Religion and Homosexuality

Being an atheist, this may be from a perspective you weren't considering, but I'll take a shot. I, personally, see some churches mixing with homosexuality quite well. Some churches are more progressive than others. From my understanding (feel free to correct me), churches like Catholic, Mormon, etc don't accept it at all. But other churches, such as the United Church and many Anglican Churches, are more accepting, and I know gay members of each.

On another note, I can understand your need to have a guiding religious influence in your life, but is it really necessary to "choose" one? Could you not, simply practice those beliefs that you actually believe in, and in a way just be spiritual with yourself?

I'm not sure if I made any sense there....

 

Religion is a big issue, Good idea bringing it up! I've always been Catholic, my parents brought me up going to a Catholic school, and I guess I've always been a "Good Catholic", and I've lived my life close to all the teachings. Because of this, it is very hard for me to give cause to "rebelling" against my parents and how they raised me, but I do feel that I have a few different beliefs than the whole Catholic church. Everyone here knows that being gay or bisexual is not a choise, and trying to only be straight seems to be living a lie, and thats why I dont think its wrong to have a different sexual orientation. If it is wrong, I dont thing God would put anybody through it in the first place. After all, there are so many ways to be a good person! when I get older, I may become a protestant, but I've never been able to look into other religions.

I would really like to hear any and all other thoughts on the subject. This is one that can never be overthought.

 

Ohh, the allmighty religion. It's an issue I usually discuss a lot. I am agnostic, which means I realize I don't have the ability to believe. I do believe that there is something out there, a begining you might call it, and that because of some of the principle the laws of termodynamics describe, there is some order in the universe. However I don't think there is an actual creature, spirit, energy ball, whatever that is guiding the universe, creating life and giving it purpose.

About religion, I go to a christian college (don't ask), my mother was jewish, my father catholic... neither of them ever actually went to church or the temple. So religion did not play a big part in my childhood. I accept all the religions, and religious people, although I think that sometimes religion is used as a wepon or excuse to hide someone's discomfort or missundertandig of an issu (say homosexuality). I know I will never accept religion in my life, but if someone else wants to... it's their choice.

 

I used to describe myself as "atheist", 'cos I am against "organised' religions as such, but that's not really correct. These days I think of myself as somewhat spiritual, more a believer in "karma" than anything else. If I had to choose a religion/philosophy that was closest to the way I feel, it would probably have quite a few buddhist principles.

I cannot abide any religion that says "you are no good because" or "my faith is right therefore yours is wrong" etc.

It just seems ridiculous to me that religion (or religious differences) should be the root of most of the conflict seen in the world, whe the basic precepts of all religions are generally very similar. Crazy.

 

Religion is not the cause of the problems. It's a cover up, a shield you might say, for the personal greed of those who make the conflicts.

 

Bingo. Church is a business like any other, with bills to pay to keep the lights on and the doors open. The unfortunate thing is some of the more unscrupulous leaders of the church resort to unfair tactics in order to roll in the dough.

My church, fortunately, doesn't do that. It's a very small church, with about 40 people or so attending every sunday. I don't cast a shadow on the door every sunday, but I make it every once in a while.

 

Regardless - if the followers are indoctrinated - what happens often tends to be "conflict, death and destruction in the name of faith".

I am fairly sure there is something in the Bible about "not building edifices". (Tho' I could be wrong - I don't exactly read it these days!) So what the hell is a church?

And please don't get me wrong - I'm not "having a go" at anyone who believes in their faith. Just asking them to be open minded to the faith of others, rather than antagonistic. Unfortunately, there are far too many of the latter in this world.

 

I believe, like matt ( i'm pretty sure i read this right) that it is the individual people who corrupt things like religion, and the only way to deal with this is to disagree with what you dont believe in.
TriBi also mentioned the same idea, people should search for what they truely believe in, rather than a group that believes mostly the same things you do.

 

Religion and homosexuality is always one of those ‘hot topics’. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with it sitting comfortably in my mind. The problem I had was reconciling scientific fact on creation etc with how the Bible explained things.

As far as being gay is concerned, God made me this way, and if I wasn’t supposed to be gay, then he wouldn’t have made me gay….and if that isn’t true…..then who’s gonna tell God he got it wrong?

Certainly within the Christian movement, (I only have knowledge of this movement) the message is all about inclusiveness, acceptance and love. That love is also unconditional. Regardless of who we are, where we’re from, what we’ve done and what we’re doing, the bible’s teachings are that God loves us all – he might not always be happy with it – but he loves us. Equally, we are supposed to do the same to our fellow men.

Unfortunately, as has already been pointed out, there are religious leaders who pick and choose certain passages from the Bible to justify their actions and opinions because of their own insecurities and lack of understanding.

For many people though, organised religion is a source of comfort in their troubled times, however, as with all ideologies, it all goes wrong the minute people become fanatical.

