A Simon Fraser University economics professor told a federal court that gay people will end up in hell if they are “without repentance,” Detroit Free Press reports.
Appearing as an expert witness for the state of Michigan, Douglas Allen was responding to a question posed by lawyer Ken Mogill. Mogill is representing lesbian couple, Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, who are fighting to overturn the state’s ban against gay marriage.
Michiganders voted against gay marriage in 2004.
Mogill asked, “Is it accurate that you believe the consequence of engaging in homosexual acts is a separation from God and eternal damnation? In other words, they’re going to hell?”
Allen replied, “Without repentance, yes.”
Allen, who did an analysis of 52 gay-parenting studies, criticized researchers’ conclusion that children raised in gay households “perform as well, if not better, than their counterparts in heterosexual families,” an abstract of his study, “More Heat Than Light: A Critical Assessment of the Gay Parenting Literature, 1995—2010,” states.
“Regardless of what science ultimately demonstrates about same-sex couples or gay single parents as a family structure, it is important to safeguard the research process from political pressures: either anti-gay marriage or pro-gay rights,” he wrote.
DeBoer wrote an editorial in the Free Press, saying that the court battle is “not about a gay agenda, but family.”
Allen declined Xtra’s requests to interview him, saying he would only consent to an interview if he could vet the story before publication. He says he’s been “burned so much” by inaccurate reports that he trusts no one.
Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for March 21.
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