July 23, 2012

Christian Smith, Ph.D. has referred to the attacking criticism of Mark Regnerus’s study as a “witch hunt” and “inquisition.” The Regnerus study found that “adult children of parents who had same-sex romantic relationships, including same-sex couples as parents, have more emotional and social problems than do adult children of heterosexual parents with intact marriages.” For coming to a conclusion that does not support the progressive status quo, “Regnerus has been attacked by sociologists all around the country, including some from his own department. He has been vilified by journalists who obviously (based on what they write) understand little about social-science research. And the journal in which Regnerus published his article has been the target of a pressure campaign.”

Smith, who says he is not a conservative, says: “Those who are attacking Regnerus cannot admit their true political motives, so their strategy has been to discredit him for conducting ‘bad science.’ That is devious. His article is not perfect—no article ever is. But it is no scientifically worse than what is routinely published in sociology journals. Without a doubt, had Regnerus published different findings with the same methodology, nobody would have batted a methodological eye. Furthermore, none of his critics raised methodological concerns about earlier research on the same topic that had greater limitations, which are discussed in detail in the Regnerus article. Apparently, weak research that comes to the ‘right’ conclusions is more acceptable than stronger studies that offer heretical results.”

This article is very insightful and brutally honest. It can be found at http://chronicle.com/article/An-Academic-Auto-da-F-/133107/.