(RNS) — As whe evangelil nomatns double down on their opposn to equaly, many younger evangelils, gay and straight, are votg wh their feet.
Contents:
- WILL CHRISTIANS NMN PERSECUTN OF GAYS?
- PERSECUTED FOR BEG GAY
- GAY PURGE: THE PERSECUTN OF HOMOSEXUAL STUNTS AT THE UNIVERSY OF WISNS–MADISON, 1962–1963
- GAY PERSECUTN OF CHRISTIANS: THE LATT EVINCE
WILL CHRISTIANS NMN PERSECUTN OF GAYS?
LZ Granrson says the Pope was right to ask: Who am I to judge? We mt rpond to persecutn of gays wh somethg more than silence * christian persecution of gays *
He also ma historic appotments, cludg Pete Buttigieg as the first openly gay secretary the printial Cabet and Rachel Leve, the first openly transgenr feral official. When I first started this journey, I NEVER dreamed that I would disver the history about homosexualy and persecutn agast early believers – but that is exactly what I found. What I stumbled across while rearchg the history of revival blew me away and challeng the thgs that I have been told about homosexualy the church.
In the recs of my md, I gus I had always thought of homosexuals as beg victims – beg wrongly abed throughout history, but that ia me unraveled as I dug eper to church history. Acrdg to a 2019 Pew Rearch Center analysis, 26 percent of Amerins intify as agnostic, atheist or “nothg particular, ” up om 17 percent jt a Sharon Klebm, of Congregatn Be Simchat Torah, New York’s LGBTQ synagogue, said the barriers gay people face when participatg their fah have only started to fall. “There’s been progrs, but I al wh people all the time om liberal relig fai who have faced horrible bigotry and rejectn, ” she, she add, the hunger for spirualy is ep among gay people — perhaps even eper than among the larger populatn.
5 percent intify as Jewish and 2 percent as the percentage of gay Amerins who intify as part of any fah tradn is still nsirably lower than the general populatn, of which 67 percent is relig, acrdg to a 2017 Gallup LGBTQ Black Amerins, the most likely mographic to be relig (over 70 percent), still lag behd Black people the general populatn: More than 82 percent are relig. Commentary by the former Hechger Instute fellow has been regnized by the Onle News Associatn, the Natnal Associatn of Black Journalists and the Natnal Lbian and Gay Journalists Associatn.
PERSECUTED FOR BEG GAY
In 1962, the Universy of Wisns began s send “gay purge” to systematilly seek out and expel homosexual male stunts. Unrgraduate and graduate stunts spected of engagg same-sex relatnships were brought before the universy’s Commtee on Stunt Conduct and Appeals, terrogated, and many s expelled. Those who ped expulsn were reprimand and erced to seekg psychologil “treatment” orr to rema stunts at the universy. Some lost their scholarships and jobs. Known broadly as the “Gay Purge,” the efforts cleanse the universy of “vice” had dire nsequenc on the liv of homosexual stunts. In s moralistic csa, the Universy of Wisns stroyed stunts’ reer prospects and ed them tremendo emotnal and psychologil anguish. The Gay Purge and the broar history of stutnalized homophobia on mp nstut a shameful blemish on the history of the universy which has yet to be officially acknowledged. * christian persecution of gays *
Lack of empathy explas how “The “700 Club’s” Pat Robertson n be flippant about stong gay people to ath the days of J, or how Frankl Graham – Billy Graham’s son – n suggt that LGBT people might adopt children orr to “rec. Many followers of Christ may fd silence on this topic easier, not noticg silence is beg terpreted as endorsement – whether they agree wh the anti-gay rhetoric or not.
To move Pope Francis’ qutn om a global headle to global change, Christians mt stop allowg silence to be the facto weapon of choice agast the sensels persecutn of gay people. While this was gog on, the then-print, Olegun Obasanjo, clared that there were no homosexuals Nigeria, and that such a thg would not be allowed the untry. I repeated what I had said on televisn Nigeria and suggted my ernment was g attacks on homosexualy to help ver up s own my arrival back to Nigeria, I was arrted, taed and beaten by the police.
GAY PURGE: THE PERSECUTN OF HOMOSEXUAL STUNTS AT THE UNIVERSY OF WISNS–MADISON, 1962–1963
I also feel that is important to reclaim our history, as many Ains believe that homosexualy is a foreign import, spe the fact that was Europeans who imposed bans on homosexualy their Ain loni.
GAY PERSECUTN OF CHRISTIANS: THE LATT EVINCE
They asked me about everythg: whether I was gay, about my iends, fay, my polics and my LGBT associatn of them put a pistol to my head and said: "I wish I uld kill you right now. Then some fay members succeed smugglg me out of prison and I fled the untry wh a fake, om TunisiaFive years ago, before I left Tunisia, I not only heard homophobic remarks, I also ma them myself.
The thori regularly issue propaganda orr to manipulate or satisfy public opn, so people are relieved when a gay group is arrted and feel the police are dog good rich plac, gay people n survive, but other quarters gays have two optns: they n get married, say prayers, be good Mlims; or they n bee prostut, abed by trated bisexual men and treated wh ntempt and hate. One n, at any moment, acce his enemy of practisg sodomy, even if is blogs at gay man om Karachi, Pakistan, who asked to rema anonymoWhen to beg homosexual, there are two Pakistans. But 's all very discreet and unr the have dranian laws that outlaw homosexual activy, and a slew of polil parti that recently ma statements showg they are unwillg to accept gay people.