In my Christianity Today daily e-mail news update, there was a short article entitled “Re-engineering Temptation“ about the controversies resulting from the blog entry by Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, on possible Christian responses to ideas of preventing homosexuality through hormonal therapies that prevent prenatal homosexuality or negate the sexual temptation for one’s own sex in adulthood.
This short article dealt with the Christian ethics if a true biological component is confirmed in the establishment of a homosexual orientation (not preference).
In the article, the author mentioned a five years study being conducted at the Oregon Health and Science University by Dr. Charles Roselli. This paragraph really caught my attention, for one reason that the author of the article didn’t attempt to refute it.

“The story begins at the Oregon Health and Science University, where Charles Roselli studies homosexual sheep (about 8 percent of rams are gay). His research, now more than five years old, has confirmed a link between brain chemistry and sexual preference. But his data does not indicate whether chemistry or preference comes first.”

At least this seems to suggest that if we look to nature for signs of right theological definitions and concepts, then we will need to conclude that within nature, homosexuality is present and a normal part, even if in small percentages.
So, here are two links to press releases by the university concerning the research of Roselli:
BIOLOGY BEHIND HOMOSEXUALITY IN SHEEP, STUDY CONFIRMS
BRAIN DIFFERENCES IN SHEEP LINKED TO SEXUAL PARTNER PREFERENCE
If science is done well, it will tell us what is observably and verifiable factual. What we choose to do with that information, those theories, those facts, is the realm of ethics and theology.
Alan Chambers, president of the ex-gay umbrella group “Exodus International” commented in the article:

“People like me who struggled with it and found freedom are more than sufficient proof that we can overcome our genetics,” he said. “Science will never trump the Word of God.”

Frankly, I agree with him, with a caveat. Science and theology deal with two different realms of knowing. Each, rightly construed, should inform one another, not conflict. After all, good science will help us understand what God has wrought. Good theology will help us understand what to do with the knowledge.
Science will never trump Scripture, but Scripture rightly understood will never contradict good science. This was the thought of those ancient Christian monks who developed the beginnings of our modern understanding of science and the observation of the world as it is.
What science may well do is help us understand whether we have rightly interpreted and understood the Word of God! In this case, if science gives us reliable and verifiable evidence that there is in fact a biological determinate concerning homosexuality, then the way we approach, understand, and apply the Word of God concerning this issue may well need to change – not because God changes or the Word of God changes, but because we are wrong in our traditional understanding and application of the Word of God.
After the science, then theology comes into play. What shall we then do?

