

The sad thing is that Agema doesn't even realize it.

Agema's not to be admired. He's to be pitied.