Dr. Alfred Kinsey, dedicated SCIENTIST or sexual DEVIANT.

[Andrew Dycke]

The major motion picture "Kinsey", starring Liam Neesen and
Chris O'Donnell, opened on November 12th. It purports to be an
accurate portrayal of the life and work of Dr. Alfred Kinsey
(1894-1956), the famed sex researcher whose work has had an
incredible influence on attitudes toward sexual mores and
behavior.

IgnatiusInsight.com spoke about Kinsey, his work, and his
influence with Dr. Benjamin D. Wiker prior to the opening of the
movie. Dr. Wiker is co-author, with Dr. Donald De Marco, of
Architects of the Culture of Death (Ignatius Press, 2004) and a
Lecturer in Science and Theology at Franciscan University. He is
also the author of Moral Darwinism (InterVarsity).

WARNING: Some of the material discussed in this interview is not
suitable for younger readers.

IgnatiusInsight.com: Who was Alfred Kinsey and what is he known
for?

Benjamin Wiker: Well, interestingly enough, who Alfred Kinsey
was and what he was known for are two very different things.
Let’s begin with the latter. Kinsey was known as the great
scientist of sex, the man who fearlessly and dispassionately
sorted out the true nature of our sexuality from the false,
unscientific beliefs that have for so long hidden the truth from
us. The standard picture of Kinsey depicted during his lifetime
was the dour scientist dressed in a lab coat, patiently sorting
through reams of data with his equally reputable and objective
coworkers.

That picture of Kinsey does not reveal who Kinsey really was,
however. In fact, such pictures were carefully staged by Kinsey
and his "research" team as part of their ongoing propaganda
campaign. Behind the scenes, we find the real Kinsey: a
homosexual and a sado-masochist, bent on using the trappings of
science to force his perversions upon society.

IgnatiusInsight.com: Why do you think a movie would be made of
his life? Do you think there is a particular message or agenda
held by the makers of the film?

Wiker: We have just seen in the presidential election that the
culture is seriously divided. Part of the culture has been
pushing pro-homosexual, sexual freedom agenda. No one doubts
where Hollywood lines up on these issues. They have been using
their immense resources for some time, along with the other
liberal-dominated media, to compel Americans to accept every
sexual deviation as natural and good. Of course, in doing so,
they were only following Kinsey’s lead, and so we should not be
surprised that they would make a movie lionizing Kinsey as their
prophet and martyr.

We can expect the message of the movie to be something like
this: Kinsey the persecuted homosexual fights fearlessly to
throw off the chains of sexual repression, but dies a kind of
martyr who selflessly sacrificed himself for those who would
come after.

IgnatiusInsight.com: What was the relationship between Kinsey's
private life and his influential studies?

Wiker: The sole purpose of Kinsey’s various studies was to
legitimate any and every kind of sexual activity, from adultery
and homosexuality, to pedophilia and bestiality. Kinsey himself
was, from his very early youth, a sado-masochistic homosexual.
His father, Alfred Sr., was a staunch, no-nonsense Protestant
who ran the household with an iron fist. Of course, young Alfred
hid his sexual perversions from his father, and the
contradiction between his outward moral uprightness and his
inward, hidden sexual distortions caused him great anxiety. But
by the time he went to graduate school, Kinsey was determined to
use science to eliminate this anxiety. How? By eliminating the
distinction between natural and unnatural in regard to
sexuality. He wanted to use science to "prove" that every sexual
desire, no matter how bizarre, is natural.

IgnatiusInsight.com: What have been some of the more serious
charges brought against Kinsey's research, methodologies, and
goals?

Wiker: To take up on the last point, Kinsey began with the
belief that every sexual desire is natural, and that it is only
society that labels things like adultery, homosexuality,
pedophilia, and bestiality as unnatural. Therefore, he would
gather "sexual data" precisely from those people who engaged in
such practices. For example, rather than gather data from the
population at large, Kinsey preferred to interview prison sex
offenders. This method would be akin to interviewing convicted
thieves on what they think of private property, or serial
killers about the sanctity of life.

IgnatiusInsight.com: In the trailer for "Kinsey" the researcher
is shown saying to an unseen research subject: "I've learned
that the gap between what we assume people do sexually and what
they actually do is enormous." Does this reflect the findings of
objective research or Kinsey's personal bias?

Wiker: First and foremost, Kinsey’s personal bias. As biographer
James Jones points out, Kinsey long believed that human beings
were naturally "pansexual," that is, they had no natural
goal–such as heterosexuality–but if left to themselves in a kind
of state of nature would satisfy their sexual desires in
whatever way happened to strike their fancies. Society restricts
this natural pansexuality, causing individuals all kinds of
anxiety. Kinsey therefore believed that while we assume that
people follow society’s sexual rules, they secretly want to act
upon their natural pansexuality, and very often do. This
deviation from social sexual rules–be it in adultery or
homosexuality–is really not a deviation at all, but our natural,
pansexuality reasserting itself.

Kinsey’s mode of argument was then quite simple, and the logic
of it went something like this: we assume that X is abnormal;
but we have found out that X occurs all the time; what occurs
all the time cannot be abnormal, therefore it must really be
normal; what is normal is also natural, and what is natural
cannot be wrong.

IgnatiusInsight.com: In another scene in the trailer, a
character (apparently sympathetic to Kinsey's work) exclaims,
"The enforcers of chastity are massing once again." How might
the movie try to make connections between the 1940s/50s and
modern day conflicts over sexual mores?

