Do God make people gay? A theologian rponds | Catholic News Agency

Contents:

• THE POPE SAYS GOD MA GAY PEOPLE JT AS WE SHOULD BE – HERE’S WHY HIS MENTS MATTER
• THE GOSPEL FOR A GAY FRIEND
• ‘GOD MA ME GAY’
• “GOD MA ME GAY FOR A REASON”: YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN’S RILIENCY ROLVG INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA OM RELIG SOURC
• WHY DO GOD MAKE PEOPLE GAY AND THEN SAY YOU CAN’T BE THAT WAY?
• 10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS
• DO GOD MAKE PEOPLE GAY? A THEOLOGIAN RPONDS
• DID GOD MAKE ME GAY?
• “WHY DID GOD MAKE ME GAY?”

THE POPE SAYS GOD MA GAY PEOPLE JT AS WE SHOULD BE – HERE’S WHY HIS MENTS MATTER

In a speech at a gay-advocy fundraiser Sunday, Democratic printial ndidate Pete Buttigieg fend his homosexualy a remark aimed at vice print Mike Pence, a proponent of tradnal marriage.

THE GOSPEL FOR A GAY FRIEND

If by gay you mean “a person who engag homosexual behavr, ” then God don’t make someone gay any more than he mak someone an adulterer, a fornitor, or a man who has relatns wh jt his wife. This appeal to personal experience is so pellg to so many people that Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen, their 1989 “gay manifto” After the Ball, remend that homosexual advot work to persua the public that “gays are victims of circumstance, that they no more chose their sexual orientatn than they did, say, their height, sk lor, talents, or limatns.

Gays should be nsired to have been “born gay”—even though sexual orientatn, for most humans, seems to be the product of a plex teractn between nate predisposns and environmental factors durg childhood and early adolcence. Even though ’s a good example of an ner sire that most people agree we shouldn’t act on (though ’s creasgly beg viewed clil circl as a “sexual orientatn” like any other), most people will jt hear you sayg that “homosexualy is the same as pedophilia.

‘GOD MA ME GAY’

He is warng of the nsequenc associated wh acts of stealg, adultery, and homosexual behavr (for a rponse to people who say Pl and the Bible do not really nmn homosexual behavr, click here).

Given the unique velopmental stage of emergg adults and the fact that most religns have rtrictns on homosexual behavr, is important to unrstand how YMSM tegrate their sexual and relig/spirual inti. Keywords: relign, spirualy, gay, young men who have sex wh men, ternalized homophobiaThere has been a growg body of rearch foced on the relatnship between religsy and adolcent health and well-beg (Nonnemaker, McNeely, & Blum, 2003; Werner & Smh, 1992). Given the unique velopmental stage of adolcence and emergg adulthood and the fact that most religns across the globe offer teachgs that nmn or rtrict homosexual behavr, is particularly important to unrstand YMSM’s experienc and challeng as they stggle to tegrate their sexual inty wh their relig/spirual beliefs.

Rearch among olr populatns of MSM and other lbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adults dite that religsy n ntribute to inty dissonance between sexual sir and relig beliefs for sexual mory dividuals, which n be rolved by changg religns, reexamg relig texts and doctre, abandong relign, or turng to a more dividualized sense of spirualy (Leong, 2006; Schuck & Liddle, 2001; Thumms, 1991; Yip, 1997, 2005).

“GOD MA ME GAY FOR A REASON”: YOUNG MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN’S RILIENCY ROLVG INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA OM RELIG SOURC

Mory Strs and Internalized HomophobiaInternalized homophobia, also referred to as ternalized heterosexism (Szymanski & Chung, 2003) or sexual prejudice (Herek, 2004), n be fed as directg anti-gay social attus towards the self, leadg to a valuatn of the self, ternal nflicts and poor self-regard (Meyer & Dean, 1998).

WHY DO GOD MAKE PEOPLE GAY AND THEN SAY YOU CAN’T BE THAT WAY?

Internalized homophobia has also been lked to substance abe, lower levels of self teem and eatg disorrs among both gay and lbian populatns (Cabaj, 1996; Ross & Simon Rosser, 1996; Rowen & Mallm, 2002; Williamson & Hartley, 1998). Followg on this work, Ream (2001) found that trsic religsy was not herently a risk factor for ternalized homophobia among sexual mory youth; rather, the homophobic msag often prent relig views and livered a relig ntext tend to predict ternalized homophobia.

10 REASONS GOD LOV GAY CHRISTIANS

Rter and O’Neill (1989) reported that gays and lbians their sample often moved away om the relign they were raised and also veloped a range of ways to pe wh and grow om their enunters wh relig homophobia.

