I’ll be taking some time to blog about individuals who make a profit off the hate they sell. These individuals receive most their financial support from donations from Christians and Christian organizations. Meet Paul Cameron, he has been labeled as an extremist and his organization, the Family Research Institute as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Cameron has intentionally spread lies, misused, and misrepresented research, and sought to remove the civil rights of the LGBT community.

Cameron is the go-to “Scientist/Researcher,” many anti-LGBT groups quote when they need to demonize the LGBT community. For the average Fundagelical, who tend to be anti-academic, they are dazzled by his Ph.D. and published articles with graphs and charts. Cameron’s “research” gives a false aura of authenticity to spurious claims.

I label Cameron as a “Profit of Hate” because not only is he recognized as an extremist and founder of a hate group; he earns his living, makes a profit, off the hate he peddles. According to Ward Harkavy, “He makes his money by researching and writing papers, testifying as an expert witness in court cases against gay parents and furnishing ammunition for use by groups like Colorado for Family Values and Focus on the Family.”

Cameron received a BA from Los Angeles Pacific College in 1961, an MA from California State University in Los Angeles the following year and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1966. He held posts as an assistant psychology professor at University of Wisconsin–Stout (1966–67) and Wayne State University (1967–68), before becoming an associate professor at the University of Louisville (1970–73) and the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology (part of the Fuller Theological Seminary) (1976–79). In 1979, he became an associate professor of Marriage and Family at the University of Nebraska (Marquis Who’s Who LLC. (2007-02-02). “Cameron, Paul Drummond.” The Complete Marquis Who’s Who Biographies – via LexisNexis.)

Cameron left the University of Nebraska and entered private practice. While in Nebraska, In 1982, Cameron as the chair of the Committee to Oppose Special Rights for Homosexuals, gave a speech in the University of Nebraska Lutheran Chapel in which he claimed a 4-year-old boy was attacked and had his genitals nearly severed in a mall restroom by homosexuals as part of a homosexual act. This inflammatory accusation alarmed the local police who sought to confirm Cameron’s statement. After the police could find no evidence of such an incident, Cameron admitted it was only a rumor he had heard. However, this one speech would set the pattern for Cameron. He makes highly inflammatory claims based on rumors, distortions of legitimate research, and his own flawed research study.

The infamous Cameron research study is often cited by anti-gay Fundagelicals. In 1982, Cameron founded the Institute for Scientific Investigation of Sexuality, with the unfortunate acronym of ISIS, which would eventually morph into the Family Research Institute. In 1983, an “extensive self-administered questionnaire,” was offered to 9,129 adults in five U.S. cities, and 4,340 responses were received. In 1984, these were supplemented with data from 824 adults from Dallas. These self-administered questionnaires form the basis for the research study. They also form the basis for many of the claims Cameron makes. Some of those claims include linking child molestation as a cause of homosexuality, pedophilia as a homosexual practice, and shorter lifespans for homosexuals.

Dr. Gregory Herek, on his blog, states, “A critical review of the Cameron group’s sampling techniques, survey methodology, and interpretation of results reveals at least six serious errors in their study. The presence of even one of these flaws would be sufficient to cast serious doubts on the legitimacy of any study’s results. In combination, they make the data virtually meaningless.” The six errors are as follows:

  • Error #1 Despite their characterizations of it, the sample was not national in scope.
  • Error #2 The response rate was unacceptably low.
  • Error #3Conclusions were based on data from subsamples that were too small to permit reliable analyses.
  • Error #4 The validity of the questionnaire items is doubtful.
  • Error #5 The interviewers may have been biased and may not have followed uniform procedures.
  • Error #6 The Cameron group’s biases were publicized to potential respondents while data were being collected.

For his poor research methodology, ethics violations and inflammatory research, which Cameron pays to have published, the American Psychological Association removed him from membership, the Nebraska Psychological Association adopted a resolution distancing itself from Cameron and his research, the American Sociological Association  adopted a resolution which asserted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” and repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research.” Dr. Cameron’s license to practice has been listed by the Nebraska HHS as inactive since 1995.

This disgraced researcher continued to profit off his hate-filled “research” and continues to demonize members of the LGBT community. If you read almost any article that includes so-called research that discredits the LGBT community from a Fundagelical website or organization, you can bet they are using Cameron’s discredit research!

Christians are supposed to be dedicated to the truth. They hold others to high standards that they themselves refuse to follow. Cameron’s distortions and lies are well known and well documented, and yet they are continually used to add an air of authority to outrageous claims made by other extremist and hate groups. Christians are bearing false witness against their neighbors and profit from it.

The Old Testament prophets called people to repentance, these modern age “profits of hate” earn a living promoting lies that fuel humankind’s fallen nature and inflame hate toward neighbor. Is it any wonder that people are fleeing the Church?

Thanks for reading, please subscribe, like, and share my blog. You can watch my vlog at Rev’s Reels on YouTube. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Join me and a bunch of other former Fundagelicals at Open Door Ministries in Westminster at the Westminster Mall.