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Homophobia Is Turning People Away From Christianity


Yalta

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I read this great article on Salon (below) called "Christianity's Anti-Gay Stance Backfires". There's even a link to a blog post by a tolerant evangelical who hates what her religion is turning into.

 

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/17/christianitys_anti_gay_stance_backfires/singleton/

 

Basically, as the Religious Right wins all their homophobic anti-gay victories, all it does is tell young people that the church is out of touch. Many young people are not homophobic and have gay friends, and the message to them is clear: Christians hate gays no matter what. But the older conservative Christians don't want to lose their power, so they exert it wherever they can, to show that they have it. They're basically winning Pyrrhic victories, in a sense, as every victory they win also becomes a "Fuck you" to everyone else.

 

Plus, 80% of young Christians think Christianity is too homophobic (compared to 91% of young non-Christians). Says a lot right there.

 

What are your thoughts? This is why even though the Religious Right pisses me off, I also hope deep down inside that they never learn from their mistakes, but that everyone else does.

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Adapt or die. Xianity is usually 20-50 years behind the curve, but they usually adapt. Otherwise it wouldn't have survived post slavery, among other things. I predict we'll see xianity accepting gay people 30 years or so down the road as it's already been 20 odd years since gay rights started to make headway mainstream.

 

By then, their bigotry will be swept under the rug and their current believers will be in denial it ever existed.

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A male family member of mine is gay, I was still a believer when I found out (not a fanatical one) and I accepted that this was the way he was. I listened to how he'd tried for 5 years not to be gay, and begged god to change him which of course never happened. That really made me start asking questions. There was no way that I could believe that a 'loving' god would allow people to go to hell because of a sexual preference they have no control over. That made me sick! After that I allowed myself to think about the other questions I had that I'd pushed to the back of my mind and tried not to think about.

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I will never forget the day a preacher said, in a sermon, that "homosexuals are an abomination in the eyes of god". A little piece of my faith died that day. I refused to agree. I refused to consider any gay person an "abomination in the eyes of god".

 

Sometimes you hear something and it never leaves you.

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Adapt or die. Xianity is usually 20-50 years behind the curve, but they usually adapt. Otherwise it wouldn't have survived post slavery, among other things. I predict we'll see xianity accepting gay people 30 years or so down the road as it's already been 20 odd years since gay rights started to make headway mainstream.

 

By then, their bigotry will be swept under the rug and their current believers will be in denial it ever existed.

 

Right. And then they will claim they always were in the forefront of fighting for equal rights for gays. (Just like they claim about slavery now.)

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There will always be the lietralists that will never change and insist that the buy-bull must be followed to the point of suffering neuroses.

 

When Chrisitanity does eventually come to accept gays, it will be a religion with a double standard. The future followers will be like:

 

"Well, Leviticus says this (homo-sexshuls are eeeevile!), but there are some nice parts that have jay-zus saying a few nice little chunks here and there that jive with common sense. Oh, well. This was passed on from my family anyways, why break the cycle?"

 

In my case, I was a C-C-C-Combo Breaker! biggrin.png

 

It's already a religion with double standards and ignoring what the Bible really says about many other issues. Such as the treatment of women, for example. They know what the Bible teaches about women would be unacceptable and a turn off for most sane people these days so many churches ignore or tone down that message.

 

Or the whole OT genocides etc. - most churches just ignore that aspect. I think it will be the same with the anti-gay messages in the Bible eventually. They will say, and some churches already do, that they were only valid in a certain historical context that what the Bible really talks about is not gays in general but male prostitutes etc. I agree with Vigil that they will eventually adapt.

 

For now, their anti-gay stance is indeed extremely harmful for them. They will realize that they are fighting an uphill battle and they cannot stop society's development in this respect and that this would only expose their religion as hateful and intolerant. I have already read Christian writers admit that they are losing the battle regarding the gay issue and that they should move on and concetrate on the fight against abortion instead.

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"losing the battle regarding the gay issue"

 

How the fuck would they win it?

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Guest Babylonian Dream

They'll move to abortion, and realize that they'll lose that arguement to (their black and white thinking as to why women seek abortions is the reason). Their oversimplistic view of the world is going to hurt them on the next subject they move to as well.

