I don’t know why I take these people seriously anymore, but because so many others do, I do.

Focus On The Family founder James Dobson recently spewed some more pseudo-science out of his ass.

In trying to explain the roots of homosexuality, he advances a theory known as "detachment and differentiation."  I’ll let him explain, in his own words:

This is fairly new information that’s being discussed in the child development clinics and in the universities throughout the country and around the world, and it is called "detachment and differentiation." In other words, a boy detaches from his mother and then begins to accept the role model that he sees in the father. The father really needs to entice the boy away from the feminine characteristics in the mother and begin to teach him to identify with the masculine model.

Now folks, listen to me, it is now believed that homosexuality is very typically rooted in the failure to accomplish that differentiation and when you see individuals who are very very feminine and you go back and you look at the early childhood development characteristics you will see a failure to make that change.

So basically, if you grew up in a fatherless household, you become queer.

Now, it’s a nice theory, and there are probably some real-life examples where it holds up.  But does that explain homosexuality?  Does it account for every single gay person, or even most?   What about straight men who, like the gays in Dobson’s theory, don’t form that bond with the father?  And what about Naomi (assuimg, for present purposes, that Naomi is a lesbian)?

More to the point: Is Dobson willing to put his scientific theory to the same rigorous standard that he applies to, say, evolution?  After all, to these clowns, if you can’t completely explain evolution (i.e., no missing links), then the whole thing is bosh.  So, if I can find one gay person who actually completed the detachment and differentiation process, doesn’t that throw Dobson’s theory out the window?