Today on The 700 Club, a man with an openly gay son asked Pat Robertson how he can show his son “the love of Jesus when you know his sexual preference is an abomination to God.” Robertson told the father to love his son by encouraging him to “un-acquire” his sexual orientation and “get out of this.” Robertson’s advice should come as no surprise, as The 700 Club has featured “ex-gays” and the televangelist has said that gays and lesbians are “on their way to hell,” will bring America into the “ash-can of history” and prompt God to destroy America.
Robertson: Well you can love, you know what they say, you love the sinner and hate the sin, but I think what you got to do is love him, you’re his father. You want to say, ‘look I don’t agree with what you’re doing but I love you, you’re my son, you came from my body, you’re part of me and I’m with you but I’d like you to get out of this.’ I know people disagree with the question of homosexuality; is it something that they’re born with or is it something that’s acquired? I think a lot of it is acquired, I don’t know all the genes or the genetics that’s in your son as to what is causing him to do whatever he’s doing, you’ll have to figure that one out. But normally speaking, a person who has acquired this can un-acquire it. We’ve had many people who have indeed left the homosexual lifestyle and gone into a heterosexual relationship and have been very, very happy. But all I can say is love the son, love the son, and show him what you consider a better way.
Notably, Robertson’s own Regent University in a study of sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or bi-curious) involved or once involved in opposite-sex relationships found that heterosexual behavior did not alter their homosexual or bisexual orientation:
When we look at the sexual minorities specifically, it is noteworthy that the findings from the Kinsey scale suggest that they did report significant behavioral change. This likely reflected the commitment to their heterosexual marriage and the decrease in frequency of same-sex behavior. However, when the Kinsey expanded scale was administered, sexual minorities did not report a statistically significant change in the combination of behaviors, attraction, fantasy, and emotional attachment – the combination meant to convey sexual orientation rather than just behavior.