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A male family member of mine is gay, I was still a believer when I found out (not a fanatical one) and I accepted that this was the way he was. I listened to how he'd tried for 5 years not to be gay, and begged god to change him which of course never happened. That really made me start asking questions. There was no way that I could believe that a 'loving' god would allow people to go to hell because of a sexual preference they have no control over. That made me sick! After that I allowed myself to think about the other questions I had that I'd pushed to the back of my mind and tried not to think about.

When I had my sexuality problem I only spent a year praying the gay away. I'm just impatient but that dealt a MAJOR blow to my faith. When I finally accepted I was a pansexual I felt like an outcast amongst my fellow faithfuls.

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You like having sex with pans? I've never tried that. Seems like there wouldn't be enough friction.

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When I had my sexuality problem I only spent a year praying the gay away. I'm just impatient but that dealt a MAJOR blow to my faith. When I finally accepted I was a pansexual I felt like an outcast amongst my fellow faithfuls.

 

I don't think it matters how long a person prays, if it's so 'wrong' then god should be happy to take it away since that's what the person is asking for. The fact that he doesn't is very cruel, but you will never get a satisfactory answer as to why he wouldn't do it... it's one of those things that Christians don't want to think about, they just shove it to the back of their minds. If they don't have to deal with it directly they can ignore it.

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A male family member of mine is gay, I was still a believer when I found out (not a fanatical one) and I accepted that this was the way he was. I listened to how he'd tried for 5 years not to be gay, and begged god to change him which of course never happened. That really made me start asking questions. There was no way that I could believe that a 'loving' god would allow people to go to hell because of a sexual preference they have no control over. That made me sick! After that I allowed myself to think about the other questions I had that I'd pushed to the back of my mind and tried not to think about.

When I had my sexuality problem I only spent a year praying the gay away. I'm just impatient but that dealt a MAJOR blow to my faith. When I finally accepted I was a pansexual I felt like an outcast amongst my fellow faithfuls.

 

My experience was similar. Christians like to demand that people declare their authority for deciding right and wrong, and they try to push people into a false dichotomy of "either the Bible or no moral standards." But on homophobia, I think a lot of people can see that the Bible and churches are wrong.

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Adapt or die. Xianity is usually 20-50 years behind the curve, but they usually adapt. Otherwise it wouldn't have survived post slavery, among other things. I predict we'll see xianity accepting gay people 30 years or so down the road as it's already been 20 odd years since gay rights started to make headway mainstream.

 

By then, their bigotry will be swept under the rug and their current believers will be in denial it ever existed.

 

Yup. Exactly true, including the bigotry being swept under the rug part! Not by that time maybe, but there will be a generation of Christians genuinely surprised to find out that their religion used to be homophobic.

 

"Adapt or die" applies to species, not individual animals, and the same is true here, I think. Anti-gay churches won't stop being anti-gay if members leave; they'll just lose relevance. Pro-gay churches will simply gain new members, and new ones will be started. Much like animals that happen to randomly be different in a beneficial way manage to survive (see elephants without tusks proliferating in countries where elephants are poached for their tusks), churches that just happen to have attitudes churchgoers want will be the ones that thrive and proliferate.

 

The next thing, though, is what about acceptance of non-Christians? A new generation of Christians will grow up with non-Christian, and even non-religious, friends. If their church says okay, it doesn't matter if you believe Jesus is the son of God, than they might not feel much reason to stay there, which may ironically cause churches to "evolve" away from acceptance of non-Christians even as they accept gays.

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In my case, I was a C-C-C-Combo Breaker! biggrin.png

 

I read this part out loud and laughed!

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Murder, misogyny, slavery, Creationism, blah, blah, blah. FINALLY, homophobia tipped the scale? That's the biggest problem with fundies?

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I will never forget the day a preacher said, in a sermon, that "homosexuals are an abomination in the eyes of god". A little piece of my faith died that day. I refused to agree. I refused to consider any gay person an "abomination in the eyes of god".

 

Sometimes you hear something and it never leaves you.

 

Pretty much this. The closest I ever came to homophobic was trying to accept that homosexuality was wrong, but that I struggled with that supposed fact.

