#775: Steve Hotze

Steve Hotze is a wingnut crackpot who runs a big, lucrative practice in suburban Houston focused on “nontraditional therapies” and treatments for allergies, thyroid problems and yeast infections. He is particularly known for promoting natural progesterone replacement therapy for women, a treatment that can hardly be said to be particularly science-based. He also runs a daily health and wellness show that airs on Sen. Dan Patrick’s Houston radio station, KSEV. Quackwatch has taken due note of him, though.

Now, even Hotze’s approach to medicine is something special. In 1986 Hotze was one of dozens of ministers, professionals and laypersons who signed the Coalition on Revival’s Manifesto for the Christian Church, expressing his commitment to the following doctrines:

- A wife may work outside the home only with her husband’s consent

- “Biblical spanking” that results in “temporary or superficial bruises or welts” should not be considered a crime.

- No doctor shall provide medical service on the Sabbath (yup – it’s all for your benefit).

- All disease and disability is caused by the sin of Adam and Eve.

- Medical problems are frequently caused by personal sin.

- “Increased longevity generally results from obedience to specific Biblical commands”.

- Treatment of the “physical body” is not a doctor's highest priority.

- Doctors have a priestly calling.

- People receiving medical treatment are not immune from divine intervention or demonic forces.

- Physicians should preach to their patients because salvation is the key to their health.

- “Christians need better health to have more energy, tolerate more stress, get depressed less often, and be more creative than our non-Christian counterparts for the advancement of God's Kingdom.”

Nor does he like gays and socialists, like Obama. Surprise, surprise. Hotze even bankrolled the anti-gay attacks against Houston mayor Annise Parker on the grounds that she wasn’t anti-gay, and a leader who lacks Hotze’s level of hatred and bigotry is obviously unfit for a position of power.

Indeed, Hotze also runs a PAC known as Conservative Republicans of Texas, which he uses to push “health freedom” bills in Texas – that is, facilitate the promotion of questionable therapies and outright quackery without fear of government involvement or legal responsibilities. For instance, Hotze was a major backer of HB 1013, a bill that would ban all anonymous complaints other than those filed by patients, their guardians or their family and open up the process by which doctors are investigated – the measures would include setting statutes of limitations, providing doctors with details of the charges against them and giving them more time and legal remedies to respond or appeal; apparently he managed to get a lot of conservative politicians on his payroll to push the bill (presumably reflected in the Texas Republicans’ stance on reality). Officially, he claimed that “[o]ur opponents have said this is all about snake oil. What they mean is these doctors use natural approaches to health. This is a turf war between conventional medicine and alternative, natural approaches to health.”

Diagnosis: An extremely dangerous, quite (perhaps unintentionally) evil person, whose efforts to undermine civilization, promote denialism, and fight reality are almost staggering. We’ll deem Hotze to be one of the most objectionable people in the US, and that’s quite an impressive feat.