DO GOD MAKE PEOPLE GAY? A THEOLOGIAN RPONDS

G., relig, school) such as: avoidg church altogether, seekg an alternative church, or g “selective listeng” to avoid ternalizg homophobic msag (McDavt et al., 2009) the range of cisns and experienc that YMSM will make durg their emergg adulthood, is important to unrstand the procs and growth that young men experience while sortg out potential nflicts between relig/spirual beliefs and their sexual inty. Young men were eligible to participate the study if they were: a) 18- to 24-years old; b) self-intified as gay, bisexual, or uncerta of their sexual orientatn and/or reported havg had sex wh a man; c) self-intified as Csian, Ain Amerin, or Lato of Mexin scent; and d) a rint of Los Angel County, and they anticipated livg Los Angel for at least six men were reced at public venu (e.

DID GOD MAKE ME GAY?

Axial dg was then nducted to piece the data back together to fully scribe the procs, leadg to the stcture of this paper which scrib: 1) the homophobic msag heard relig ntexts; 2) how the msag were ternalized; 3) the effects of the msag on inty and self perceptn; and 4) the often plited strategi the young men employed to pe wh the msag and ntue their spirual, relig, and/or personal velopment. The majory of the HYM sample (81%) intified as gay, wh 12% intifyg as 1Dcriptn of the Study Sample om Wave 3 Survey (N = 483) and Qualative Study (N = 36)VariablCategoriTotal Sample n (%)Qualative Rponnts n (%)Age18 – 19 yrs88 (18)6 (17)20 – 21 yrs195 (40)18 (50)22+ yrs200 (41)12 (33)Race/ethnicyAin- Amerin115 (24)12 (33)Csian192 (40)12 (33)Mexin scent176 (36)12 (33)RinceFay237 (49)16 (44)Own place/apartment203 (42)17 (47)Wh iends/partner31 (6)1 (3)No regular place/other12 (3)2 (6)EmploymentIn school50 (10)6 (17)In school, employed149 (31)6 (17)Employed, not school235 (49)19 (53)Not employed, not school49 (10)5 (14)Edutn levelLs than high school26 (5)2 (6)High school/GED110 (23)6 (17)Votnal17 (4)- (0)Some llege284 (59)26 (72)College gree46 (10)2 (6)Sexual intyGay390 (81)28 (77)Other same-sex inty23 (5)2 (6)Bisexual57 (12)4 (11)Straight6 (1)--Don’t know/Refe7 (1)2 (6)Sexual attractnMal only339 (70)25 (69)Mal and femal131 (27)10 (28)Femal only7 (1)1 (3)Neher/don’t know6 (1)--Immigratn statBorn outsi US74 (15)7 (19)Born US407 (84)29 (81)Level of religsyNot at all relig138 (29)10 (28)Not very relig124 (26)14 (39)Somewhat relig172 (36)11 (31)Very relig43 (9)1 (3)Level of spirualyNot at all spirual37 (8)4 (11)Not very spirual60 (13)8 (22)Somewhat spirual216 (45)12 (33)Very spirual168 (35)12 (33)Table 2 prents data related to relig affiliatn and the past and prent role of relign and spirualy rponnts’ liv.

“WHY DID GOD MAKE ME GAY?”

6)2 (6)Don’t know/Refed7 (1)1 (3)Changed relignY257 (53)19 (53)QualativeSourc of Msag about Homosexualy Among the qualative rponnts, all thirty-six reported beg raised a relign that uld be classified as Christian (e. In the church, was not unmon for rponnts to report that sermons seemed to often return to the subject of homosexualy, makg the young men feel unfortable or fearful as Royal, an Ain Amerin rponnt who reported that both his grandmother and mother were pastors a Christian church, scrib:It’s like he [the pastor] would preach a different thg but would always go back to homosexuals and sexualy for some reason. And he seemed like he looked ad at me and ’s like, “Gays would go to hell, ” and stuff like that…And ’s like every time he would say that, would always seem like he was sayg directly to me and would sre me.

Man whose fay nverted om Catholicism to Prottantism explaed:Yeah, I remember beg a Catholic church and not hearg anythg about homosexuals at all…It wasn’t until I got to the Prottant church that was blatantly like brimstone, hell fire…He [the pastor] would start to preach about God and blah, blah, blah. ‘But the people this untry, the gays, oh my god pecially the gays…The gays and the lbians and the atheists and the socialists, they are gog to brg this untry down and this untry was found on the grace of God’ many adolcents, about half of the YMSM this study felt they had few choic whether or not they attend relig servic growg up. ”Rponnts who heard repeated homophobic msag (some of the more relig young men reported gog to church four or five tim a week) scribed different procs they employed to evaluate the msag to their personal belief system.

” Rodrigo, a young man who scribed himself as “spirual”, was born to a Catholic hoehold, and after his mother nverted to a nservative Evangelil church, he scribed a lengthy ternal stggle as this newer relign tght that homosexuals had a “mon” si of them:In the Evangelil belief, ’s not that ’s [homosexualy] jt a s, ’s a mon si of you…whenever they did mentn that, they’d say ‘Ooh, this person has the mon them. Mart scribed how his brother would tell him that he was “no earthly good”, which he said “felt ugly and ma me feel ugly” and ultimately ma him leave this hoe as well:My brother knew I was gay and when I broke out of my shell, I got more volved I would want to have Bible ssns at my hoe.