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10/16/2007
Cameron skepticism unites us all
Warren Throckmorton (pic.) is a proponent of the "ex-gay" movement with whom we have disagreed on many occasions. However, when it comes to the flawed "research" of the widely discredited Paul Cameron, it would seem that we have found ourselves on pretty much the same page.
In a new piece for Crosswalk, Throckmorton begins by attacking Cameron's past methodologies:
"One of Dr. Cameron's prime methods for determining gay lifespan is to collect newspaper obituaries of gay people and take an average of their reported ages at death. There are numerous problems with this approach, the most important of which is that there is no way to know if the obituaries posted in newspapers represent all people who are attracted to the same sex or even those who are out as gay. Also, how many families might hide that fact, thus impacting the obituaries considered to be about gay. Any estimate based on obituaries is merely a guess, and not one that inspires confidence."
And then after establishing that Dr. Cameron has about as much business conducting studies as Dr. Pepper, Throckmorton proceeds to discredit Cameron's latest claims that gay teachers abuse their students at heightened rates. Throckmorton says:
"Anyone familiar with schools and teacher behavior knows that [teacher/pupil sexual events] are frequently covered up with many never getting to trial and thus are not captured by newspapers. Who knows how many actual events occur? Who knows how many of the same-sex perpetrators are married with kids? In my clinical experience, many such perpetrators are actually quite heterosexual but turn to students for reasons that can only be described as reflecting an emotional disturbance, not their adult sexual preferences. Not to mention that same-sex perpetrations might actually be more likely to be reported and made public, thus skewing the results. And yet, Dr. Cameron considers newspapers a source of data adequate enough to include in his inaugural issue. However, since he demolished any credibility the study could have, why go any further? Good question. Undaunted, however, he proceeds to count the stories and we get meaningless statistics that may end up in a news release or column somewhere.
I certainly hope not. I urge Christians and conservatives to evaluate claims prior to citing them, even when they seem to comport well with one's beliefs. We are not to bear false witness, even if we use statistics."
Amen, Warren! Now if only we could convince you that most of the other "researchers" on that side of the fence tend to pull more legs than they do facts, then perhaps we could become BFFs.
How often do gay teachers abuse students? [Crosswalk]
**Oh, and by evaluating claims prior to citing them, we would assume Warren is talking about people like the commentators at Free Republic, who responded to this same Cameron study with comments like these:
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