Even non-religious people find themselves influenced by the Bible simply due to the fact that the Ten Commandments (you can argue there are actually 13! - go on check!!!) along with other teachings form the basis of most of the world's legal systems. Even atheists, agnostics etc will say that murder is basically wrong.

I was actually going to be a priest when I left school 20 years ago, and still find myself drawn to it. I still have a couple of issues I need to work out with religion, and I had to stop myself from turning this into a massive response.

However, if anyone has any specific issues, or just wants me to post an occasional item to help further their understanding of how being gay and religious can work, then let me know! As I said, I still have issues with religion, but I’m not going to discourage or encourage people either way, nor am I going to turn this thread into a pulpit!

 

I'm a religious Jew. Since orthodox Judaism is not accommodating of homosexuality, I live a compartmentalized life: go outside the community to socialize as a lesbian, while continuing to live as a religious Jew in my community. For me, my relationship with G-d is too important to contemplate becoming less religious or slackening in my observance.

In terms of resources, I have noticed that the number of Christian resources far, far, far outnumber the resources for other religions. Case in point: the HRC's list at the end of their pamphlet for religious GLBT is about 5 pages long. It includes a handful of resources for Jewish GLBT, a couple for Muslim GLBT, and the remaining 4.5 pages are churches. So you might want to check out those church listings. They seem to be much more accepting these days than in years past.

Hope this helps!

 

this topic is so obscenely painful for me that I didn't even want to click on this post.

I'm just greatful that in the end there is no god

 

Religion... That's a topic that, when provoked strongly enough (I know one of those types from around my home town), I can rip and tear apart. However, I won't. Not here. Not now.

Since I am an unshakable atheist (not even spiritual), among other reasons, I have not exactly paid attention to what resources are out there for mixing religion and LGBT. From all the horror stories I have read (no, not the fictional kind, the non-fictional kind), it may be time to change a few things - organized religion comes immediately to mind since, from what I can gather from history classes and my own research, is rarely consistent and hypocrisy abounds to a much higher degree that could be called "acceptable."

So, to be honest, it would help to be around and know people who are open-minded: those that are religious can mix their religion with 21st-century viewpoints. All I can say is good luck.

I do like the idea of choosing your own beliefs. This may sound a bit harsh, but blindly adhering to an entire belief system that was created, in some form or another, two millennia ago might not mesh with a modern world.

 

I am currently struggling to deal with my gayness and my Catholicism. My mom's side of the family was very religious growing up, and my mom puts a lot of her faith and trust into God through Catholicism. As a result, she thinks my "soul is in danger." Her father (my grandfather) also thinks that my oldest brother is living in mortal sin because he's living with his girlfriend and they're not married.

It's frustrating, because in my experience, it is Catholicism that has led my mother to call my true nature a sin. I do believe in God, but I don't know how to get close to him. I find it hard to trust religious groups because I don't like the idea of surrounding myself with people who will not respect me for who I am.

On the way to San Francisco Gay Pride, I did get a card at the train station from a stranger about the Metropolitan Community Church, and I'm debating how and when to see a service from there.

 

I can sum all of it up in one song:

[YOUTUBE]Dgrigf-Ca48[/YOUTUBE]


as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter who or what we are, we can be forgiven

 

I used to be an evangelical Christian, but after all I've been through, I cannot believe that there's any god out there. In 2004, my life had fallen apart to the point where I had a gun loaded because I was going to kill myself, and part of that was realizing that there was no god and trying to deal with the aftermath from that.

 

My family is, but I stopped going about a year or 2 ago. I just feel betrayed by all the homophobia I hear about. Just not for me right now.

 

I've posted and had so many Gay vs God conversations I feel like I'm having a flashback.

While its true the Bible says gay is wrong and blah, blah, blah. You need to find a church that is accepting of who you are. I know a gay couple that is totally into church. They go every Sunday, they help out with events and such. They believe that God will judge them on thei actions and not on their sexual oriention, if only everyone could have such a healthy view on God.

Lets not forget what the bible also says is wrong:
Eatting shell fish
Shaving
Eatting red meat
Working on a Sunday

it also says slavery is good!

So, lets not forget that the bible was written two thousand years ago by what people believed was right at the time, but people change...evolve.

1,000 years ago everyone KNEW the Earth was the center of the universe.
500 years ago everyone KNEW the Earth was flat.

If we can be so wrong about such things then can't something as simple an opinion be wrong?

Long and short: People will use whatever means they have to make people agree with their views because people love to be RIGHT. If they think homosexuality is wrong then they'll throw the Bible, God, and whatever else they can get their hands on to prove they are right.

Just ask yourself this: Is God supposed to be a love and acceptance or a symbol of hate and prejudice?

 

I really don't see the problem with mixing the two at all. I've explained it and many others have in many other threads... many times

And I live an awesome happy life.

 

I used to HAVE to go to church but I don't go now I just cannot sit there and let them preach against homosexuality. It's just not A)Fair B) Right.