Feds Censure Physics Prof

The U.S. government is desperate to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill—just not desperate enough to let pro-family scientists help. One week after the Energy Department summoned Jonathan Katz to an elite crisis team, Secretary Steven Chu kicked him off the project for his objections to homosexuality. Katz, a Washington University physics professor, had written extensively on his blog about the health risks of same-sex behavior. According to an Energy Department statement, “Some of Professor Katz’s controversial writings have become a distraction from the critical work of addressing the oil spill. Professor Katz will no longer be involved in [our] efforts.”

And what are these “controversial views?” For starters, Katz explains that gay sex leads to AIDS. “The human body was not designed to… be promiscuous, and it was not designed to engage in homosexual acts. Engaging in such behavior is like riding a motorcycle on an icy road without a helmet. It may be possible to get away with it for awhile, and a few misguided souls may get a thrill out of doing so, but sooner or later (probably sooner) the consequences will be catastrophic. Lethal diseases spread rapidly among those who do such things,” he wrote.

While we can’t vouch for all of Katz’s posts, it is shocking that the Department of Energy singled out this one. As unpopular as the facts may be, they’re facts just the same. And while Katz’s views may be incompatible with this administration’s ultra-Left agenda, they don’t justify workplace discrimination. People shouldn’t be excluded from helping in a national crisis simply for holding views that a majority of the country shares.

Tony Perkins heads the Family Research Council. This article is excerpted from the Washington Update that he compiles for the FRC.