OHSU News and Information
March 5, 2004
Contact: Jonathan Modie
503 494-8231
modiej@ohsu.edu
BIOLOGY BEHIND HOMOSEXUALITY IN SHEEP, STUDY CONFIRMS
OHSU
researchers show brain anatomy, hormone production may be cause
PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine have confirmed that a male sheep’s preference for same-sex partners has biological underpinnings.
A study published in the February issue of the journal Endocrinology demonstrates that not only are certain groups of cells different between genders in a part of the sheep brain controlling sexual behavior, but brain anatomy and hormone production may determine whether adult rams prefer other rams over ewes.
“This particular study, along with others, strongly suggests that sexual preference is biologically determined in animals, and possibly in humans,” said the study’s lead author, Charles E. Roselli, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine. “The hope is that the study of these brain differences will provide clues to the processes involved in the development of heterosexual, as well as homosexual behavior.”
The results lend credence to previous studies in humans that described anatomical differences between the brains of heterosexual men and homosexual men, as well as sexually unique versions of the same cluster of brain cells in males and females.
“Same-sex attraction is widespread across many different species.” said Roselli, whose laboratory collaborated with the Department of Animal Sciences at Oregon State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho.
Kay Larkin, Ph.D., an OHSU electron microscopist who performed laboratory analysis for the study, said scientists now have a marker that points to whether a ram may prefer other rams over ewes.
“There’s a difference in the brain that is correlated with sexual partner preference rather than gender of the animal you’re looking at,” she said.
About 8 percent of domestic rams display preferences for other males as sexual partners. Scientists don’t believe it’s related to dominance or flock hierarchy; rather their typical motor pattern for intercourse is merely directed at rams instead of ewes.
“They’re one of the few species that have been systematically studied, so we’re able to do very careful and controlled experiments on sheep,” Roselli said. “We used rams that had consistently shown exclusive sexual preference for other rams when they were given a choice between rams and ewes.”
The study examined 27 adult, 4-year-old sheep of mixed Western breeds reared at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station. They included eight male sheep exhibiting a female mate preference – female-oriented rams – nine male-oriented rams and 10 ewes.
OHSU researchers discovered an irregularly shaped, densely packed cluster of nerve cells in the hypothalamus of the sheep brain, which they named the ovine sexually dimorphic nucleus or oSDN because it is a different size in rams than in ewes. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that regulates sex hormone secretion, blood pressure, body temperature, water balance, and food intake, while it also plays a role in regulating complex behaviors, such as sexual behavior.
The oSDN in rams that preferred females was “significantly” larger and contained more neurons than in male-oriented rams and ewes. In addition, the oSDN of the female-oriented rams expressed higher levels of aromatase, a substance that converts testosterone to estradiol so that the androgen hormone can facilitate typical male sexual behaviors. Aromatase expression was no different between male-oriented rams and ewes.
The study was the first to demonstrate an association between natural variations in sexual partner preferences and brain structure in nonhuman animals.
The Endocrinology study is part of a five-year, OHSU-led effort funded through 2008 by the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health. Scientists will work to further characterize the rams’ behavior and study when during development these differences arise. “We do have some evidence that the nucleus is sexually dimorphic in late gestation,” Roselli said.
They would also like to know whether sexual preferences can be altered by manipulating the prenatal hormone environment, for instance by using drugs to prevent the actions of androgen in the fetal sheep brain.
In collaboration with geneticists at UCLA, Roselli has begun to study possible differences in gene expression between brains of male-oriented and female-oriented rams.
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OHSU News and Information
November 4, 2002
Contact: Jim Newman
503 494-8231
newmanj@ohsu.edu
BRAIN DIFFERENCES IN SHEEP LINKED TO SEXUAL PARTNER PREFERENCE
Research helps explain physiological basis of mate choice
Photo showing type of Western sheep breed used in this research project
Photo showing type of Western sheep breed used in this research project PORTLAND, Ore. ­ Research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has demonstrated structural brain differences associated with naturally occurring variations in sexual partner preferences. These are the first findings to demonstrate such a correlation in research animals, ­ in this case sheep. The researchers’ results confirm and expand upon human studies that compared morphological brain differences between heterosexual men, homosexual men and women. Scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, collaborated with OHSU on the research. The investigators’ results are being presented on Nov. 4 during the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Orlando, Fla.
Domestic rams were used as an animal model for this research because they display distinct, natural variations in sexual attraction, making them valuable in studying the biological basis for sexual partner preference. Previous studies documented that approximately 6 percent to 8 percent of domestic rams court and mate with other rams exclusively.
Sheep selected for this research were chosen after their sexual partner preference and mating habits were studied for two years. A total of 27 sheep were studied: nine rams that preferred to mate with males, eight rams that preferred to mate with females, and ten ewes. When researchers compared brains among the three groups, they recorded marked differences.
Research was focused on the preoptic hypothalamus, a region of the brain known to be involved in sexual behaviors and partner preferences; researchers identified a group of neurons there called the sexually dimorphic nucleus.
“Interestingly, this bundle of neurons is smaller in ewes and in rams with same-sex preferences than it is in rams that prefer ewes,” said Kay Larkin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine, and lead author of the paper. “We also determined that the volume of the sexually dimorphic area is approximately the same in rams that prefer rams as it is in ewes.”
The sexually dimorphic nucleus was measured by examining the extent and level of expression of aromatase, a key enzyme in a hormonal pathway that is involved in the development and maintenance of masculine characteristics. Additional groups of neurons within the hypothalamus thought to be involved in other aspects of sexual behavior were analyzed for size differences. These groups of neurons were shown to be different in rams and ewes, and not different in the two groups of rams.
The goal of these studies is to further understand the biological basis of sexual behaviors. More specifically, researchers are trying to determine the role of brain anatomy and physiology in the expression and development of sexual behaviors and traits. The researchers believe the sheep animal model may also help provide answers about other brain-linked sexual functions.
“Future studies will address functional aspects of the observed differences in the hypothalamus and test the hypothesis that differences in brain anatomy and sexual partner preference arise as a consequence of hormone exposure during fetal development,” said Charles Roselli, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine and senior author of the paper. “While we realize that sexuality is more complex in humans than reproductive behaviors in sheep, this model will help illuminate the basic principles that apply to all mammals, and may be helpful in understanding the biology of human behaviors as well.”
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