By Dr. Charlie W. Starr

 I’m writing this article two days after the September 2012 Prime Time Emmy awards. I didn’t watch the Emmys, and have given up on the Oscars as well. I keep up with nominees and winners because I believe it’s important for me to watch out for cultural trends as well as movies or TV shows I might enjoy. But I’m starting to wonder if a time might come when I’m obsolete.

The Big Winner

The most talked about show at the Emmys was one I don’t watch. Modern Family has won the best comedy Emmy three years in a row, and it’s only been on for three years! When I first heard about it, I suspected a liberal agenda based on the title alone. What, after all, is the definition of a “modern family”? Their definition includes a homosexual couple (men) who have a five-year-old adopted daughter. 

So I chose not even to give Modern Family a chance—I haven’t seen a single episode. Now be careful here: I know a lot of you are agreeing with me, but keep in mind that to judge a show we’ve never seen is a dangerous thing. In the past I have argued that it’s important for us to engage culture and that any art form can’t really be judged fairly until it has been experienced. I have also argued, however, that Christians should sometimes rely on the opinions of other Christians—those who do engage in culture and whose opinions we trust. Of course liberals as well as conservatives do this sort of thing anyway, whether they admit it or not. Still, it’s dangerous. 

Narrow Minded Fundamentalism

I said no to Modern Family for a reason. I don’t want to watch a program that’s going to offend me with every episode. I also have a real concern for children, and this show depicts a two-father family. 

While progressives (or liberals) have bombarded our culture with claims that there’s nothing wrong with sex outside of traditional marriage, the truth is that all sexual sin, whether hetero or homosexual sin, harms children. God has reasons for saying things are wrong, and the evidence is in. The most well developed, psychologically normal, likely-to-succeed, emotionally balanced kids are those raised in households with a father and a mother. And this has been shown recently in a study about homosexual “families” as well.

As reported last June in the journal Social Science Research, Professor Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas, using the largest sample of respondents ever in such a study (3,000), discovered that children raised by homosexual parents are more likely to have psychological problems than children raised by a mother and father. Children raised by homosexual parents will be more likely to have problems with impulse control, depression, suicidal thoughts, and will be more likely to need therapy. I don’t want to watch a TV show that lies and tells me otherwise. 

By the way, the publication of this objective scientific study in a scholarly journal led to some unfortunate results for Dr. Regnerus. He was verbally crucified by both the media and academia. Sociologist Christian Smith (Notre Dame) said Regnerus’s treatment was like an inquisition—a witch hunt. Regnerus was accused of academic misconduct and his university established a panel of inquiry to investigate. To its credit, the university found no wrongdoing in Regnerus’s methodology, but the mere fact that they investigated it based solely on media attacks and the unpopularity of his conclusion proves the existence of something that needs to be properly labeled.  

Dr. Charlie W. Starr teaches English, humanities, and film at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky.

www.charliewstarr.com