Homosexuality and American Public Life

Book Overview

This book delivers the most impressive and comprehensive response to the homosexual movement ever assembled. An imposing array of scientists, psychologists, philosophers, and lawyers make the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1890626112
• ISBN13: 9781890626112
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: UNKNO
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Science over propaganda

Those who wish to see science supporting homosexuality's claims of innate character will undoubedtly attack this material. Resorting to the usual ad homenin arguments lacking any coherent argumentation but filled with emotionalism. This book is well written and presented with scholarly works to support claims made by the authors, unlike some science work that starts with a premise assumed then set out to locate support for the premise. Science is supposed to be science, objective and authentic in its research methods without which it is just popular experimentation. This book supplies the reader with information for an informed decision concerning the debates on the topic and leaves off the emotionalism so rampant in the controversy of the day. Well done!

Kristol seems really gay on TV, but he thinks gay is evil. I'm confused. But it's a great book.

Wolf and Kristol are to be applauded for their scholarly and highly objective analysis of why gays are, scientifically speaking, evil. What makes this brilliant essay even more impressive is that it is written by two openly gay Jews who love each other very much but see the evil and depravity in their homosexual lifestyle. Although Kristol demostrates his gayness every week on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos", he boldly acknowledges in this book the hypocrisy of his position on gay sex. Kristol, who has never shown any interest in serving in the military but has made a very lucrative career as America's greatest cheerleader for war, explains that he has been afflicted with the dreaded hypocrisy for as long as he can remember. His recollection of his high school days, when his effeminate personality came into full bloom while at the same time he was denouncing the gays in his school, is especially moving. He also candidly reveals that he has never ever, not even once, been correct about anything he has ever publicly written or spoken about in his 30 year career as an over-paid commentator. He recognizes the absurdity of an incompetent "political analyst" who is always wrong being allowed to spew his nonsensical opinions on TV day after day for years and years on national television and getting paid obscene sums of money to boot. This is why he, and the multitudes of other yakkety-yakkers on TV believe that America is the greatest country in the world.

A thoughtful response to the controversy

Many in American society today struggle with issues involving sexuality, and sadly reap the whirlwind of their choices. The homosexual population (including our own friends and family members) unfortunately involves an aggressive element, one more concerned with license than liberty, and with generating heat rather than light. With this preamble, -Homosexuality and American Public Life- enters the debate and seeks to restore a rightful understanding of human sexuality, one more easily grasped by the common man just a few generations ago. Because of limited space, I'll restrict my comments to the moral and legal sections of the book. In Part II, Moral Norms, Robert George deals with the ideas of neutrality (which turns out to be not-so-neutral after all) and the naturally-derived definition of marriage as a "one-flesh communion" of persons unique and uniquely important in our experience. He goes on to articulate the assumption of a controversial philosophical dualism within the homosexual position that necessarily intrumentalizes the body, and therefore the person. Part III on the legal aspects of the controversy was actually the most interesting to me, partly because I was unfamiliar with the authors (except for Arkes), who are certainly notable in their own right, but mostly because of the substantial arguments they marshal in defense of traditional marriage. I thought that some of this material might have been incorporated into the rather short (two chapter) section on Moral Norms. In III, Hadley Arkes serves up the reasoning behind the Defense of Marriage Act, articulating well the flaw inherent to the notion of "homosexual marriage": namely, that it cannot help but render marriage as a relatively meaningless and socially constructed convention, one open to nearly any relationship (e.g., polygamy) imaginable. Philosopher Michael Pakaluk brings a welcome addition with his arguments about homosexuality and its effects on the Common Good; He asks, exactly what harms can we expect if the homosexual movement is afforded the acceptance it desires? Pakaluk notes Arkes' point above, but then turns to another concern that often goes unmentioned: the moral relationship between parents and children. Severing the institution of marriage from its procreative aspects constitutes not an extension to marriage, but rather a radical redefinition thereof. Indeed, it represents the loss of an institution (or at least the societal recognition or understanding of such) connecting parents to their biological children. If there is any difficulty in seeing the implications of this disconnect (or even believing that such implications are worth considering), it is only because we have already lost a great deal in terms of understanding parental duty and the nurturing of our children. This is an important and often neglected aspect of the debate - one that deserves greater attention.Finally, David Coolidge opens with a u

Rational debate against a sloganeering homosexual elite.

The only reason you would not like this book is if you buy into the pro-homosexuality empty logic and sloganeering. This is a very frank, open, and rational discussion on the effects of homosexual behavior and policy on a society.