While we at Truth Wins Out certainly don’t begrudge anyone his or her religious beliefs, this sort of statement should never come out of the mouth of a reputable scientist attempting to shore up his credentials:
The National Organization for Marriage’s Ruth Institute held its “It Takes a Village” conference this weekend, coaching college students on how and why they should oppose marriage equality. In past years, this conference has been rife with anti-gay myths, including repeated promotion of ex-gay therapy. One of this year’s notable speakers was Mark Regnerus, whose fraudulent study on parenting has been manipulated by conservatives to claim that children do worse with same-sex parents. Documents that have been uncovered about how the study was conducted show that Regnerus was actually coached about how to talk about his results so that his research would help oppose same-sex marriage, so his cooperation with NOM is telling.
According to a report on the conference from The College Fix, a conservative outlet, Regnerus confirmed his religious biases in his remarks:
Underscoring that, sex has become “the opium of the masses,” that “we are lacking transcendence and sex is a transcendent act,” he said. Ultimately, casual sex is a disappointment, he added.
“Sex doesn’t explain the world, religion does,” he said. “Sex will come up short.”
Then again, Mark Regnerus is not a reputable scientist. The more evidence comes out about Mark Regnerus’s flawed “study,” the more it is apparent that the SPLC’s conclusions were correct, that the study is simply part of a shady Evangelical effort to infiltrate science and academia. We know that our opposition does not value truth, facts or logic. They value their worldview above all else.
However, it would be nice for a person who claims to be a social science researcher to at least allow that science plays a role.
Last week, there was an interesting controversy surrounding Fox News hack Erick Erickson’s statement that the rise of female breadwinners was somehow a bad thing (wounded male pride, basically), which led to a heated exchange between Erickson, Lou Dobbs (who piled on with Erickson) and Fox’s Megyn Kelly, who was horrified by the sexism coming out of these men’s mouths. In this segment, which is worth watching in its entirety, Erickson actually cited the Regnerus study (without calling it by name) to back up his backwards, discredited beliefs about child-rearing, gender and sexuality. Megyn Kelly, to her credit, informs him that she has a whole list of studies that show that Erickson’s “science” is simply wrong. Indeed, the Regnerus study seems to be a Hail Mary thrown by the Religious Right, into a world where their sham science, lies and distortions are simply not welcome.
[Wonkette]