Wiker: We’ve all seen the recent surge to sanction gay marriage.
Kinsey is an especially useful figure to support this effort. He
has the status of a venerable scientist; he can be promoted as a
martyr. And the lesson Hollywood wants us to draw is quite
simple: the "enforcers of chastity" belong to the forces of
darkness. How long, O how long, must they rule over us
(sympathetic violins playing in the background).

IgnatiusInsight.com: A preview review of the movie on the MSNBC
site states: "For a movie so frank and explicit, 'Kinsey' has a
soft spirit. Violins swell. The warmth of the Kinsey's
unconventional marriage shines through. It's easy to imagine an
edgier movie, but 'Kinsey' is a celebration of diversity; it's
about the solace knowledge can bring." How does that compare
with the reality of Kinsey's life and work?

Wiker: Ah yes, the violins. Well, Kinsey’s marriage will surely
not be portrayed as it was, and therefore we can forget about
getting any "solace knowledge can bring." Will they show Kinsey
talking his wife into having sex with his homosexual bedmates?
And then there’s the little matter of the pornographic films.
Kinsey’s Institute spent much of its time filming its staff of
"scientists," including Kinsey, having homosexual sex with each
other, masturbating, and engaging in sado-masochistic acts.
Kinsey’s wife Clara was pushed–for the sake of science, of
course–into "acting" in these sexually sordid films. Will they
show his wife having to engage in every manner of sexual
perversion, both alone and with others, in front of Kinsey’s
camera? I doubt they will.

IgnatiusInsight.com: The MSNBC review claims: "It was his own
sexual problems with his new wife, Clara , that first got
[Kinsey] thinking [about sexual behaviors]." Is that accurate?
Why or why not?

Wiker: No, not at all. Kinsey engaged in horribly distorted
homosexual sado-masochism from the time he was a youth. After he
graduated from Harvard, he landed a job at Indiana University.
At the time, he was a bachelor, but being a bachelor for too
long would bring suspicion upon Kinsey. Kinsey needed a wife. He
soon met and married Clara Bracken McMillen, an intelligent,
boyish-looking chemistry student. Of course, he did not reveal
his homosexuality until much after the wedding. Clara did have a
physical defect that affected her sexuality, but that was taken
care of by surgery. The real problem with the marriage lay in
getting Clara to accept his homosexuality. Apparently she did so
dutifully.

IgnatiusInsight.com: The Kinsey Institute web site poses the
question, "How has the data held up, over 50 years later?" and
responds, in part, by saying that a 1979 study validated
Kinsey's original research: "Interestingly, most statistics,
such as homosexual behavior, did not change significantly from
the original reports." Are there any problems with this
statement in light of more recent studies that indicate
homosexuals make up 1-3% of the population, as opposed to
Kinsey's famous claim of 10%?

Wiker: As is now clear, Kinsey inflated the data, and he did so
precisely because he didn’t care about scientific truth first
and foremost, but only about his sexual agenda. For Kinsey,
science must be bent to serve that agenda, and data inflation
was the best way to do it. As was said above, Kinsey interviewed
sex offenders to find out what was normal in regard to
sexuality. Even worse, Kinsey flooded the interview pool not
only with convicted sex offenders but also several hundred male
prostitutes. Hardly "objective" research.

In another respect, however, Kinsey’s data have held up–not
because the data represent the truth, but because they his
"results" have largely remained unchallenged.

IgnatiusInsight.com: What about Kinsey’s association with
pedophilia?

Wiker: In the Kinsey report (consisting of two books, the Male
and Female reports), Kinsey argued at length for the
legitimization of pedophilia. Like bestiality and homosexuality,
pedophilia was, according to Kinsey, natural. The only problem
with pedophilia is caused by the hysterical reactions of those
who think it is unnatural. "It is difficult to understand why a
child, except for its cultural conditioning, should be disturbed
at having its genitalia touched, or disturbed at seeing the
genitalia of other persons, or disturbed at even more specific
sexual contacts," states Kinsey in the Female report. In sum,
Kinsey actively promoted pedophilia as natural.

In his reports, Kinsey offered quite explicit data on
pedophilia, including the effect of sexual acts performed on
children ranging all the way down to six months old. Where did
he get this data? In part, from a man of epic sexual
perversions, who had had sex with over 800 preadolescents, as
well as with 33 of his relatives (including his grandmother and
father) and animals of many different species. We also suspect
that Kinsey did his own "studies" at his Institute at Indiana
University, but we will not know until the archives (including
all his films) are opened to the public. One wonders how much of
this will make it into the film?

IgnatiusInsight.com: What do you think is Kinsey's true legacy?

Wiker: He is one of the great architects of the culture of
death, a man who saw his liberation in the destruction of every
sexual restriction, and who methodically misused science to
achieve his goal. Sadly, too many people didn’t see through his
ruse, or worse, were happy to join his revolution, and his
studies have, almost single-handedly, formed the foundation for
contemporary sex education. Is it any wonder that we are now
experiencing the darkness of sexual chaos in our society?

Related article: "Deadly Architects", a two-part interview with
Wiker and Dr. Donald De Marco.

Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Science and Theology at
Franciscan University and a Senior Fellow with Discovery
Institute, focusing on Intelligent Design.

He has contributed to various Catholic publications and writes
regularly for Crisis magazine, and is the author of Moral
Darwinism (InterVarsity).

Visit him online at www.benjaminwiker.com.

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features/bwiker_kinsey_nov04.asp