'

Then the Christians go all, "Well, we don't hate gay people, we just hate their sin..." And, well, you know how that goes.

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I will never forget the day a preacher said, in a sermon, that "homosexuals are an abomination in the eyes of god". A little piece of my faith died that day. I refused to agree. I refused to consider any gay person an "abomination in the eyes of god".

 

Sometimes you hear something and it never leaves you.

 

Pretty much this. The closest I ever came to homophobic was trying to accept that homosexuality was wrong, but that I struggled with that supposed fact.

'

Then the Christians go all, "Well, we don't hate gay people, we just hate their sin..." And, well, you know how that goes.

 

Yes, love the sin and hate the sinner...I cannot stand that saying! Basically they might not care if you're gay, but date a guy and all of a sudden its a horrible sin!

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They'll move to abortion, and realize that they'll lose that arguement to (their black and white thinking as to why women seek abortions is the reason). Their oversimplistic view of the world is going to hurt them on the next subject they move to as well.

 

Ha, hypothetically I bet we'll find life somewhere in the future and Christians will go all District 9. Then when Alien Rights gains ground and is generally accepted as the mainstream, Christians will say they were on the forefront of the Alien Rights movement.

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Ha, hypothetically I bet we'll find life somewhere in the future and Christians will go all District 9. Then when Alien Rights gains ground and is generally accepted as the mainstream, Christians will say they were on the forefront of the Alien Rights movement.

Muslims too. Some are even claiming that Muhammad was a champion of womens rights! Of all things possible!

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"Homophobia is Turning People Away from the Essence of Christianity."

 

This is the problem!

 

Ugh!

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Ever since the announcement by Obama, if the webs are anything to go on, the crazies have come out in force. On the C-D political forum, that is all they retards want to talk about.

 

What amazes me, even if Obama favours gay marriage, their is pretty much very little he can do to pass a law on his lonesome that would not get shot down by the SCOTUS. (Can he even do this?)

 

IMO this was a planned strategy and getting the crazies out upfront and centre, who are not going to vote for him anyway, will swing any centrists/independents to his side. Who wants to be associated with nuts?

 

Then again, the LGBT folk, as pleased as they are for finally being recognised as humans by the highest office, is this not using your fight as a ploy and a political tool? The fight is long from over from what I observe.

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It will be awhile until Christianity accepts homosexuality if at all. The civil rights movement in the US really wasn't that long ago and racism is still fairly prominent. Even here in Australia where the whole black/white thing never really existed there is underlying racism that permeates the culture. Hell, even though we are secularists for the most part there are still a large amount of religious people about. I would be afraid to be "provocative" in certain parts of Sydney. Outside of the inner city, it would be unwise to make oneself appear to be obviously gay or atheist. I got plenty of stories of why that would be the case.

 

Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked here :) My point is this, if we haven't even really gotten over the racial tension yet, I doubt the whole gay thing is gonna blow over any time soon. Homosexuality still caries a stigma to it with people who aren't religious, until that blows over Christianity won't accept it and will play on society's current tension with it to it's own advantage.

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The civil rights movement in the US really wasn't that long ago and racism is still fairly prominent.

 

To be fair, mainstream xians in the US are not generally racist. My parents and their peers, for example, are mainstream protestant, yet are absolutely disgusted by racism.

 

Racism may continue to exist to a degree, but it's no where near where it was during the passage of the Civil Rights Act and doesn't compare in churches today with current anti homosexual sentiment in those same churches.

 

 

Homosexuality still caries a stigma to it with people who aren't religious, until that blows over Christianity won't accept it

 

I agree, but would just say that you are young enough to have not seen just how far the journey toward mainstream acceptance has come in such a relatively short amount of time. When I was still in HS, gay bashing and certainly open and angry anti gay sentiment was the norm. Shows like Will and Grace could never be aired. It's truly astounding just how much this has changed in just two short decades.

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"Homophobia is Turning People Away from the Essence of Christianity."

 

This is the problem!

 

Ugh!

 

Yet again, Pos uses her incredibly sharp mind to perceive great wisdom!

 

I move Pos be promoted to head deaconess!

 

Do I have any seconds?

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