Buried Truth

The buried truth germinates and breaks through to the light.  –  George Bernard Shaw

I’ve written on a number of occasions about reaction formation, the psychological defense mechanism by which the mind shields itself from uncomfortable desires (usually sexual) by forming an obsession with the opposite of that thing.  “A preacher who is obsessed by porn might frequently speak out against it from the pulpit, and a man who is obsessed with child porn in particular might champion legislation against it, or…seek a position investigating allegations of pedophilia.”  A man obsessed with whores might devote endless hours to a website about how we’ll all burn in Hell, or to writing column after column about “sex slaves”, with their tortures described in lurid, loving detail.  A repressed homosexual might even become a “counselor” in a ministry dedicated to helping others to “pray the gay away”.  The syndrome is much more common in men, but not unheard of in women:

…Lisa Biron, a Manchester, N.H., lawyer associated with the Christian litigation group, Alliance Defending Freedom, was arrested by FBI agents…on [Mann Act] charges…  possession of child porn…and …sexual exploitation of children…Biron transported a teen girl…to Ontario…and coerced her into engaging in

sexual acts with another person…[according to Queerty, ADF is] “a group of reactionary Christian attorneys lawyers pressing litigation to curb reproductive rights and block the freedom to marry“…[it] was founded in 1994 by…Focus on the Family’s James Dobson and American Family Association’s Donald Wildmon, among others…[and] has been fighting against gay rights for over 18 years…

Biron is not the only sexually-repressed lawyer who thinks the prohibitions she vigorously supports should not apply to her; James Cameron was a federal prosecutor dedicated to punishing people for enjoying illegal pleasures, but has now fled the gears of the life-destroying legal machine he served for years:

Less than 12 hours after a federal appeals court upheld seven of his 13 [child porn] convictions…former drug prosecutor James Cameron cut off his [electronic tracking] ankle bracelet and disappeared…[if caught he faces] 16 years in federal prison…

Reaction formation is the psychological equivalent of burying some abhorrent thing underground and piling junk on top of it.  Sometimes the thing stays buried, with the “reaction” behavior marking it like a cairn; other times the cover washes away and the despised urges are revealed to the world, as in the cases above.  But sometimes the buried lust rots, decaying in the subterranean darkness into a thing of hideous foulness that eventually bursts forth to destroy not just the one who entombed it, but others as well:

A young Arlington woman is dead and her husband along with several other members of her secretive prayer group are suspected of raping her, then killing her and trying to make it look like a suicide…the body of 27-year-old Bethany Leidlein Deaton was discovered in a van near a lake southeast of Kansas City on October 30…[then] Micah Moore, a…fellow prayer group member…confessed [November 9^th] to murdering her…[under] orders of Tyler Deaton, Bethany’s husband of a mere ten weeks.  Tyler Deaton reportedly feared Bethany was about to tell her therapist that Tyler had been drugging her and forcing her to have sex with his friends as part of their religious activities.  The assailants allegedly recorded their sexual assaults of Bethany Deaton on an iPad, and then wrote poems about the rapes…Moore told police that the charismatic…and domineering Tyler Deaton had sex with his male followers as well…The group…followed Tyler Deaton en masse from Texas to Missouri to attend a Kansas City institution called the International House of Prayer University, an evangelical missionary training school…

So, what kind of “prayer group” involves coerced homosexual activity as “part of a religious experience”, plus the gang rape of a heavily drugged woman?

One of his group’s stark positions on Scripture was that homosexuality was wrong.  Deaton’s stance against it weighed heavily because members said he had “struggled with being gay…He struggled with it, but he overcame it,” a [former] member of his group…said.  “It was a victory”…The International House of Prayer had great appeal to the group…They loved the strong evangelism and the dedication to following Scripture…Many shared a belief that the “end times” were at hand…

There are certainly other motivations for prohibitionist fanaticism, such as vengeance or sour grapes.  But when nothing in the fanatic’s personal history indicates an obvious motive, repressed desire for whatever it is he wants prohibited is nearly always a safe bet.